Yoga Is Bad ?

By Syed Akbar Ali

Folks, here is an interesting news report from today's The Star (Thurs 30/10/08) :

National Fatwa Council to make a ruling on yoga

GEORGE TOWN: "The National Fatwa Council will soon come out with a ruling on yoga exercise.The Islamic Development Department’s deputy director-general (operations) Othman Mustapha said the council’s chairman, Prof Datuk Dr Abdul Shukor Husin, would make the announcement. Othman told reporters this after opening the two-day seminar on Islamic Jurisprudence and Eternal Islamic Thinking at Universiti Sains Malaysia here yesterday. On Tuesday, lecturer Prof Zakaria Stapa of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Islamic Studies Centre advised Muslims who have taken up yoga to stop practising it as it could deviate from their belief. – Bernama"

Well I guess that the National Fatwa Council has plenty of unresolved, extremely important issues that they must deal with which can uplift the Muslims in this country and make good, succesful and useful human beings out of them, maybe even help them improve their health too. So perhaps with all these important objectives in mind as well, the National Fatwa Council will soon come out with their ruling about yoga.

At this seminar on 'Islamic Jurisprudence and Eternal Islamic Thinking' some spark has "advised Muslims who have taken up yoga to stop practising it as it could deviate from their belief. – Bernama"

Since it was a seminar on eternal thinking, that means it is for eternity. Yoga is therefore bad for the Muslims. But yoga has proved to be very good for non Muslims. Yoga has developed very succesfully over 5500 years and has helped millions of people (including my late father who was an avid yoga practitioner way before in the 1960s) exercise, keep their limbs supple in old age, help diabetics, help stressed out people deal with their lives and a million other things.

Plus a good yoga session can make you lose litres of sweat and fat. A good example is my friend Rodi who is about my age but looks much better than me. She is a Yoga practitioner.

As a child in the 1960s I used to be thrilled to see my diabetic father, who was almost 50 at that time, standing on his head - as part of his yoga exercises. I used to mimic my father and stand on my head too, something I just cannot do anymore with almost 200 pounds of lemak on my body now. Then he used to sit down and twist his body in what appeared to me to be a difficult position. The yoga folks say it is a good posture to 'massage' the internal organs.

By the way my father was a highly religious person. He spent his retirement giving talks about Islam as how he understood it, including travelling overseas with his friends in the Tabligh missionary group. He even died while on such a 'Tabligh mission' in Pakistan in 1985. It was November and very cold there. He had stood up and delivered a passionate talk in the masjid and later just collapsed and died of a heart attack. He is buried in Pakistan. So I never got to see my father again or attend his funeral - something I have never really gotten over even 23 years on. But I doubt the yoga which he practised for a long time had deviated his belief in God.

Here is something about official fatwas. It is an offense which can be punishable by jail or fine if any Muslim goes against or melanggar an official fatwa which has been gazetted. To our knowledge the Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan has not yet made an official fatwa about yoga.
The Bernama report says they will soon come out with a ruling.

The other thing we should know is that Islam is a State matter in Malaysia, under the suzerainty of the Malay Rulers or the Yang Di Pertua Negeri (YDP) in those States which do not have Malay rulers. Hence each State makes its own fatwa through the State Mufti and the State Legislature and must be consented by the Rulers or YDP.

Fatwa must be gazetted in the Government Gazette before they can assume legal force. Fatwa made in one State is not enforceable in another State. In Selangor there is a fatwa which says smoking cigarettes is haram for Muslims. I dont think all the other States have passed the same fatwa.

The word kebangsaan in the Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan (MFK) implies a Federal level fatwa making body. In reality the MFK cannot make fatwa that is applicable throughout the country for the very reasons that I have mentioned here - ie religion is a State matter under the authority of the Malay Rulers or the YDP. However the fatwa made by the Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan is applicable in the Federal Territories like Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan.

In practice the Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan becomes a reference point to streamline fatwa among the States. In other words on any one matter (say yoga) the States may refer to the MFK for direction. However this may not happen all the time. If the MFK makes a fatwa that Muslims must not practise yoga, it may not be necessary that all the States may make and implement the same fatwa.

Here is an interesting story. When RTM first started telecasting live the Parliamentary sessions, we were all shocked how the YBs were jumping, hooting and hollering at each other. It was like a circus inside the Parliament. But a State Mufti I know sent me an sms saying 'Kalau live telecast mesyuarat majlis fatwa, lagi tahu'.


Well if yoga is bad for Muslims what about qigong (the Chinese martial art which also incorporates meditation)? And what about the Indian dances like bharathanatiyam and odissi which is so favoured by our national dancer Ramli Ibrahim and his buddies? I am just thinking aloud.

Is there an Islamic version of yoga? Maybe then Muslims can still get their stretching and twisting done but minus the threat of having their beliefs twisted. There are just so many things that the Muslims cannot do or should not do. By the way the picture is that of coconut shells or tempurung. I could not find any pictures of coconut shells and frogs.

p.s. To anyone who comments on this posting, please maintain your cool. Dont attack me too wildly or dont attack the topic here too wildly either. Be frank and logical. Thank you.