Ramadan in Christian Manila

I am a Muslim who has lived the most part of his life in a Christian environment. Far from dreaming to be canonized as the next Mahdi, I tried my human best to observe the tenets and proscription of the Holy Quo’ran including its arcane rituals and prayers. And this tenacity to practice my religion in a Christian setting has caused me untold inconveniences. Not that I am complaining, but  it is a tribulation hardly known to the uninitiated non-Muslim.

We hope to observe the fasting month of Holy Ramadan this year starting today, as predicted by some Muslim Ulamas. The first and last day of fasting (The Feast of Eidel Fitre) are most-awaited and well-celebrated days much like Christmas eve when, by tradition, family members gather together to share a meal and stories. But the exact date and time when Ramadan starts is a source of controversy that divide the Muslim world and remain unresolved to this day. The Holy Quo’ran says we should start fasting upon the sighting of the new moon with 2 witnesses testifying about it. But which moon should be sighted? The one in Marawi or Manila? What if the new moon could not be seen because of inclement weather? What about the time difference between Saudi Arabia and Marawi when the moon rises? Even the declaration by the National Commission for Filipino Muslims, a government agency, did not solve the conundrum.

Ramadan is the month when we are forbidden from taking food, in any form (including liquid), engaging in sex and other vices or worldly desires from sunrise to sunset (Ramadan during long summer days or solstice gets to be tormenting to the frail). Except for the feeble and sick, those on travel and women in their menstrual period, all are enjoined to practice “I’tikaaf” or seclusion to repent and meditate and devote time for “Zikrullah” or remembrance of Almighty Allah and struggle to free themselves of hate, bias, bigotry, contempt, etc. The lesson, we are told, is for all Muslims regardless of station in life, whether you are the King of Saudi Arabia or a mere trader of DVD in Greenhills to feel equally the pain of hunger and abstinence that will make them spiritually strong. There are testimonies of doctors also attesting to the health benefits of fasting. In my place in Marawi it is easy to observe Ramadan because food stalls are closed during daytime. But in Manila where eateries, ambulant vendors and street food stalls abound and you see people munching on foods or sipping water on  hot summer day, the temptation to eat is almost unbearable. While you may survive the day fasting in Manila and want to break your fast at sunset in a restaurant, you are still bothered by the fear that the food they are serving might be surreptitiously sprinkled with pork ingredients or are not “halal,” meaning, not prepared in accordance with the Islamic rituals (yes Virginia, we have such ritual).

In Marawi, you don’t see women flaunting body-curves or exposing  sensitive parts of their body that might arouse carnal desire on men which is a taboo during Ramadan. They wrapped themselves especially their hair with bandana-like “kombongs” and some even adopt the chador or burka of the extremist Afghan women where even the eyes are covered with thin cloth. But in Manila, you see beautiful women parading with a provocative skimpy outfit that enchants and tempts even the most docile of men.

While we are obliged to pray five times a day (dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset and nighttime) during Ramadan we have to perform the special, though non-obligatory, additional set of prayers called taraweh and tahajud at night. The ritual is so long and backbreaking that less healthy devotees sometimes suffer episodes of dizziness performing them. But you cannot just observe these prayers without following the rituals of ablution or cleansing with water some parts of your body. And this gets messy if you are in Manila and outside of your house because you have to remove your shoes to wash your feet, roll up the sleeves of your barong tagalog to wash your arm up to the elbow, etc and for women to remove their mascara to wash their face. If you have to go to the toilet to free yourself of waste, you have to wash with water because tissue paper is not acceptable. The call to prayer by the Muezzin in the mosque through a loud microphone blaring out an azan at 4 a.m. surely annoys your Christian neighbors.

A friendly advice to those planning to shop at Quiapo or Greenhills during Ramadan where the Muslims sell their wares: Be patient with the traders because they look gloomy and irritable. Why? They are hungry.

We Filipino Muslims claim that we are “more Muslim” than other nationalities. When I was pursuing my doctoral studies at New York University and observing Ramadan, I noticed my middle eastern  classmates sipping coffee which they brought in the classroom while I agonized over the chilling temperature of New York and the pangs of hunger and thirst. I was so naïve to think that because Arab missionary, Sheik Makdum, followed by their traders were the ones who planted the seed of Islam in our shores, I can look upon them as role models.

But I have to observe Ramadan even in Manila because this is where my bread and butter is. I just have to endure the ordeal, after all, I have set my eyes for Jannah (paradise).

(The author is a lawyer, former Assemblyman/Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Autonomous Region 12, Congressman, Ambassador, Undersecretary of Tourism and Undersecretary of Justice.)