KUALA LUMPUR, November 17 (IslamOnline.net) - Some Indonesian Muslims still have a peculiar way of celebrating Ramadan, making life-sized replicas of a mosque and a Qur'an in chocolate.

Long believed to be a vestige of the pre-Islamic past, the tradition has drawn a mixed reaction in the largest world Islamic country, with some arguing that it is not against Islamic belief to eat the two highly-respected items - even symbolically.

It took 15 hotel employees to make the mosque replica from 600 kilograms of chocolate and 90 kilograms of glucose at a vertiginous cost of US$ 2,353, a mount not available in hand to many of this cash-strapped country.

Hotel sources said to the local press in Indonesia that it took the workers 14 days of shifts to work on the replica and on the last day, they even worked for 24 hours to achieve the beautiful chocolate mosque.

The replica, measuring five meters tall, 3.02 meters wide and 4.07 meters long, has broken the Indonesian Record Museum record for replicas this year, Vivi, one of the participants in the gala, told IslamOnline.net.

A hotel manager told the Jakarta Post that the replica was intended to be a unique decoration for the commercial hotel, in order to greet the holy month of Ramadhan and Idul Fitri.

The replica is now being displayed in the lobby of Santika Hotel, and every guest and spectator is actually allowed to eat a portion of the giant chocolate replica.

In the past, Indonesians took all the trouble to build a life candy mosque that was life size and attracted a lot of visitors only to be eaten out by hungry children, recalled one of the participants in the record breaking event.

The previous award for the biggest mosque replica was won by the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel in Jakarta for a replica that was 4.9 meters tall (2.5 meters tall for the dome and 2.4 meters tall for the tower), 1.65 meters wide, 2.5 meters long, and consisted of 17.2 kilograms of chocolate.

Other than this replica, Indonesian chiefs in another hotel produced a giant Qur'an that is on display for visitors to admire.

The chocolate sculpture, measuring 1.75 meters (5.7 feet) high and 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) wide, was made from 350 kilograms (770 pounds) of white chocolate.

The replica has the words of the Holy Qur'an written on it in brown chocolate, pasted over a golden layer that forms the open book of the Holy Qur'an.

In the tiny island of Bengkalis, the last ten days of Ramadan is being celebrated this year with an unprecedented display of lights turned into replicas of mosques, buildings, birds and even fiery animals to amuse the children and create an atmosphere of joy.

The replicas are displayed all over the Island which is larger than Singapore Island, and it is the varied colors that attract thousands from other islands to Bengkalis for Eid Al-Fitr, Eid of breaking the fast) to be celebrated on the 25^th of November in Indonesia.

Established on Jan. 27, 1990 by businessman Jaya Suprana, Muri Records has noted a slew of other records, including those for the tallest and the smallest person in Indonesia, a bicycle with the most riders, the smallest statue, and a 3-and-a-half-year-old child who could operate the Windows program.

The replicas have attracted different reactions, with some deem them tokens of creativity and others say they are against Islam.

Muhammad Isa Selamat, a Muslim scholar from Indonesia said to IOL on Sunday, that he believed the Indonesians were just showing their creativity, like people who carve the verses of Qur'an on the walls that are later on destroyed.

Indonesians always had creative minds and that many scholars there believed the replicas were not anti Islam, said Selamat, local inhabitants of Bengkalis.

However, Selamat admitted, the replica festival, particular to Bengkalis in Indonesia, may have originated in the historical past of the Islands that were not Muslim a few centuries ago.

But professor Alaa Eddin Kharofa, who teaches at the International University Islam of Malaysia (IIUM) opined that the replicating the mosque and the holy Islamic book into cakes to be eaten later on was not allowed in Islam.

“Out of respect for the Holy book and for the prayer house, the people should refrain from this,” said the 74 year old Muslim scholar who hails from Iraq.

He added that eating the writings of the Holy Quraan on the cake was not a good act to do, saying that he was surprised that they do such things in Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation on earth.

Before the advent of Prophet Muhammad, (PBUH), the Arabs used to make idols out of dates.