Ramadan While the World Burns

In salat we run through our litany of lands in crisis. Palms outstretched we wait to hear if the Imaam makes mentions of our war torn ummah in du’a qunut.

The Qur’an talks of a time when 'the sky breaks, when the stars are scattered, when the seas burst forth.' When the 'sun is rolled up, when the stars are dimmed.' When hell is made to blaze.
The IPCC recently warned that ongoing climate breakdown - extreme weather, rising sea levels, food insecurity, mass displacement - may be irreversible by the time of their next report in 2030.

There are signs for those that reflect.

How does Ramadan relate to the dominant world system? At first, it seems like a refuge, a space outside capitalism. After all, the month is supposed to be about foregoing, delaying, reconnecting. An anti-consumerist ritual on a global scale. And yet. Over a billion fasting mouths create new markets. Many Muslims will live humbly this Ramadan, simply because they do the rest of the year, too. But the world Muslim bourgeoisie will feast - the peak sales time for chicken (up 66%) and dates.

Ramadan is a business opportunity.  Ramadan is a site of consumption, a reflection of class position.

This is perhaps why Ramadan is tolerated by Capital. During Ramadan, Muslims are expected to keep working, of course, but also, to keep consuming.

It needn’t be this way. Ramadan is a divinely ordained ritual containing a repertoire of anti-capitalist, humanist resistance. It tends towards collective, universalist aspirations - free access to food, shelter, needs.  A month of giving freely, a month of mutual aid, of reciprocity, of not keeping score.

Our Ramadans will only be a success if it changes our subjectivity. 

If we emerge changed. 

If it turns us into world citizens.

Martyn Rush