Bunsod is not only used as a fish trap in Maguindanaon community. Before, they use it like a Feng shui item in moving into a new house. It was believed to trap positive and good luck.
This practice is not anymore recognized amongst Moros and Muslims in Maguindanao because this is against the teachings of Islam as it is a form of Bid’ah or religious innovation.
Religious innovation means inventing a new way of worshiping God that was not originally included in the message that Islamic tradition claims was revealed to Muhammad.
MAGUINDANAON traditions (adat) do not allow courtship before marriage. What is practiced is courtship after marriage. Marriage is usually fixed and arranged by parents. In most cases, the grooms and brides do not even know each other before marriage.
Pre-marriage courtship is MAKAYA (shameful) and a taboo within a traditional MAGUINDANAON community. Both male and female of marrying age are not allowed to choose their future husband or wife. It is the parents who usually make the choices for their children.
This is based on the traditional family and cultural belief that parents usually know the best for their children’s interests including the choices of their better half.
Presently however, this marriage and courtship practice is already a thing of the past. Most of the respondents claim that in the contemporary MAGUINDANAON society, fixed marriages are not anymore the norm of the MAGUINDANAON culture.
The children are now allowed by their parents to choose their future husbands/wives. Pre-marriage courtship is also already tolerated and accepted by the majority of the people in the community, and therefore, taboo no more. Nowadays, the MAGUINDANAONS are already given freedom by their parents to choose their lifetime partners.
Read: Islam, Women and Gender Justice: A Discourse on the Traditional Islamic Practices among the Tausug in Southern Philippines by Jamail A. Kamlian, a Fellow in Islam and Human Rights.
(A project for Islam and Human Rights Fellowship, Law and Religion Program, School of Law, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.)
“If somebody innovates something which is not in harmony with the principles of our religion, that thing is rejected.” [Bukhari Book 49, Vol 3, No 861]
BAGISLAMEN
Before, most traditional Maguindanaons believed that one is not yet a full pledged Muslim if he/she had not undergone traditional rites after menstruation or circumcision. This rite is called “Kab-pagislam.” It is like the Bar or Bat Mitzvah.
Below are the rites done after MENSTRUATION (FOR WOMEN, of course):
1. Upon learning that the girl had her first menstruation. The girl is set for the ritual bath. The girl will sit on a big wash-bowl or basin (palanggana in tagalog) with medicinal leaves. The quack doctor will recite an incantation.
According to folk beliefs, if the girl had her first menstruation inside their house, the girl will have a good fate in marriage; she will be wed with the proper man her family wants. On the other hand, if the girl will have her first menstruation outside their house or in other house, she will elope or will have a pre-marital sex before her wedding.
2. She will be asked to go down the stairs, jumping three stairs and climb up again skipping three stairs (Hard, huh!) so that she will have only three days of menstruation.
Another belief is that if a boy or man arrives during the ritual or right after the ritual, it means the girl will marry soon. If a boy arrives, most likely that she will marry a younger man. If older man arrives during or right after the ritual, she will marry an older man. If no boy or man arrives during the ceremony or after the ceremony, she will marry in her late thirties or older or die an old maid. No celebration or kanduli is done for the coming of age for the girls.
This practice is now considered by Muslim clerics as Bid’ah.
Below are the rites done after CIRCUMCISION (FOR MEN, of course):
1. The traditional rites in Kab-pagislam for men is extravagant and festive. After the boy is circumcised, a party is organized. It may include dayunday, kulintang ensemble, and/or sagayan. There is also kanduli or thanksgiving party for the “coming of age.”
Dayunday is performed in front of an audience using an improvisational vocal style. The dayunday generally sets well known musicians from both genders against each other in verbal jest and competition.
The parents/elders will know that the boy is ready for kab-pagislam or circumcision if he had a “wet dreams.” According to Wikipedia, nocturnal emissions may happen any time during or after puberty. Wet dreams occur when a boy’s body starts making more testosterone.
2. Before the actual kab-pagislam, the boy is required to wear tubaw to indicate that his coming of age. The kab-pagislam may be done few days, months or even a year after the first “wet dream” because of the extravagant preparations for the celebration.
Boy in Tubaw
3. Actually, there is no actual circumcision like the medical circumcision we know. The traditional rite is only superincision, a dorsal slit, removing no tissue (but with variations).
4. The male organ is covered with cloth so that the skin covering the head (foreskin) will remain open and expose the glans.
5. After the ritual, the boy will be asked to jump over an elongated pounding wood used in pounding rice, so that the boy will have bigger reproductive organ (and will become hard) same with the pounding wood!!!
NOTA BENE: The above rituals are not anymore practiced among practicing Muslim Maguindanaons because it is against the teachings of Islam as it is a form of Bid’ah or religious innovation.
Religious innovation means inventing a new way of worshiping God that was not originally included in the message that Islamic tradition claims was revealed to Muhammad.
About Maguindanaon arts and culture and my personal escapades and milestones.
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