A Glimpse Into the Muslim Meme World
Explaining the Wide World of Muslim Memes
In what is considered a yearly celebration, Ramadan has finally ended. For those who don’t know, this is a month of fasting, worship and communal gathering in Islam and is celebrated globally by over a billion people each year. This is an important month for many Muslims, partly due to it being one of the five pillars of Islam. More importantly, it’s also an opportunity for one of the Muslim world’s favorite annual traditions: a meme of a fat cartoon mouse.
Ramadan is a chance to become a better person, to let go of bad habits and hopefully, to develop good ones. Much like New Year’s resolutions, Ramadan is the Muslim people’s more simplified version of the saying, “New year, new me.”
Other than praying and spending time with family, fasting is another integral part of the holy month of Ramadan. Muslims are tasked with fasting from sunrise (fajr) to sunset (maghrib) every day for 30 days. The intensity of the fast depends on where you live.
After a long day of fasting, Muslims can finally indulge in a big meal, often eaten together with family, called Iftar. This is truly the highlight of the day, where Muslim mothers can flex their cooking prowess. Each culture is different, boasting a variety of different local dishes and cuisines to feed the entire family.
Putting all of this exposition behind us, one question remains unanswered: what does this have to do with memes? That’s where the phrase تم تعبئة الكرش بنجاح comes into play.
In the spirit of celebrating community and gathering, this singular image of a fat mouse from Tom & Jerry has done an excellent job of bringing the online Muslim people together for the past five years, if not more.
At its core, the original image is a screen grab from an episode of “Tom & Jerry” where Nibbles eats an entire chicken whole. A caption was added to this image, reading: تم تعبئة الكرش بنجاح, which loosely translates to, “The belly has been filled successfully.”
The intensity of the fast also plays a part in how important this meme is. After all, in some northern-hemisphere countries like Sweden, where you could expect to fast for 20 hours at least, it’s warranted to have a big meal at the end of the day.
Food is another integral part of Ramadan, and this meme does a wonderful job of showing off the various iconic dishes that every culture enjoys. Egyptians are big fans of Molokheiya and Warak Einab, while Lebanese families enjoy dishes like Kibbeh Nayeh or Tabbouleh. In many versions of this meme, you can see Nibbles feasting upon all sorts of delicious foods and beverages that the average muslim family would enjoy.
After iftar, when all is said and done, and you’re finally doomscrolling on your phone after stuffing your face with your mom’s cooking, you can’t help but say: تم تعبئة الكرش بنجاح.
Originally, it started as a silly meme you post on that five-person group chat with your friends, but with time, it became a massive online phenomenon, especially in the Muslim meme community.
In a few years, this meme became a staple of the month of Ramadan, and every day, after iftar, this meme would be posted on every blog, subreddit, group and forum. Nibbles and Ramadan became inseparable, and much like fasting, posting the meme became an integral part of the month.
Many Arabic meme pages made it a tradition to post this meme every day of Ramadan. Influencers and meme pages alike became aware of the duty they had to their followers to let them know that “the belly has been filled successfully.” While the meme has yet to become tainted by corporations and used as a marketing ploy, it may only be a matter of time.
The original photo, as iconic as it may be, was only the beginning. Like anything on the internet, it developed into something much greater. With time, the people’s creativity took hold, and as more people hopped on the trend, every person wanted to show off their own culture through this funny fat mouse.
Variations of the meme started to pop up, like a Mexican version, with a sombrero and a caption reading, “El estomago se ha llenado بنجاح.” Another one includes a picture of fat CJ from “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,” with the same caption: تم تعبئة الكرش بنجاح. You get the idea.
The people’s creativity soared to new heights with this year’s edition of تم تعبئة الكرش بنجاح. A new addition to the collection of mouse memes was the inclusion of popular music albums and artists. For example, there were multiple versions of the mouse with a “BRAT” cover, in honor of Charli XCX’s latest album, among others.
Playboy Carti, Ariana Grande, Clairo, Nicki Minaj, Tyler, The Creator and many more artists were all inspirations for new “album cover” edits of the meme, and pop culture has remained integral to the evolution of the meme. For example, on March 8th, 2025, X user @mu.s737 made an Invincible version of تم تعبئة الكرش بنجاح, in honor of the latest season of Amazon’s hit show.
That leaves us with one final question: What does the future hold for Nibbles?
Well, it’s safe to say that this meme won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. You can likely expect to see more of this funny mouse as the years go by, especially in 2030. Due to the disparity between the Hijri and Gregorian Calendars, Muslims expect to have two Ramadans in 2030. This means something even greater for the meme community: two instances of تم تعبئة الكرش بنجاح in one year.
But on the topic of this meme’s year-over-year evolution, only time will tell. Most memes that last a long time often reach a breaking point in their lifetime, where they “devolve” into incomprehensible nonsense. It’s a common trend that brought us modern-day brainrot as we know it and was credited for the rise (and fall) of YTPs.
In a more unlikely but also probable event, once this meme eventually becomes mainstream, we may see big-name corporations try to dabble in the mouse to market their products. Imagine an official Coca-Cola ad with Nibbles holding a Coke and saying, “My thirst has been quenched successfully.” Let’s not give them ideas.
“What’s more interesting is how influential this one meme has become and the ripples it has sent throughout the Muslim world. You can’t help but pay some tribute to how this meme has brought so many people together.”
Regardless, what’s more interesting is how influential this one meme has become and the ripples it has sent throughout the Muslim world. You can’t help but pay some tribute to how this meme has brought so many people together. What started as an inside joke between group chats and forums quickly turned into a cultural phenomenon, one that unites a huge community of almost 2-billion people worldwide. One day at a time.
So, as Muslims celebrate the end of Ramadan this year, they also say farewell to the 30-day tradition of posting تم تعبئة الكرش بنجاح. One meme that acts like a perfect send-off was posted in 2023 by user @iochrollo on TikTok, with the caption, “I have no more تم تعبئة الكرش بنجاح… This is the end. Goodbye.”
Each year, this community uses the Nibbles meme as a way of celebrating their faith, culture and food. As they tuck all their memes away in the vault, letting them marinate for the next year, we can sit back and appreciate the massive, devoted community that this one phrase has created.