Islam in the Philippines

Islam in the Philippines is the second largest religion in the country, and the faith was the first-recorded monotheistic religion in the Philippines. Historically, Islam reached the Philippine archipelago in the 14th century, through contact with Muslim Malay and Arab merchants along Southeast Asian trade networks, in addition to Yemeni missionaries from the tribe of Alawi of Yemen from the Persian Gulf, southern India, and their followers from several sultanates in the wider Malay Archipelago. The first missionaries then followed in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. They facilitated the formation of sultanates and conquests in mainland Mindanao and Sulu. Those who converted to Islam came to be known as the Moros, with Muslim conquest reaching as far as Tondo that was later supplanted by Bruneian Empire vassal-state of Maynila.
Muslim sultanates had already begun expanding in the central Philippines by the 16th century, when the Spanish fleet led by Ferdinand Magellan arrived. The Spanish referred to Muslim inhabitants of the Philippines as "Moros," after the Muslim "Moors" they had regarded with disdain in Iberia and the Maghreb. The subsequent Spanish conquest led to Catholic Christianity becoming the predominant religion in most of the modern-day Philippines, with Islam becoming a significant minority religion.
In the 21st century, there is some disagreement regarding the size of the Muslim population. The 2020 census conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority found that 6.4% (6,981,710) of Filipinos were Muslims, up from 6.0% (6,064,744) in 2015. However, it was reported in 2004 that some Muslim groups asserted that the proper number was between eight and twelve percent. Presently, the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) estimates Muslims constitute 11% of the total population, attributing the difference to a number of factors.
Most Muslims live in parts of Mindanao, Palawan, and the Sulu Archipelago – an area known as Bangsamoro or the Moro region. The Bangsamoro region is predominantly Muslim, with 91% of its 4.9 million inhabitants adhering to Islam. Some have migrated into urban and rural areas in different parts of the country. Most Muslim Filipinos practice Sunni Islam according to the Shafi'i school with the Hanbali (Athari) school in minority.
In 1380, the Sunni Shaykh Makhdum Karim reached the Sulu Archipelago and Jolo in the Philippines and established Islam in the country through trade in several regions of the island. In 1390, Minangkabau Prince Rajah Baguinda and his followers preached Islam on the islands. The Sheik Karimol Makhdum Mosque was the first mosque established in the Philippines on Simunul in Mindanao in the 14th century.
Subsequent settlements by Indian Muslim missionaries traveling to Malaysia and Indonesia helped strengthen Islam in the Philippines and each settlement was governed by a datu, rajah and sultan. Islam was introduced by Chinese Muslims, Indian Muslims, and Persians. Islamic provinces founded in the Philippines included the Sunni Sultanate of Maguindanao, Sultanate of Sulu, Sultanate of Lanao and other parts of the southern Philippines.
When the Spanish fleet led by Miguel López de Legazpi arrived in the Philippines in 1565, they were met by local datus as they traveled in the islands. Arriving in the Maynila (now the Philippine capital of Manila), a vassal-state of the Sultanate of Brunei, in 1570 they were met by the Muslim rajah, Rajah Sulayman.
By the next century conquests had reached the Sulu islands in the southern tip of the Philippines where the population was Buddhist and Hindu and they took up the task of converting the animistic population to Islam with renewed zeal. By the 15th century, half of Luzon (Northern Philippines) and the islands of Mindanao in the south had become subject to the various Muslim sultanates of Borneo and much of the population in the almost of South were converted to Islam. However, the Visayas was largely dominated by Hindu-Buddhist societies led by rajahs and datus who strongly resisted Islam. One reason could be the economic and political disasters preeuropean Muslim pirates from the Mindanao region brought during raids. These frequent attacks gave way to naming present-day Cebu as then-Sugbo or scorched earth which was a defensive technique implemented by the Visayans so the pirates had nothing much to loot.
The Chinese Muslim mariner Zheng He is credited with founding several Chinese Muslim communities during China's early Ming dynasty.
In the year 1498–99, the Bruneian Empire conducted a series of raids against the natives of the Taytay in Palawan and the island of Mindoro which had been subjugated to the Islamic Bruneian Empire under Sultan Bolkiah.
Furthermore, Sultan Bolkiah's victory over Sulu, as well as his marriages to Laila Menchanai the daughter of Sulu Sultan Amir al-Ombra (an uncle of Sharifa Mahandun married to Nakhoda Angging or Maharaja Anddin of Sulu), and to the daughter of Datu Kemin, widened Brunei's influence in the Philippines.
In Luzon, a new dynasty in Maynila began under a local leader who accepted Islam and became Rajah Salalila who created a union through his marriage to the daughter of Sultan Bolkiah and Puteri Laila Menchanai of Sulu, which established Brunei's influence in the region. He also started to established a trading challenge to the already rich House of Lakandula in Tondo. Islam was further strengthened by the arrival of Muslim traders and from Jolo, Mindanao, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Rajah Sulayman was the Rajah of Maynila, a polity at the mouth of the Pasig River where it meets Manila Bay, at the time the Spanish forces first came to Luzon.
Sulayman resisted the Spanish forces, and thus, along with Rajah Matanda and Lakan Dula, was one of three Rajahs who played significant roles in what was the Spanish conquest of their polities of the Pasig River delta in the early 1570s.
Moro (derived from the Spanish word meaning Moors) is the appellation inherited from the Spaniards, for Filipino Muslims of Mindanao. The Spanish distinguished the Moro from the Indios, which referred to the Christianised people of Luzon and the Visayas. Islam continued to spread in Mindanao, from centers such as Sulu and Cotabato.
The Muslims seek to establish an independent Islamic province in Mindanao to be named Bangsamoro. The term Bangsamoro is a combination of an Old Malay word meaning nation or state with the Spanish word Moro which means Muslim. A significant Moro Rebellion occurred during the Philippine–American War. Conflicts and rebellion have continued in the Philippines from the pre-colonial period up to the present. Other related issue with the Moro secession is the territorial dispute of eastern Sabah in Malaysia which claimed by the Sultanate of Sulu as their territory.
The Moros have a history of resistance against Spanish, American, and Japanese rule for over 400 years. The violent armed struggle against the Spanish, Americans, Japanese and Filipinos is considered by current Moro (Muslim) leaders as part of the four centuries long "national liberation movement" of the Bangsamoro (Muslim Nation). The 400-year-long resistance against the Japanese, Filipinos, Americans, and Spanish by the Moro/Muslims persisted and morphed into their current war for independence against the Philippine state.
Muslim leaders in Zamboanga petitioned the Ottoman Empire to send a representative to advise them on religious matters. A scholar from the Shaykh al-Islām was sent in response.
In 2012, research was conducted on various cultural properties in Islamic areas in Mindanao. The research included the 'Maradika' Qur'an of Bayang, description of the notes found in the Qur'an of Bayang, the Qur'an and Islamic manuscripts of the Sheikh Ahmad Bashir collection, the 'Dibolodan' Qur'an of Bacong in Marantao, the Qur'an and prayer scroll of Guro sa Masiu in Taraka, the 'Story of the Prophet Muhammad' at the Growing Memorial Research Center of the Dansalan College, and the Islamic Manuscript Art of the Philippines. In 2014, the Maradika Qur'an of Bayang was declared as a National Cultural Treasure, the first Islamic manuscript in the Philippines to be declared as such.
In 2018, a unification gathering of all the sultans of the Sulu archipelago and representatives from all ethnic communities in the Sulu archipelago commenced in Zamboanga City, declaring themselves as the Bangsa Sug peoples and separating them from the Bangsa Moro peoples of mainland central Mindanao. They cited the complete difference in cultures and customary ways of life as the primary reason for their separation from the Muslims of mainland central Mindanao. They also called the government to establish a separate Philippine state, called Bangsa Sug, from mainland Bangsa Moro or to incorporate the Sulu archipelago to whatever state is formed in the Zamboanga peninsula, if ever federalism in the Philippines is approved in the coming years.
There is also a growing community of Filipino converts to Islam, known popularly as Balik Islam (return or returnees to Islam), often led by former Christian missionary converts.
At the end of 2014, the NCMF estimated that there were 200,000–2,000,000 Filipinos who had converted to Islam since the 1970s.
Most Muslims in the Philippines live on the island of Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago and Palawan, also known collectively as MINSUPALA. The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) is the region of the Philippines that is composed of all the Philippines' predominantly Muslim provinces, namely: Basilan (except Isabela City), Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. It also comprised the cities of Marawi, Lamitan, and Cotabato City and the 63 Barangays in North Cotabato who opted to join the autonomous region. It is the only region that has its own government. The regional capital is at Cotabato City, which is outside the jurisdiction of the former and defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) but is now part of the Bangsamoro region after the majority of the residents voted in favor for their inclusion in the autonomous region in the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law on January 21, 2019.
Other provinces and regions with large Muslim populations as well have a significant history with Moro/Muslims include Metro Manila, Cavite, Rizal, Bulacan, Bicol Region, Metro Cebu, Eastern Visayas, southern Palawan, Soccsksargen, Lanao del Norte, Davao City and the Zamboanga Peninsula. However, these are not part of the Bangsamoro region.
The predominantly Muslim ethnolinguistic groups of the Philippines are the Iranun, Jama Mapun, Kalagan, Kalibugan, Maguindanao, Maranao, Molbog, Sama (including the Badjao, Balanguingui, and various Tawi-Tawi Sama groups), Sangil, Tausūg, and Yakan. Muslims who were formerly Christians and animists are called the balik-Islam.
Sufism was also brought through travelling merchants and often interspersed with the classical ASWJ. Representatives of this were the makhdumin, the first missionaries of Islam in the Philippines. Examples are the Darul Abdulqadir Jilani Dergah in Talon-Talon, Zamboanga City, and the Maharlika Blue Mosque community in Taguig City.
There are already many practitioners of Sufism in the country from different social status. The orders or tariqas that are present in the country are: the Naqshbandi Aliya, Naqshbandi Chisti, Qadiri, Rifai, Shattari, Rifai Qadiri Shadhili, Tijani, and Khalwati. The Naqshbandi Aliya tariqa have the most followers, concentrated in Manila, Cebu, Zamboanga, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi. There are also Sufis from the students and alumni of known universities, such as the Ateneo de Manila University, the Ateneo de Zamboanga University, and Western Mindanao State University.
Arrived during the early stages of Islam in Southeast Asia, it was brought through travelling merchants and was often interspersed with Sufism. Adherents are required to follow one school of law (madhhab) as a guidance in their legal and daily affairs.
Generally, in Southeast Asia, most adherents of the ASWJ follow the Shafi'i school of law, and the Ash'ari school of theology. Examples are the Sabiel al-Muhtadien and Darul Makhdumin Madrasah, located in Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi.
The first Shi'as to arrive, together with the Sufis, were the Isma'ilis and the Kaysaniyyas (earlier offshoots of Shi'ism), who eventually blended with the orthodox (ASWJ) Muslims. More Shi'as would later arrive at the height of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Examples are the Masjid Imam Mahdi in Suterville, Zamboanga City, and the Masjid Karbala in Marawi City.
Also referred to as, Ilmu kamaasan, Ilmu kamatoahan, Ilmu sa Matoah, and Ilmu Minatoah (knowledge of the elders), it is an indigenized amalgamation of Islam from the preceding schools of thought and local cultural customs, this is actually contextualized and simplified according to how the elders have understood Islam and the process of Islamization of the communities. These are normally communities located in far rural areas.
Also known as the Athari, it is originally a school of thought from the Hanbali madhhab otherwise referred to as Traditionalist theology or Scripturalist theology, it then became the deviated school of Wahhabi Islam which is more puritanical in adherence to the Quran and Sunnah in the way of Salafu As-Salih.
This school of thought is notable for active propagation and conversion of people to Islam (Balik Islam phenomenon), marked intolerance for interfaith and intrafaith engagements, Examples of these groups are the Mahad Moro, Mahad Salamat, and Mahad Quran wal Hadith Zamboanga City, the Mercy Foundation in Manila and Davao City, the Al-Maarif Educational Center in Baguio City, and the Jamiatul Waqf al-Islamie, and Jamiato Monib al-Kouzbary al-Arabiyah in Marawi City.
This is the mainstream Sunni school of Islamic theology, founded by the Arab Muslim scholar, Shāfiʿī jurist, reformer (mujaddid), and scholastic theologian, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī in the 9th–10th century, with the Persian Muslim scholar, Ḥanafī jurist, reformer (mujaddid), and scholastic theologian Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī in the 9th–10th century, it established an orthodox guideline based on scriptural authority, rationality, and theological rationalism. It is also a school of theology supporting the use of reason and speculative theology (kalām) to defend the faith.
Almost 95% of Sunni around the world are Ash'ari and Maturidi. They have a few educational institutions in the country, such as the Jamiatu Al-Hikmah in Mulondo, Lanao del Sur and the Muhajireen wal Ansar Academy in Taguig City as well as the 3 prominent ones namely, Darul Ifta Region 9 and Palawan, Sabiel al-Muhtadien and Darul Makhdumin Madrasah, located in Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi.
The Tablighi Jama'at is a revivalist movement originated in South Asia, aiming at revitalizing Muslims’ practice of Islam. Politically neutral and tolerant, they are characterized by khurūj (regular traveling from one mosque to another) events to call people back to the mosque and pray, as well as their annual gatherings called ijtema'at. They are the most moderate, apolitical, and pacifist among the different Muslim groups.
Most Filipino Tablighi Jama'at members are Ash'ari and Maturidi scholars, such as Sheikh Aminollah Mimbala Batua and Mawlana Mahdi Batua, as well as Filipino ASWJ scholars like Mawlana Dr. Abdullatif Cadhe Sirad.
They can be found in many mosques, most prominent is the Jama'at of Mawlana Mahdi Batua of the Masjid Al-Dahab in Quiapo, Manila.
Nurcu is an Islamic movement calling people back to Islam. The basis of unity of this group is the multi-volume compilation of articles and books called the Risale-i Nur ("epistle of light" in Turkish), which is a voluminous commentary on the Quran and Hadith by Bediuzzaman Said Nursî, one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century.
Nursî's main theme in his works is answering modern man's major crisis – the absence of certainty of Faith. The Risale-i Nur is a monumental work that aims to address this. He also said that all suffering in the world is because of three things: ignorance, poverty, and misunderstanding. In his opinion, this can be healed by knowledge, service, and understanding others. This is elucidated in his magnum opus as a guide to Muslims.
This group is active in many parts of the country and has trained many educators. Notable among them is the Risale-i Nur Institute in Cagayan de Oro City and their dershaneler in different cities across the Philippines. They are also responsible for publishing many Islamic books for use in elementary, junior high, and high schools, as well as universities and colleges. It was tested in the former Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, during the term of then CHED Regional Secretary Norma Sharief.
It was founded by Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen. Their principles actually come from the Risale-i Nur, except that in the present political context, it has been listed as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government since 2016.
However, it is important to note that the Hizmet movement focuses on the principles of "service to humanity" and "dialogue and cooperation" as mechanisms of understanding others. They are well known to have established several schools in the Philippines and is considered a world standard in science and mathematics education.
Considered by most Muslim groups as heretics and non-Muslims, Ahmadis (as they call themselves) also believe in the major tenets of Islam, except they believed that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani is the last prophet and the promised Mahdi or "messiah", of which majority of Muslim sects disagree due to the concept about the finality on the Prophethood of Muhammad.
This community consists of expatriates and predominatly Badjaos, who are normally in the lowest social strata in Moro society.
Derived from Shia Islam, the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (AROPL), also called the Ahmadi Religion (not to be confused with the Sunni- and Sufi-derived messianist sect of Ahmadiyyah), is a messianist syncretic religious movement founded and led by an Egyptian-American religious leader Abdullah Hashem Aba as-Sadiq, a follower of Iraqi Shia Muslim cleric Ahmad al-Hassan, hence the name of the movement. Abdullah Hashem claimed and is believed by his followers to be the al-Qa'im (the second Mahdi), as Ahmad al-Hassan is the first Mahdi, who is also the key figure of the movement. Having elements of Judaism, Christianity as well as Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and other world religions, many of AROPL's doctrines oppose those of traditional Islam, for example, the movement believes that the Kaaba is actually in Petra, Jordan instead of Mecca, Saudi Arabia; hijab and niqab wearing is not mandatory but they are either allowed; and the belief in reincarnation. Unlike also traditional Islam, the movement has its own sacred book called The Goal of the Wise, authored by Abdullah Hashem. AROPL's headquarters is located in Manchester, United Kingdom.
The religious movement is relatively small, although increasing members are estimated to be less than a thousand followers globally, with at least three or four Filipino converts are reported.