The misunderstanding occurred during the first fast of Ramadan 2022 in the city of Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia. The reason is, a radio station called Tawau FM broadcasts the Maghrib call to prayer, a sign that iftar is 4 minutes faster and is viral on social media.
The mistake occurred when the announcer Mohd. Safwan bin Junit made a technical error that made the call to prayer go faster. According to the schedule, the Maghrib call to prayer was supposed to be broadcast at 06.20, but due to a technical error, it was broadcast at 06.16.
This made some Tawau residents who heard the broadcast cancel their fast prematurely. For this incident, Safwan explained the real case through his personal Facebook account.
"I, Mohd. Safwan bin Junit, the presenter on duty this evening in the Shock of Sunday, have made a technical error in which the Maghrib call to prayer was broadcast twice, namely around 6.16 pm and the second at 6.20 pm," said Safwan.
"The call to prayer, which was supposed to be broadcast at 6.20am, was sounded earlier than the time, causing a lot of people from Tawau to accidentally break their fast earlier in the day," he said, explaining that the case was caused by technical errors and his own mistakes.
Through the same Facebook status, he also apologized personally to the residents of Tawau. "This mistake, is a mistake from myself and not RTM Tawau or Tawau FM, what is good comes from God and what is lacking comes from my own weakness. Please share this apology," he concluded.
Meanwhile, Tawau FM also apologized for the incident through its official Facebook account on Tuesday (5/4). On behalf of Zulkefli Bin Mohd, as the director of Sabah broadcasting, he said "apologizing for the mistake of TAWAUfm Radio Station broadcasting the Maghrib call to prayer earlier than the scheduled time."
According to him, his party is aware of the importance of broadcasting the call to prayer, especially the Maghrib call to prayer during Ramadan as a marker for Muslims to break their fast. "However, the broadcasting of the call to prayer 4 minutes early on 1 Ramadan 1443 by TAWAUfm Radio Station was unintentional. The Broadcasting Department of Malaysia Sabah takes this matter seriously and will ensure that the timing of the call to prayer is given attention and priority because it involves the interests of Muslims in particular," concluded Zulkefli.
Quoted from the Bernama website, according to an expert on Islam in Sabah, Datuk Bungsu Aziz Jaafar, a resident who breaks the fast at the wrong call to prayer in Tawau FM, must replace the fast at another time of Ramadan. Because their fast is considered invalid.