President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has urged businesses to refrain from hiking up prices of daily food items during Ramadan.

While the prices of food products go up every year, President Solih made the plea in his message to mark the beginning of Ramadan 1440.

Instead, the President urged business owners “to seek spiritual rewards for being generous and compassionate, especially on the holy month of Ramadan.” He also highlighted that Ramadan comes with the opportunity “to engage in our beliefs and spirituality.”

Further stressing “the importance of engaging in good deeds, prayers and recitation of Quran,” President Solih appealed to the people “to mirror proper social etiquette and civic duty in [one’s] daily conduct, during this holy month.”

President Solih said that the lesson to be learnt during Ramadan “is to acknowledge the importance of empathy and to strengthen relations with [one’s] family and society,” and appealed to the people to “make the best of use” of the month.

Ramadan will begin on Monday, and is the holiest month in the Islamic calendar.