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Muslims may start Ramadhan together
Ramadhan is coming: Children participate in Dukderan, a cultural carnival welcoming the holy month of Ramadhan, in the Central Java provincial capital of Semarang, Monday
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Ramadhan is coming: Children participate in Dukderan, a cultural carnival welcoming the holy month of Ramadhan, in the Central Java provincial capital of Semarang, Monday. Starting as a street parade mixing local and Islamic traditions in 1881, Dukderan is now a major tourist attraction.(Antara/R. Rekotomo) (Antara/R. Rekotomo)
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span class="inline inline-center">Ramadhan is coming: Children participate in Dukderan, a cultural carnival welcoming the holy month of Ramadhan, in the Central Java provincial capital of Semarang, Monday. Starting as a street parade mixing local and Islamic traditions in 1881, Dukderan is now a major tourist attraction.(Antara/R. Rekotomo)
With the support of the country's Muslim organizations, the government is seeking to synchronize the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadhan this year.
The country's second-largest Islamic organization, Muhammadiyah, has already determined the first day of Ramadhan. According to a release on its website, followers of Muhammadiyah will begin Ramadhan on June 18.
Muhammadiyah has always determined the first day of Ramadhan based on the hisab method that devises a mathematical calculation of months in the Islamic calendar, or Hijriyah. According to hisab, Ramadhan this year will fall on June 18.
The country's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), often starts the fasting month a day later as it uses a different method of determining the beginning of Ramadhan. It uses the rukyat method, which observes the first visibility of the crescent moon. The organization normally sends its members to observe the crescent before determining the first day of fasting.
Basnang Said, a senior leader of NU, said that although the organization had always used rukyat, the organization would follow whatever decision the government made.
'NU has always abided by the government because following ulil amri [leaders] is part of Iman [Islamic belief],' Basnang told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
He added that if the government determined the first day of Ramadhan fell on the day Muhammadiyah decided, even if it is different from that of NU, his organization would follow.
'We'll follow whatever the decision is, but we will come to give our perception based on the method we advocate,' Basnang said.
The Religious Affairs Ministry has been using combined methods from the two organizations, hisab and rukyat, to determine the first day of Ramadhan, which in many occasions follows rukyat.
Every year, before a meeting to determine the first day of Ramadhan, the ministry deploys people in several parts of Indonesia to observe the crescent. The ministry also invites astronomy experts for explanations about the position of the moon.
Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin said on Monday that the first day of Ramadhan would be determined on Tuesday in a meeting with representatives of Islamic organizations, including NU and Muhammadiyah
'Everything will be determined in the meeting on Tuesday,' Lukman said on Monday in Senayan, Central Jakarta.
Lukman said the ministry would invite religious experts and astronomers to decide the first day of Ramadhan.
The United Development Party (PPP) politician earlier said that the ministry would encourage the country's two largest Islamic organizations to begin Ramadhan on the same day as leaders of NU and Muhammadiyah had said there was a chance that they would start Ramadhan together this year.
'We are heading in that direction. All organizations have shown the intent [to have a uniform first day of Ramadhan],' he said last month. (saf)
