Traditional urban tough guys in contemporary Iran, known as lats and lutis, constitute a part of the Iranian urban culture that presented an alternative understanding of Sharia Law. In their everyday life, these tough guys demonstrated a seemingly contradictory behavior as Muslims. They drank heavily, had extramarital relationships, and gambled frequently. Whereas all of these deeds are explicitly against Sharia Law, the tough guys still considered themselves religious. To address this apparent contradiction, I have conducted 20 in-depth interviews with Tehrani tough guys and informants about their pre-revolutionary lifestyle. Thereupon I argue that this stratum had developed a characteristic articulation of Islam essentially different from that of the clerics. For the tough guys, Islam is tantamount to a few particular Shia rituals, especially the Muharram mourning, and a deep respect for Shiite Imams, Imam Hussein and Imam Ali in particular. That is to say, praying and fasting that are the two main Islamic obligations for orthodox Muslims become peripheral for the tough guys’ religiosity. What is central to them, instead, is observing norms relevant to particular rituals. Whereas they tolerate someone missing a daily prayer or a day of fasting, they confront someone disrespecting the mourning ceremony by laughing or wearing flashy colors during Muharram. The same differential interpretation is observable in their treatment of haram (religiously forbidden) deeds. For instance, drinking Iranian traditional liquor (araq) by a Muslim tough guy is tolerable, while drinking French wine in a wine glass is not. To be more specific, a haram deed is not harmful to the tough guy religiosity necessarily. What makes it irreligious is its carrying a western ambience—an ambiance that does not fit the traditional tough guy culture. This study shows that producing alternative understandings of Islam is not only the task of intellectuals. Through a gradual historical process, laymen produce their own perception of religion in a way that it accommodates to the cultural nuances of their lives.