 Muslim Astronaut
“I am not sure how it would be done but I will share my experiences (with) all the Muslims all over the world when I get back,” Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor wrote in his Web journal before launching into space. “After all, Islam is a way of life and I am quite sure I would not face much difficulties.”
Sheikh Muszaphar, along with one astronaut each from Russia and the U.S., lifted off in a Soyuz spacecraft from Baikanour in Kazakhstan, en route to the International Space Station, where he will spend about 10 days.
Reaching the station will take the spacecraft two days, a period
coinciding with the last days of Ramadan, when Muslims are required
to fast from dawn to dusk.
Sheikh Muszaphar, 35, is taking vacuum-packed Malaysian food —
including skewered chicken, banana rolls, fermented soybean cakes
and ginger jelly — to mark Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan this
weekend, in space.
A handsome bachelor who has become a national heartthrob, the Malaysian orthopedic surgeon is not the first Muslim in space. But he is the first Muslim to go during Ramadan, which had initially presented a dilemma about fulfilling religious duties such as fasting, kneeling for prayers in zero gravity or facing Mecca as the devout must do.
Praying the prescribed five times during each day-night cycle — on a craft circling the globe 16 times in one Earth day — would have meant praying 80 times in 24 hours. Also, it is virtually impossible to face Mecca continuously during prayer while traveling at about 17,400 miles (28,000 kilometers) an hour.
Before prayers, Muslims are required to wash their hands, feet, face and hair — a luxury on the Soyuz, where water is so precious that even sweat and urine are recycled.
To get around these problems, 150 Malaysian scholars, scientists, and astronauts brainstormed and published an 18-page booklet of guidelines for Muslim astronauts.
If Sheikh Muszaphar follows the guidelines, he can forgo fasting while in space and make up for it when he returns to earth. He can pray three times a day instead of five, and facing Mecca is not to be taken literally. He just has to face Earth, and if that’s not possible any direction will do.
On Earth, Muslims follow a sequence of praying positions — stand, bow, kneel. In zero gravity, astronauts need simply stand. If that’s difficult, then they may pray either sitting or lying down, the guidelines say.
The ritual washing before prayer is not necessary and “dry ablution” will do, according to the booklet.
Sheikh Muszaphar’s religious duties in space have hardly been an issue in Malaysia, where his journey is being hailed as a national
triumph befitting a rapidly progressing country that hopes to become part of the developed world by 2020.
The US$25 million (€17.7 million) agreement for a Malaysian to fly to space was negotiated in 2003 with a US$900 million (€637 million) deal for Malaysia to buy 18 Russian fighter jets.
The launch was broadcast live on Malaysian television networks, watched by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who had earlier attended special prayers for the mission’s success.
“This is a truly historic moment for all Malaysians,” King Mizan Zainal Abidin, the constitutional monarch, said in a statement.
Sheikh Muszaphar will experiment in space with microbes of tropical diseases and with proteins for a potential HIV vaccine, and to study
the effects of microgravity and space radiation on cancer cells and human genes.
Sheikh Muszaphar’s parents watched the liftoff from an observation area in Baikanour, praying and in tears.
“I’m happy for my country, for Russia, for the United States and everybody,” said his father, Sheikh Mustapha Shukor.
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