COTABATO CITY?Calls to prayer, fasting and, in Mindanao, an appeal to keep guns silent marked the start of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan.

For Muslims in the Philippines, the observance officially begins Thursday and will end on Sept. 11, according to Ustadz Mike Ibrahim, an Islamic scholar based in this city and executive director of the National Ulama Council of the Philippines.

While fasting, devotees are expected to pray, spend their days in solemnity and be generous especially to the poor.

A spokesperson of the influential Darul Ifta or Islamic House of Opinion, which dictates the conduct of religious activities, also appealed to gun owners among Filipino Muslims not to discharge their weapons as a way to celebrate.

?Please refrain from firing your guns,? Ustadz Jaafar Ali said in a message aired on local radio.

Some Muslims have traditionally welcomed Ramadan by firing their guns indiscriminately, resulting in injuries. In the last five years, at least five persons have been reportedly hit by stray bullets during this holy season.

Ali maintained that the deadly practice would only taint the image of Islam and that ?nowhere in the Holy Koran (is it written) that firing of guns is part of the celebration.?

Ali urged Muslim gun owners to instead share their blessings with the poor and the sick. ?The money you use to buy bullets can be donated to the poor,? he said.

?Or instead of (spending on) bullets, buy electric fans or light bulbs and donate them to mosques where most of our people pray,? Ali added.

In Malacañang, President Benigno Aquino III said he hoped Ramadan would see social reconciliation in a heavily Roman Catholic country beset by profound poverty and corruption along with a long-running Moro insurgency.

Across Muslim world

The first day of Ramadan was observed on Wednesday in Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, in Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam, and Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation.

Muslims in much of the Middle East began the fasting month during an especially grueling time of the year, with sweltering heat and extremely long daylight hours.

Religious authorities in Saudi Arabia announced the sighting of the crescent moon on Tuesday evening, fixing the start of the ninth month of the lunar Islamic calendar on the following day.

Officials in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian territories, Qatar, Syria, Libya, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Algeria and Tunisia also announced a Wednesday start to the month.

The same was true for Sunni Muslims in Iraq, but the larger Shiite community will not begin fasting until Thursday, as is the case with Oman.

No sex

Muslims observe the Ramadan by abstaining from food, drink and sex from dawn until sunset. Pregnant and menstruating women, the sick, travelers and prepubescent children are exempt from the fast, which is one of the five pillars of Islam.

Ramadan began amid scorching temperatures in the Middle East and elsewhere, with the first six months of 2010 being the warmest ever recorded.

Egypt, the largest Arab country whose 80 million population is mostly Muslim, will switch to winter time for the month, moving the clock back by an hour.

The same will be true in the Palestinian territories.

In Dubai, a cleric told workmen they are religiously allowed to break their fast if the heat got the better of them.

Sleeping is cheating

Most fasting Muslims go about their business as usual, if skimping an hour or two from work. Sleeping well into the day, although not technically a fast breaker, is considered cheating by some clerics.

Pieties increase, with additional optional prayers in the evening. Often, so does the evening and nighttime revelry for those able to peel themselves away from the special Ramadan television series in the evenings.

The month is marked by family visits and invitations to sumptuous iftars?the meals that break the fast.

Festivities can last into the early morning, to the consternation of traditional clerics who stress the ascetic nature of the month, in which Muslims believe God revealed the Koran to the Prophet Mohammed.

Egypt, which depends on tourism, is offering rich Arab holidaymakers fireworks, concerts, folkloric shows and displays by whirling dervishes.

But given the family-centered traditions of the month, enticing people to leave their countries is a tough sell.

Closed bars, anti-porn drive

Egypt?s bars and pubs either close during the month or switch to abstemious menus, with the exception of hotel bars, which serve alcohol only to non-Egyptians to conform with the Islamic ban on alcohol.

Dubai, one of the most popular Middle East cities for party-goers, closes its night clubs or bans dancing in them.

Consumption of alcohol in the United Arab Emirates is officially allowed only for non-Muslims. But in practice, anyone can drink at licensed hotels and clubs. During Ramadan, hotels close off their bars from public view.

Indonesia will take the opportunity to crack down on Internet pornography.

Quoting a poem at a press conference on Tuesday, Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring called on Muslims to ?keep hearts clean in the holy month,? and said that he would target websites and media that carried sexual content.

Fatter despite fast

Despite the fasting, some clerics complain that people end up piling on the pounds during the month, as they overindulge to compensate for the fasting. The consumption contributes to price increases.

In Mauritania, the government announced ?urgent measures? to check the rise in prices.

The global rise in food prices, coupled with the Ramadan spike, also means that less can afford a traditional theme of the month?charity.

Long iftar tables set with free stews and bread that were once commonplace in Cairo have been noticeably decreasing over the past two years, with many hosts saying they can?t afford it anymore. With reports from Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao; and Agence France-Presse