Ramadan takes on deeper meaning as peace process reaches milestone

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—This year’s Ramadan is seen to have a deeper meaning, as it coincides with a significant development in the peace process between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Hours before the traditional moon sighting at sunset on Tuesday, the Philippine government and the MILF started the decommissioning process with the symbolic turnover of 75 firearms in Simuay, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, attended by President Benigno Aquino III and MILF Chair Murad Ebrahim.

READ: MILF starts laying down arms

Ramadan fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam. Aside from food and drinks, married couples abstain from sex all daytime of Ramadan.

Parties involved in the peace process acknowledged the “great personal sacrifice” the MILF made as “first step toward transformation from being a revolutionary group organization to a political organization.”

But Murad said there could be no better timing for this sacrifice than on Tuesday, apparently referring to the coming Ramadan, the Muslim month of sacrifice, and the last year of the Aquino government, even as he thanked the President for his “unwavering commitment to attaining peace.”

Ramadan is the ninth month of the 12-month Hijra Calendar, and because of the cycle of the lunar calendar, the shift of the Muslims’ fasting period varies each year by approximately 11 days, when compared to the solar-based Gregorian calendar. Last year, the Muslim fasting started June 29.

Moon-sighting

The Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department of Dubai said Tuesday was the 29th day of the preceding Hijra month of Shaaban—which meant the moon-sighting for Ramadan should then begin sunset of Tuesday.

The local Dharul Ifta (House of Opinion) would confirm before 10 p.m. on Tuesday whether fasting would start dawn of Thursday or Wednesday.

Ustadz Jaafar Ali, an associate scholar of the House of Opinion here, said the Mufti (head of the House of Opinion) would make the official announcement Tuesday evening.

Muslims elsewhere expected the start of the Ramadan fasting on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia and Thursday in the US and in Europe—although information would ultimately come from the rule of the moon-sighting by the naked eye as prescribed by the Koran, Ali said.

The rule is such that if the new moon was not visible on the last day of Shaaban (the eight lunar month), then fasting starts the following day.

On Ramadan, the ARMM government center here draws a big nightly crowd of Christians and Muslims, young and old, into the mock tribal villages of the Moro, the Indigenous People and the Christian settlers, as alternative place to pass the time in, sit-in for night snacks, dinner or buy native products.

Families and friends gather at the ARMM model villages for iftar (break) meal, after more than 14 hours of fasting. Many Muslims begin the break meal by eating dates, the naturally preserved fruit of the biblical palm dates.

Muslims fast from dawn to sunset , abstaining from food and water intake after suhur, the predawn meal, as required in this and many other relevant Koran verses on fasting: “O! Ye, who believe: Fasting is prescribed unto you as it was prescribed unto those before you, that ye may learn self-restraint …” (2:128).

Fasting was also practiced in the ancient Israel (People of God), as narrated in Matthew 16:16-18; Isaiah 58: 3-7; Psalm 69:10 Daniel 10:3; Luke 18:12—in which fasting was practiced by the prophets and faithful in varying periods. SM