Muslim astronaut in space worship problem

[Guest Glenn]

Source: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21656416-2,00.html

 

HOW do you pray facing Mecca five times a day when you are circling the Earth 16 times every 24 hours?This is one of the problems facing Malaysian authorities as they prepare to send their first man into space.

 

There are others: how to hold the prayer position in zero gravity, ensure that only halal freeze-dried food is in your space cupboard and perform your ritual ablutions before worship?

 

They have all been answered by a team of Islamic scholars and scientists that has spent more than a year working on guidelines for the astronaut.

 

The Malaysian will travel to Russia's International Space Station in October, in exchange for a lucrative arms deal.

 

The Government hailed the mission as an important milestone but religious scholars questioned how a practising Muslim could accommodate worship with the demands of space travel.

 

The space station travels around the world at 27,000km/h, making Mecca a target in perpetual motion. With 16 orbits a day and five daily devotion sessions determined by times of sunrise and sunset, devout Muslim astronauts could find themselves chanting their prayers as many as 80 times in 24 hours.

 

Water is a valuable commodity in space, but Muslims are required to wash before each prayer session.

 

The holy month of Ramadan also falls during the mission.

 

All Muslims are required to abstain from food during daylight hours -- but what is daylight in space?

 

Only two Muslims have gone into space, Prince Sultan bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, who travelled on the US shuttle Discovery in 1985, and Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American space tourist, who went to the space station last year. Both had to work out their obligations on their own.

 

Malaysia insists, however, that maintaining Islamic beliefs "ismandatory for Muslims in every situation, time and place".

 

Mustafa Abdul Rahman, the head of the nation's Department of Islamic Development said: "Circumstances on the ISS that are different from circumstance on Earth are not an obstacle for an astronaut to fulfil a Muslim's obligations."

 

Two finalists remain from 10,000 applicants: Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor and Faiz Khaleed.

 

The winner will be told that he may choose to fast in space or make up for it when he returns. If an astronaut doubts that the food provided is halal, he "'should consume it only to the extent of restraining hunger".

 

On prayers to Mecca, however, the guidebook sidesteps. These should be performed, it says, "according to the capability of the astronaut".

 

The Times