Determination of Ramadan, Shawwal and Dzulhijjah Refers to MABIMS, What is MABIMS?

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — In order to determine the beginning of Ramadhan, Shawwal and Dzulhijjan, the Indonesian government always refers to the provisions of MABIMS. According to the new MABIMS criteria, imkanur rukyat is considered eligible if the hilal position reaches a height of 3 degrees with an elongation angle of 6.4 degrees.

However, what is MABIMS and how did this agreement originate? MABIMS itself is a new criterion for determining 1 Ramadhan and 1 Shawwal determined by the Ministers of Religion from four countries, namely Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Based on information from various sources, it was stated that from 9 to 11 July 1974 a reckoning and rukyat meeting was held between countries, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in Jakarta. This also later became the forerunner of the MABIMS.

From this meeting a number of decisions were born, including establishing cooperation between countries in matters of reckoning and rukyat, as well as holding exchanges of information regarding hidab and rukyat, principles and terms of falak syar’i. Not only that, afterwards it was also encouraged to carry out further deliberations regarding these two matters alternately in their respective countries and establish cooperation in this field.

On the other hand, MABIMS also has an agreement to safeguard the benefit and interests of the people, without interfering in political matters between member countries. Meetings discussing rukyat and reckoning are held at least once every two years, to find out whether an update is needed or not.

In 1994, a meeting was held in Singapore to discuss cooperation in the field of rukyat reckoning between the four countries. A permanent commission was also formed during the meeting, whose task was to discuss technically the forms of cooperation and their implementation.

The commission was named the Office of Power of Attorney for Harmonizing Rukyat and Islamic Taqwim for the State of Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Indonesia was appointed as the permanent liaison for the Bureau.

In carrying out its duties, this commission is supported by human resources who are experts in the field of reckoning and other related fields, such as astronomers and experts in religious law. As the name implies, this Bureau of Power aims to discuss and formulate principles to formulate Islamic Taqwim and Rukyat Implementation Cooperation.

The first deliberation of the Bureau of Alignment of Rukyat and Islamic Takwim was held in Pulau Pinang, Malaysia, in 1991. From a number of meetings that were held, one of the important decisions emerged related to the Islamic calendar, namely the theory of hilal visibility which became known as the MABIMS Hilal Visibility.

The current MABIMS criteria are in line with efforts to unify or standardize the Hijriyah calendar. In terms of fiqh studies, this effort pays attention to the opinions of fiqh experts who are divided into two major views, namely global rukyat and local rukyat.

As is well known, there are experts who tend to global pilgrimage (Hanafi, Maliki, and Hambali) and there are experts who tend to local pilgrimage around a radius of 120 km (Syafi’iyah).

The MABIMS criteria are built on the basis of survey data or long-term global observations. The parameters used are the same as those commonly used by Indonesian reckoning experts, namely the height of the new moon and elongation (distance of the moon-sun angle), which are used to explain the physical aspects of the rukyatul hilal.

The latest in the MABIMS criteria, a minimum height of 3 degrees is based on global data, an elongation of at least 6.4 degrees is based on the elongation record of the closest moon. The new MABIMS criterion, which was built using rukyat data and analyzed by reckoning, is considered a meeting point, for users of the rukyatul hilal method, such as NU and users of the reckoning method, such as Muhammadiyah.