JAKARTA (AFP, REUTERS) - Mosques stood empty and fast-breaking feasts were cancelled as Muslims around the world began marking Ramadan under coronavirus lockdown on Friday (April 24), while a pushback in some countries sparked fears of a surge in infections.

In a rare occurrence in Islam's 1,400 year history, Mecca's Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina - the religion's two holiest locations - will be closed to the public during the fasting period amid unprecedented bans on family gatherings and mass prayers.

A stunning emptiness enveloped the sacred Kaaba - a large cube-shaped structure in the Grand Mosque towards which Muslims around the world pray - in the most potent sign of how the daytime fasting month will be a sombre affair across Islamic nations.

Prayers from inside the mosque on the first evening of Ramadan on Thursday were restricted to clerics, security staff and cleaners. The ceremony was broadcast live on television.

At a near-empty Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, an imam called out the first Friday prayers of Ramadan, his voice echoing across a windswept plateau almost devoid of worshippers.

A handful of Muslim clerics in face masks knelt below the pulpit, keeping several feet apart in compliance with coronavirus restrictions. "We ask God to have mercy on us and all of humanity and to save us from this lethal pandemic," the imam said.

Ramadan is typically a period of both worship and socialising, but this year strict lockdowns limit socialising during iftar meals at dusk when the fast is broken - a centrepiece of Ramadan.

The restrictions have put a damper on spirits in Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim majority nation, where national religious organisations have called on the faithful to stay at home.

On the island of Java, Mr Tatan Agustustani, 52, and his family were busy clearing furniture from their lounge room to make way for prayer mats. "For me, no matter where we are, prayers must go on, even though we cannot pray in the mosque," said Mr Agustustani.

Similar sentiments echoed across the Middle East and North Africa, where multiple towns and cities are under round-the-clock curfew.

Countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria have partially eased the lockdown but Morocco has announced a night-time curfew for Ramadan as it steps up emergency measures to combat the virus.

The North African nation's Council of Oulemas, the official religious body, called for confinement to be respected during Ramadan, saying Islamic Syariah law put saving lives above all else - even meeting for prayers.

Leaders of India's 160 million Muslims have urged people to heed the nationwide lockdown throughout the month. The All India Islamic Centre of religious teaching will livestream recitation of two chapters of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, from 8pm to 10pm each day.

However, some religious leaders in Asia - home to nearly a billion of the world's Muslims - have shrugged off fears about the spread of Covid-19.

In Bangladesh, the fundamentalist Hefazat-e-Islam group criticised government moves to restrict access to more than 300,000 nationwide mosques.

"Quotas on prayer attendance are against Islam," Mojibur Rahman Hamidi, a Hefazat official, told AFP.

"A healthy Muslim must join prayers in a mosque. We hope that, if we pray hard, Allah will save us from the coronavirus," he added.

'We must accept it'

In the Syariah-ruled province of Aceh, as worshippers crowded into a mosque for tarawih prayers on the eve of Ramadan. "In our belief, it is God who decides when we will die," said devotee Taufik Kelana. "But we will stay alert, like wearing a mask."

And Pakistan has seen its mosques crammed in the lead up to Ramadan with the faithful sitting shoulder-to-shoulder and paying little heed to social distancing.

Regional Covid-19 death tolls have been lower than in Europe and the United States but are rising steadily, sparking fears the virus may overwhelm often underfunded healthcare systems.

And the World Health Organisation has called for a stop to some Ramadan activities to limit exposure.

Mr Mohamad Shukri Mohamad, the top Islamic cleric in the conservative Malaysian state of Kelantan, planned to skip public prayers and family meals - even if it meant not seeing his six children and 18 grandchildren.

"This is the first time in my life that I've been unable to go the mosque," he told AFP.

"But we must accept it and obey the rules of social distancing to protect our lives."

Muslim-majority Malaysia has extended a strict lockdown until mid-May with mosques, schools and most businesses closed - and police checkpoints set up to catch rulebreakers.

Even popular Ramadan bazaars, where Muslims buy local delicacies before breaking their fast, have been banned.

Instead, Malaysians can only order from so-called "e-bazaars", where people order goods online and have them delivered to their homes.

'SINFUL'

In neighbouring Indonesia, Amalia Nur Istigfarin considered skipping Ramadan's daytime fast over fears it could weaken her immune system.

"But it would be sinful to miss it because fasting is mandatory," the bank employee said.

"So I'll try other things to boost my immune system like exercise and taking vitamin C," she added.

Fears of a spike in coronavirus cases when millions travel to hometowns and ancestral villages at the end of Ramadan has forced Indonesia - a country of some 270 million - to issue a ban on the annual exodus.

The government has also announced a clampdown on all air and sea travel across the 17,000-island archipelago.

Jakarta resident Erik Febrian said he was relying on a computer to allow him to keep in touch with his out-of-town parents until he can see them in person at the end of Ramadan.

"Thanks to technology I can video-call my parents every day during Ramadan," he said. "And keep an eye on their health."