Evaluating Impact of Ramadan Fasting on Conscious Consumption and Sustainable Practices Among Muslims

Abstract Non-Technical Summary Fasting in holy month of Ramadan allows Muslim’s community all over the world to practice spirituality and celebrate the Iftar dinner with lavish food preparations, excessive consumption, sharing resources and showing generosity to others that could leads to food wastage and increased carbon emission. Ramadan fasting helping sustainable consumption behaviors depends on whether the community engage in real spiritual practice and intrinsic religiosity in addition to environmental awareness. This study explores the role of religiosity and Ramadan fasting on pro-environmental behaviors, especially with the influence of environmental awareness. By surveying Pakistani Muslims, the research indicates that religiosity and Ramadan fasting significantly influence environmental behaviors. Study findings provide key insights to policymaker, religious institution and practitioners for promoting sustainable behaviors among Muslims during Ramadan. Technical Summary Religion and Spirituality (Ramadan) play a key role in preserving natural resources and protect environment through promoting sustainability behaviors and conscious consumption among people. Increasing environmental awareness in religion and spirituality can reduce food wastage, single use plastic and energy consumption. Ramadan fasting could be effective in changing people attitude and behaviors towards food, water and energy consumption. This study examines the influence of religiosity and fasting on sustainable or pro-environmental behaviors among Muslims communities, with particular emphasis on environmental awareness as moderating variable. The study utilized quantitative methods by collecting 240 online surveys responses from Muslims in Pakistan. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Study findings show that religiosity and Ramadan fasting significantly affect sustainability behaviors, environmental awareness serving as a moderator in the model, further strengthen the relationships. These findings highlight the importance of positive role of religiosity and spiritual experience in motivating sustainable behaviours. The study findings provide practical guidance for society at large and in particular, religious institutions, policy makers and volunteers for promoting conscious consumption and sustainable behaviors. Social media: Religiosity and fasting during Ramadan foster sustainable behaviors