Beginning of Fasting Month of Ramadan

Ramadan Iftar by Raaid.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, is declared to be the beginning of the fasting month of Ramadan for muslims in Malaysia. The Keeper of the Rulers' Seal, Tan Sri Engku Ibrahim Engku Ngah announced Tuesday that the date for the beginning of the fasting month for states in Malaysia had been set for Wednesday, Aug 11 as decreed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong after getting the consent of the Rulers.

The Office of the Keeper of the Malaysian Rulers' Seal on last August 3, set Tuesday as the date to sight the new moon of Ramadan at several designated locations in Malaysia.

Following the announcement, all muslims in Malaysia will start fasting tomorrow and all mosques in Malaysia started to hold 'terawih' prayer for the whole month of Ramadan. That is the beauty of staying in Malaysia where all muslims are united in term of starting and ending their fasting months based on the decreed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong after getting the consent of the Rulers. It is well understood that several other muslims countries will observe their fasting month of Ramadan starting on August 4th that is on Thursday.

I had an opportunity to experience fasting during the month of Ramadan overseas long time ago and the muslim communities living in those countries started observing their fasting month of Ramadan sometimes based on their country of origin and sometimes also based on the decision of the local leader of the muslim communities. Thus, within the country, not all muslims started observing the fasting month of Ramadan at the same day. However, majority of them will adhere to the decreed as stipulated by their local Islamic leaders. However, in Malaysia, all muslims are united by observing the start of Ramadan based on the announcement made by the The Keeper of the Rulers' Seal.

In this blog entry, I would like to seek forgiveness to everybody for any wrong doings and would like to wish all muslims to have their fasting being accepted by Allah S.W.T.