Yogyakarta –LukmanHakimSaifuddin,Minister of Religious Affairsof the Republic ofIndonesia,visitedMuhammadiyahofficeinCikDiTiroStreet Number 103Yogyakartatomaintain silaturahimandmuzakarahin theunification ofthe Hijriyahcalendar. He,accompaniedby and the ranks oftheOffice ofthe Directorate General andthe Regional Offices ofthe Ministry ofReligion of Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (DIY), was received by theGeneral Chairman ofMuhammadiyahCentral Executive, DinSyamsuddin,and his staffas well asthe Tarjih and Tajdid (Law and Reformation) Council of Muhammadiyah Central Executive.
The dialoguethat occurred for three hour, LukmanHakimSyaifuddinexpressedhis desireforthe realization ofthe Hijriyahcalendarthat can besharedby MuslimsinIndonesia. "We intend toequatethe viewsbetweenthe Minister of Religious Affairsof the Republic ofIndonesiaandMuhammadiyahin theinitial determinationof the beginning of the Hijriyah, including theMuslim lunar monthof Ramadan, Shawwal, andDzulhijah," he said. Lukmanhoped, the initialdetermination ofa common viewamongMuhammadiyahMuslim lunar month, the Government, other organizationscould minimizethe differencesthat existedin order to createunityamongMuslimsinIndonesia.
The creation ofthe Islamiccalendarall of this time,according toDinSyamsuddin,was also agreatdesireof Muhammadiyah. Forseveraltimes,Muhammadiyahwas involvedinthe unification ofthe Islamic calendarforumsincludingorganizing the Internationalconferenceinvolvingworld astronomers. However, according to him, there were still somethingsin the methodologiesthatrequiredmore in-depthdiscussiononthe creation ofCalendar unification.
The forum, which was alsoattended bythe General Chairman of SitiNoordjannahDjohantini (the 'Aisyiyah Central Executive), SyamsulAnwar(the Chairman of the MuhammadiyahTarjih and Tajdid (Law and Reformation) Council),andMachasin(the DirectorateGeneral ofIslamic Society Guidanceof Minister of Religious Affairsof the Republic ofIndonesia), was delivered presentationsandviews towardsthe unification ofthe Muslim lunarcalendarandwas likelytobe appliedinIndonesia. Machasin saidthe realdifferences thatexisted for thismethodological were the differencesin the frameof reckoningorcalculation basisusedof the height of the hilal. "Muhammadiyah useswujudulhilalthat determines zero degreesafter theijtimakandimakanurukyat that uses the heightofthe hilal twodegrees," he explained. In the discussion,Machasinalsooffered theapproaches thatmight be acceptablein thethe MuhammadiyahTarjih and Tajdid (Law and Reformation) Councilto applythe methodologyin determiningthe beginning of themonth.
Meanwhile, SyamsulAnwar,Chairman ofthe MuhammadiyahTarjih and Tajdid (Law and Reformation) Councilrevealed thatthere were issues thatstill needed tobe consideredin the useof imkanurukyatmethodsthat have beenapplied by the government.So there neededmore in-depthdiscussion, including based onthe arguments ofthe Al QuranorAlHadistonthe applicationmethod ofdetermination ofthe new moon in the Hijriyah Calendar.On the occasion,Minister for Religious AffairsandDinShamsuddinagreedto form aspecial teamofvariousorganizations, astronomers,andfalakto discussin detail thebasicequation ofthe newcalculation methodology of the beginning of the month in Hijriyah Calendar. (mac)
Tags: muhammadiyah, ministry ofreligion, Din Syamsuddin, LukmanHakim Saifuddin, hisab, rukyat, calendars, hijriyah