Ramadan starts June 6, say Islamic preachers

In this July 9, 2015, photo, Filipino Muslims pray at the Marikina Islamic Mosque in suburban Tumana, Marikina city, east of Manila, Philippines during the holy month of Ramadan. AP

COTABATO CITY – The Muslims’ holy month of Ramadan will start on June 6, Monday, Islamic preachers here have said.

According to Mufti Abu Huraira Udasan of the Darul Ifta (House of Opinion) for Maguindanao and Cotabato, the moon was sighted in Malaysia, and that fasting will start Monday. There was no sighting in the Philippines.

Ramadan is the ninth of the 12-month Hijra lunar-based calendar, and is considered the holiest month in Islam, as it was during this month that God’s Revelations in the Qur’an were completed, according to the history of Islam.

Followers of Islam will be fasting daily through abstinence from food, drink and marital sex from dawn to dusk in 29 to 30 days.

Fasting was practiced by biblical prophets and followers of early Abrahamic religions, including Christianity (Acts 13:2; 14:23 I Corinthians 7:1-5; Matthew 6:16-18; Daniel 1:8-14; II Kings 24:13-14). In the Qur’an, the Muslims are taught: “Fasting is prescribed unto you, as it was prescribed unto those before you, that ye may learn self-restraint in piety” (2:128)

For centuries, Muslim scholars have hardly resolved issues on whether moon-sighting should be by the naked eye, or that it could be valid using modern scientific instruments.

Alim Abdulmuhmin Mujahid, executive director of the Regional Dharul Ifta (House of Opinion) in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (RDI-ARMM) said his office has provided a set of Newtonian reflector telescope to each of their five provincial offices in the region, as well as to the Dharul Ifta of ulama (scholars) in Zamboanga Peninsula to aid in the moon sighting.

With precision in modern astronomical instruments, Mujahid said the RDI-ARMM hoped to address conflicting views that Filipino Muslims had held in lunar reckoning, everytime Ramadan was about to start or end.  SFM