ARMM marks Shariff Kabunsuan Day

COTABATO CITY – The entire Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will observe today and tomorrow as non-working holidays to commemorate the Shariff Kabunsuan Day and the Eid’l Adha, or Islamic Feast of Sacrifice, respectively.

Lawyer Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi, the ARMM’s solicitor-general, said the holidays will give the region’s more than three million mixed-Muslim and non-Muslim residents  ample time to celebrate the two events, one rekindling how the Islam spread in mainland Mindanao and the other an important day for Muslims around the world.

The yearly commemoration of the Shariff Kabunsuan Day is centered on celebrations and re-enactments of the coming to an ancient landmark here, the Bucana area, of Islamic missionary Shariff Mohammad Kabunsuan from Johore,  to preach Islam, in the 14th century.

Kabunsuan, who belonged to the royalty in Johore, now a port-region in Malaysia, was said to have fled from his homeland to evade persecution by Dutch invaders and, subsequently, found a home here where he established a community of Muslims based on Islamic principles of equality of all men, fear of Allah, and unity with neighbors regardless of religion and ethnic identities.

Kabunsuan married native women in Central Mindanao and sired children from whom sprung the Maguindanaon, Maranaw and Iranon nobility, one of which was the legendary Sultan Kudarat, a 17th century warrior-datu who fought the Spaniards  fiercely for the rest of his life.

The Eid’l Adha, on the other hand, is a religious holiday for Muslims where they commemorate the biblical “trial and sacrifice” of Abraham, who is also a prophet in Islam.

The celebration of Eid’l Adha, which is determined through the Hijrah lunar calendar, comes within the five-day pilgrimage, or Hajj, by Muslims to Mecca, the seat of the Islamic faith, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.