The Malaysian government equipped the astronaut who will fly on its behalf to the space station with a manual for observing mitzvot in space

Sheikh Muzaffar Shukor, a surgeon by profession, and a devout Muslim, will accompany the 16th crew of the space station and return about a week later with the members of the outgoing crew

Next week the first Malaysian astronaut will fly into space. He will accompany the 16 crew members of the International Space Station who will take off aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station.

In preparation for the historic event, the authorities published a guide for Muslims in space, entitled "Basic guidelines for the Muslim believer on the International Space Station". The guide teaches the Muslim astronaut how to combine his scientific mission with religious faith. Among other things, the guide explains how to find the direction of prayer towards the holy city of Mecca while floating in space, how to perform a purification ceremony in zero gravity, clarifies the prayer times outside the earth and provides creative ways of how to fast on the space station, since we are now in the middle of the month of Ramadan.

Sheikh Muzaffar Shukur, an orthopedic surgeon and lecturer at Makola Lampur University, will go into space on Wednesday, from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan. He said that he intends to observe the Ramadan fast in space as much as possible. Saudi Prince Sultan bin Salman, who was the first Muslim in space, said that although he was able to pray and fast, he had difficulty finding Mecca and bowing during prayer as required of him.
The reason we formulated the guidelines for Muslims in space is that we wanted to ensure that our astronaut could concentrate on his mission, without having to worry about how to carry out his religious obligations in space," explained Abdullah Mad-Zin, Minister of Religious Affairs in the country, in an interview with the Star newspaper. The 18-page booklet will be translated into English, Russian, Arabic and possibly other languages, for future Muslim astronauts.