Ramadan Kareem!
If you're reading this inside the Gulf, you already feel the shift; the rhythm of the city has changed, the pace of decisions has softened, and the market has entered one of its most revealing months.
Revealing for clients. And revealing for advisors.
This week, I want to go deeper than the LinkedIn piece. Because the cultural fluency test Ramadan runs on international advisors isn't just about behavior. It's about the systems, habits, and instincts you've built … or haven't.
Let's get into it.
The Three Fault Lines (And What's Really at Stake)
Most international advisors understand Ramadan at a surface level. Adjusted hours, no eating in front of clients, the right greeting.
What they miss are the three deeper fault lines where trust is quietly won or lost:
Fault Line 1: Knowing vs. Doing: Cultural awareness that stays in your head but doesn't change your calendar, your email timing, or your team's behaviour is cosmetic. Clients sense the gap between understanding and adaptation, and they remember it.
Fault Line 2: Patience vs. Urgency: The market decelerates. Decisions that felt imminent go quiet. The advisor who pushes through that deceleration signals that their timeline matters more than the client's reality. The advisor who holds steady signals something worth far more: trustworthiness.
Fault Line 3: Presence vs. Performance: There's a version of Ramadan engagement that's essentially theatrical, the carefully worded message, the declined lunch, the ticked box. And there's genuine presence: unhurried, undemanding, and culturally attuned. Clients in the Gulf have seen both. They know the difference immediately.
The Ramadan Cultural Fluency Audit (Subscriber-Only)
COMMUNICATION: □ Have you adjusted your outreach hours to avoid peak fasting hours (typically early-mid afternoon)? □ Are your follow-ups framed around the client's pace, not your deadline? □ Have you sent at least one non-transactional message this month, purely relational, no ask attached? □ Does your team know not to chase decisions or escalate timelines during Ramadan?
SCHEDULING: □ Have you avoided booking calls or meetings during the last hour before iftar? □ Are you offering post-iftar windows as default for client calls? □ Have you built buffer time into any deals with GCC counterparties expecting movement this month?
AWARENESS: □ Do you know which of your key GCC contacts are observing, and have you acknowledged it personally? □ Have you briefed junior team members on Ramadan communication norms? □ Are your internal deadlines creating pressure that then flows out to clients inappropriately?
RELATIONSHIP INVESTMENT: □ Have you identified the two or three GCC relationships that need a personal Ramadan or Eid touch this year? □ Is your Eid message ready, personalised, warm, with no ask attached? □ Have you created space in your schedule for the post-Eid rush, when decisions held during Ramadan move quickly?
Run this honestly. It will tell you exactly where you stand.
What the Best Advisors Do Differently (Pattern Recognition)
After years of working across GCC legal and advisory environments, I've observed a consistent pattern in advisors who build enduring Gulf practices:
They treat Ramadan as infrastructure, not interruption.
They don't manage around the month. They work within it, adjusting their rhythm so naturally that clients barely notice the accommodation, but deeply feel the respect.
Specifically, they:
Prepare before Ramadan starts. Deals are structured to either close before or hold cleanly until after Eid. Nothing is left in a state that requires constant chasing during the month.
Brief their entire team, not just themselves. Cultural fluency stops being an individual asset and becomes a team standard. No junior associate sends an aggressive timeline email while the senior partner sends a warm Ramadan message.
Use the month for relationship deepening, not just deal management. The advisors who emerge from Ramadan with stronger relationships are the ones who invested in presence during the month, not just in matters.
Anticipate the Eid window. The 2 - 4 weeks after Eid Al-Fitr are among the most commercially active periods in the GCC calendar. Decisions held during Ramadan move quickly. Approvals that were pending get signed. Relationships that were maintained well emerge ready to transact. The advisors who are positioned for this don't scramble in the Eid window, they're already there.
The Line I Want You to Carry
I wrote this in the LinkedIn piece and it's worth repeating here:
The relationship you protect during Ramadan is worth more than the clause you pushed through before Eid.
Put it somewhere visible this month.
Ramadan is not an obstacle to doing business in the Gulf.
It's an invitation to demonstrate - in the most visible way possible - whether you've truly understood the market you're in.
The advisors who accept that invitation don't just survive the month.
They emerge trusted.
Ramadan Kareem. 🌙
Taqua Malik
Editor, The GCC Legal Culture Review
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Until next week,