As soon as Eid comes around, the Muslim world undergoes mass amnesia, and the abandon with which people eat, drink and celebrate belies the fact that a month of abstinence and piety has just passed. On the occasion of Eidul Fitr, it is also worth taking stock of the month that has just passed.

The last stretch of Ramadan is meant to be the most intense in terms of spirituality, with the much anticipated 'night of power' falling within the last 10 days of fasting. However, this increase in intensity is also true for the commercial aspects of the month. As the commercial facets of society gear up in anticipation of Eid celebrations, the mood on the streets also seems to pick up, with early evening traffic jams becoming an increasing occurrence after the lull of iftar, as people proceed to the congested shopping centres to eat to their heart's content while checking off their Eid prep shopping list. While abstinence is a core stricture of the month, it seems that this asceticism actually ends up feeding the culture of commercialism present in modern-day Muslim societies.

While the true nature of one's Ramadan experience depends largely on locale, the month is possibly the most religious time of the year in Pakistan. People tend to get their acts together where faith is concerned, and some people see this as a chance to live a pure and wholesome life for the duration of a month – a chance to recharge their religious batteries.

Overall, the country edges a notch up the piety-scale whenever the lunar month comes around. The somewhat pious become more pious, the more pious become ultra-pious, and the ultra-pious lock themselves in a room for the entire month, leaving the not-so-pious to be lumped together in the heretic category. A so-called 'bad Muslim' who doesn't otherwise incorporate religion in his daily life might choose to fast, and possibly even pray during this month as a way to reconnect with the faith. Some people choose to fast due to mere cultural nostalgia, or for the sake of family tradition, sometimes even with just a 'can do' attitude.

Attitudes change, a sudden laxness is noticed during the mid-day and afternoon hours, and around sundown a sudden chaotic urgency – an increased frustration – is unmistakably felt in the traffic on the streets. Even the unsuspecting foreigner becomes wary of the changing mindset of the populace. I recall last Ramadan, a visiting faculty in a local university was asking a clerk where he could smoke a cigarette without offending anyone, to which the conservative clerk directed him to some nooks and crannies where he could sneak a few drags. A part of me wanted to interject and tell the European that his skin colour gave him license enough to smoke freely in the open.

Institutions and bureaucracies, public and private alike adapt to the new schedule taken on by the adherents. As all places of business, including banks and public companies rework their hours of operation, the urban centres shift into the Ramadan modus operandi. The relaxed timings are enforced so as to not overwork an inadequately nourished and sleep-deprived workforce. After all ,what better excuse is there than religion? Even the scandalous non-rozadaars end up benefiting from the institutional spillover of this arrangement, though they have to eat and drink with discretion so as to not get on the nerves of their tested coworkers.

If not morally obliged, these non-observing folks are legally bound to respect the month by a General Zia era ordinance, prohibiting public consumption of food and smoking, punishable by a fine, or imprisonment, or both. Restaurants are prohibited from conducting business until sundown. Eating in public attracts the scorn of the public gaze, lest you tempt the abstainers away from the right path.

Afraid of irrevocably sparking the emotions of hundreds of hungry and frustrated Muslims, non-Muslims, bad-Muslims, and chain smokers alike have to secretly partake in forbidden pleasures, as the Islamic Republic pretends it is wholly populated by the faithful. But then one is left to wonder why saliva-inducing commercials of food and drink are allowed to bombard the airwaves all day – potential consumers are most attentive when caught famished and desirous.

Speaking from a purely technical standpoint, if perseverance and patience beget virtue and blessings, then shouldn't practicing extreme patience in front of people enjoying edibles and quenching their thirst beget even more blessings to the abstainers? From my experiences of fasting in the United States, I can assure you that no one around you makes any such concessions to people abstaining of their own free will. While accompanying your friends to lunch or the grocery store can be that much more tempting, you realise the only consolation is your own faith.

Instead of increasing steadfastness aren't these adjustments and concessions watering down the true purpose of the month? Or is it considered particularly Islamic for certain Muslim societies, especially in the Middle East, to switch to a completely nocturnal schedule to beat the heat and sleep away the hunger. Wouldn't the true spirit of the month be preserved if work schedules and hours of operation were to remain unchanged, for who are we mortals to make the path of Allah any easier for the righteous?

Even the corporations, it seems, embrace Islam during this holiest of months. Large multinational companies are swift to shift their marketing campaigns into Ramadan mode by replacing suggestive imagery with pseudo-religious iconography in addition to a heavy dose of family values. The billboards that adorn the streets and boulevards of Lahore suddenly become laced with standard Islamic symbolism such as the crescent moon and mosque silhouettes. Almost everything has a Ramadan deal associated with it, regardless of religious significance. Fast food chains offers to shower ‘priceless blessings’ with a combo meal and 'all you can eat' menus after sunset. Television channels start airing religious programmes and interludes at sunrise and sunset. Radio stations switch to a more spiritual choice of music in lieu of saucy Bollywood hits. Cellphone providers advertise hot lines to get Quranic verses for a per-minute charge.

The last 10 days of Ramadan are the ones where the social economy of urban Pakistan does a convenient transition from Ramadan mode, into the more celebratory Eid mode, where even more so than before, the focus is on consumption. In a way the month of fasting, with Eid as its ultimate reward, represents a single day of fasting, where one possessing faith toils in patience and abstinence to find the right and pure path. This in turn is a representation of the ideal life of an adherent of Islam. But in this day and age it seems that the forbidden only becomes more and more tempting as the holy month progresses.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.