Ramadan season starts

COTABATO CITY --- The Ramadan will start Sunday, a holy month in the Islamic Hijrah calendar where Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during the period as a religious obligation and a reparation for wrongdoings.

Sheik Abu Huraira Udasan, the mufti, or grand preacher of the Darul Iftah in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, announced on Friday night that the Ramadan fasting season shall commence on Sunday.

The Darul Iftah is also known as BARMM’s House of Opinions, a bloc of senior Islamic theologians, among them graduates of religious schools in the Middle East and North Africa.

In separate statements,  Governors Jim Salliman of Basilan and Mamintal Adiong, Jr. of Lanao del Sur greeted on Saturday their Muslim constituents “Ramadan mubarak,” meaning a blessed Ramadhan in Arabic.

Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset during the Ramadan, lasting for one lunar cycle, or about 28 to 30 days, both as a religious obligation and to inculcate among them the value of self-restraint and spiritual resilience.

Fasting during Ramadan is one of the so-called five foundations of Islam, which include absolute belief in Allah, praying five times a day facing the direction of the Middle East, giving of alms to the poor, and, for those who can afford, pilgrimage, or hajj, to Makkah, Saudi Arabia even just once in a lifetime.

Salliman, now second-termer governor of Basilan, said he is certain political campaign activities amid the Ramadhan will catalyze peace among rival quarters.

"Muslims focus on good deeds and camaraderie with people in the surroundings during the Ramadan," said the reelectionist Salliman.

Adiong, aspiring for a second term as Lanao del Sur governor, said he will ask the ulama, or Islamic missionaries in the province, to preach more about good politics as espoused by Islam, during the holy month.

Lamitan City Vice Mayor Roderick Furigay, now in his third and last term, said his office shall sponsor religious activities complementing the observance of Ramadan by his constituents.

“Religions should not set walls to separate us. Religions should unite us via convergence on commonalities of each religion and respect for differences,” Furigay said.

No less than 80 percent of BARMM’s more than five million residents are Muslims belonging to the Maguindanaon, Iranun, Yakan, Tausug and Samah tribes.

Islam was introduced into what have risen as Mindanao regions by Arab missionaries who arrived in the 14^th century via the country’s southern backdoor, the seas in the now BARMM provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.