"In the spirit of unity, reconciliation and peace, I, along with my family, greet the entire Muslim community a happy and bountiful Ramadan this year," Arroyo

By Rexcel Sorza, IOL Philippine correspondent

ILOILO CITY, Philippines, October 27 (IslamOnline.net) – Some 10 million Filipino Muslims have joined the entire Muslim world in observing the holy month of Ramadan on Monday, October 27, said the Philippine Office of Muslim Affairs (OMA).

Though moon-sighting teams dispatched on Saturday, October 25, throughout the country failed to see the crescent, the ulamas, imams, Darul Ifta (House of Opinion) and OMA, resolved to make Sunday, October 26, the last day of the month of Sha'ban, Metalico Domado, OMA assistant director for religious affairs, told IslamOnline.net. Ramadan, thus, commenced on Monday.

“Efforts at sighting the moon from strategic points in the south failed on the 29th of the lunar month of Sha'ban, and so the fasting will start on Monday," Ustadz Omar Pasigan, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao's newly installed mufti or religious leader, also announced in the Mindanao city of Cotabato.

Domado, who led the moon-sighting team in Luzon, said their office was in constant communication with Muslim leaders in the country and they decided to join other nations which started the holy month Monday in unison with other Islamic states.

Besides their strict adherence to fasting during the 30-day period, he said Ramadan is another opportunity for the Muslims in the Philippines, who are faced with various political, economic and cultural challenges, "to also ponder on the importance of the faith in facing these challenges."

President Gloria Arroyo greeted the Muslims, who constitute the second largest religion in the Philippines, saying, "In the spirit of unity, reconciliation and peace, I, along with my family, greet the entire Muslim community a happy and bountiful Ramadan this year. "

She also said: "Ramadan has always been received as a blessing from Allah which every Muslim welcome. It teaches the virtues of patience, honesty, perseverance, generosity, understanding and obedience for Muslims to treasure and emulate.

"It is, therefore, my fervent wish that the teachings of Ramadan, as practiced and exemplified by Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, serve as spiritual guidance for our people to pursue our development thrusts towards social stability and economic prosperity."

Challenges

Governor Parouk Hussin of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao called on Filipino Muslims to draw strength during the holy month to weather the challenges they are faced with.

"It is in this spirit of the holy month of Ramadan that I call upon everyone to persevere and be patient in the face of many challenges confronting us all in the region," he said in an official statement published in Manila Bulletin.

"My administration's moral guidance in running the affairs of the ARMM anchors on Islamic injunction on honesty, equality and justice. Let us be more energetic in our love and service for other people."

Datu Zamzamin Ampatuan, OMA executive director, was quoted by Manila Bulletin as saying, "Ramadan (offers) the Muslims an opportune time to recapture the value of self-restraint, to do more prayers and supplications, and to ask for more forgiveness and blessings from Allah, which at this crucial time we need to overcome the test of time that had shaken the very foundation and of existence of Islam, the religion of peace, brotherhood and tolerance."

"As we chart a road map to uphold a better destiny for the Muslim Ummah in this millennium, we have to secure the prospect of peace and posterity for our time, for our people, and for our children and their children yet to be born. Ensuring a bright future among Muslims simply means holding firmly to the rope of faith, living according to the dogma of Allah's divine plan."

Professor Nur Misuari, chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), who is facing charges of rebellion and is detained at a police office in Laguna province near Manila, also sent his greetings.

"With the onset of Ramadan as the month of blessings and returning to Allah in repentance, I greet all my brothers and sisters throughout the Islamic world and also in this country, particularly those in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), a happy Ramadan and may you have lots of blessings from Allah."

The Bangsamoro, initially front-lined by the Moro National Liberation Front and now the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, have waged a decades-old war against the Philippine government, to establish an Islamic state on Mindanao soil, which they they was illegally annexed to the Philippine territory, along with smaller islands, by the Spanish and American colonizers.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is now about to resume formal peace talks with the Philippine government to solve the problem, which has displaced thousands of Muslims and Christians living in Mindanao.