In 1390 the Minangkabau’s Prince Rajah Baguinda and his followers preached Islam on the islands. Thoreau was a profoundly principled person who believed in practicing what he preached. A new dynasty under the a local Lumad leader who accepted Islam and became Rajah Salalila or Rajah Sulayman I. He also started to established a trading challenge the already rich House of Rajah Lakandula in Tondo. Rajah Sulayman was the Muslim Rajah of Maynila, a kingdom at the mouth of the Pasig River where it meets Manila Bay, at the time the Spanish forces first came to Luzon. 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. The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) 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, and the Islamic City of Marawi. The regional capital is at Cotabato City, although this city is outside of its jurisdiction.

Islam reached the Philippines in the 14th century with the arrival of Muslim traders from the Persian Gulf, Southern India, and their followers from several sultanate governments in the Malay Archipelago. Islam was further strengthened by the arrival of Muslim traders and from Jolo, Mindanao, Malaysia and Indonesia. The violent armed struggle against the Japanese, Filipinos, Spanish, and Americans is considered by current Moro (Muslim) leaders as part of the four centuries long “national liberation movement” of the Bangsamoro (Muslim Nation). The term Bangsamoro is a combination of an Old Malay word meaning nation or state with the Spanish word Moro which means Muslim. The Moros seek to establish an independent Islamic province in Mindanao to be named Bangsamoro. The Moros have a history of resistance against Spanish, American, and Japanese rule for over 400 years. The Muslim Bruneian Empire under the rule of Sultan Bolkiah, who is an ancestor of the current Sultan of Brunei. The Muslim conquest reached as far as the Kingdom of Tondo which was supplanted by Brunei’s vassal-state the Kingdom of Maynila. By the next century conquests had reached the Sulu islands in the southern tip of the Philippines where the population was Buddhist and Hinduand they took up the task of converting the animistic population to Islam with renewed zeal.

Laila Mecanai the daughter of Sulu Sultan Amir Ul-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. Conflicts and rebellion have continued in the Philippines from the pre-colonial period up to the present. A significant Moro Rebellion occurred during the Philippine-American War. Moro (derived from the Spanish word meaning Moors) is the appellation inherited from the Spaniards, for Filipino Muslims of Mindanao. According to the recent estimation conducted by the National Commission of Muslim Filipinos (NCMF), 11% of Filipinos are Muslims. This Chinese Muslim community was led by Hajji Yan Ying Yu, who urged his followers to assimilate and take local names. However, the Visayas was largely dominated by Hindu-Buddhist societies led by rajahs and datus who strongly resisted Islam. 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. Islamic provinces founded in the Philippines included the Sultanate of Maguindanao, Sultanate of Sulu, Sultanate of Lanao and other parts of the southern Philippines. Arriving in the Kingdom of Maynila, a vassal-state of the Sultanate of Brunei, in 1570 they were met by the Muslim rajah, Rajah Sulaiman III.

One reason could be due to the economic and political disasters prehispanic Muslim pirates from the Mindanao region bring 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 have nothing much to loot. The Bible says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (1 John 5:14). Trust His promises and learn to bring every concern to Him in prayer. Which of these quotes have you heard before? In 1380 Karim ul’ Makhdum the first Arabian trader reached the Sulu Archipelago and Jolo in the Philippines and through trade throughout the island established Islam in the country. Before they reached the shores of Luzon, they subjugated the Buddhist Huangdom of Mai and that lead to its decline. The Buddhist culture of Mindoro gradually disappeared after Bolkiah forced the citizens of Mai to converted their faith to Islam. However, from the nineteenth century onward, in countries like Sri Lanka and Japan, and also in the West, Buddhist modernism has downplayed and criticized the role of faith in Buddhism.