Penang says won’t bar religious lectures during Ramadan

GEORGE TOWN, July 2 — The Penang state government will not follow Pahang and Johor in barring mosques from holding religious lectures after prayers during Ramadan, and is instead encouraging the practice.

But the administration advised all mosques to ensure that these lectures do not impede on the solat sunat terawih (evening prayers) or inconvenience Muslims attending the mosques during the Muslim holy month expected to begin on July 10, said state Religious Affairs, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Committee chairman Datuk Abdul Malik Abul Kassim (picture).

“There are other states that have banned mosques from holding tazkirah such as in Pahang and Johor but here, the state government will not ban it but instead, we encourage them to organise more tazkirah as this is an education for Muslims,” he said at a press conference outside the Penang State Assembly hall.

He explained that tazkirah is a way to remind Muslims of the true and right path during solat terawih.

“It is a good alternative to teach and coach Muslims especially when they are all gathered in the mosques for prayers during Ramadan,” he said.

In fact, organising and attending tazkirah in between prayers should be a normal custom especially for those who wish to take the opportunity to improve their knowledge on Islam, he said.

He said the state government will leave it to the mosques to organise religious activities in conjunction with Ramadan and that the state will support all of the programmes that the mosques organised.

“We will be handing out RM1,000 allocation to each of the mosques so that they will be able to organise more programmes in this holy month,” the Batu Maung state assemblyman said.

He added that the state Religious Affairs Department also encourages mosque administrations to organise the solat terawih as much as 20 rakaat (prescribed movements and words by Muslims during worship).

“It is common practice for Muslims to perform eight rakaat so there is no restriction that they must perform 20 rakaat if they wish to stop at eight,” Abdul Malik said.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar and during the period Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.

Ramadan starts at the sighting of the new moon, which may fall on July 10 this year, and ends at the beginning of Syawal which is a celebration of Hari Raya AidilFitri, also at the sighting of another crescent new moon.