Wikipedia refers to yoga as traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India; to the goal achieved by those disciplines; and to one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy.
It is intimately connected to the religious beliefs and practices of the Indian religions. The influence of yoga is also visible in Buddhism.
Practising yoga won’t cause a Muslim to deviate and become a Hindu but copying or adding elements which are clearly from other religions is not acceptable in Islam. The reminder was given in Surah Al Kafirun.
By practising the act which is endorsed by the Hindu and Buddhism religions, one indirectly permits these religions although the faith in the heart remains unchanged.
Muslims who feel offended need to take this issue seriously. In Islam, there are so many healthy activities well known to be good for the health, physically and mentally.
One such activity is Solat, which is to be performed five times a day. Solat dictates a sequence of movements which is good for the body.
There are some health benefits in performing the prayer as it has been proven to increase concentration and refine memory, provide a calming effect and regulate stress, and make the body healthy and active.
Studies have shown that the act of sujud, or prostrating, in solat, encourages blood circulation to several nerves in the brain which do not receive regular blood flow in normal positions. The hearts and spines of pious Muslims are healthy as they receive constant stimulation.
So why look far for such stuff for a healthy lifestyle when you can find alternatives so close to you?
I AGREE!
TENGKU AZLAN SULAIMAN,
Sri Kembangan.
2 comments:
Dear Tg Azlan,
I wish to respectfully disagree with you on some points:
1. There are many elements in Islam from other religions especially the pagan religions of the Arabs before the advent of Islam. The word Allah comes from Al-Lat or Al-Lah which was the name of one of the 360 idols in the Kaabah. The ritual of kissing the black stone in the kaabah was also a pagan practice. The word "sembahyang" comes from Sanskrit. There are many other Malay words with religious associations that come from Sanskrit, the classical language of the Hindus.
Islam has many elements taken from Judaism and Christianity - the whole biblical stories in the Quran come from them.
Non-Muslim scholars on Islam at one time outnumber Muslims so much so that PhD students had Christians as their supervisors in Islamic theology!
Our use of microphone, megaphone, and other modern facilities come from secularism or secular western technology which although not a religion, can be considered as a non-Islamic source or resource. In fact I'd dare say 90 per cent if not all of our needs come from non-Islamic sources to wit, Western, Japanese or Chinese sources including the very materials to build a mosque. Our whole economy are in the hands of kafirs while all our political and social structures are kafir-sourced - balai polis, hoki, school system, soccer, parliament, courts, telecommunications, LLN (dulu NEB), etc, etc.
Our Malay rights and privileges including the special position of the rulers were protected by the British before Merdeka. If not for them, our traditional ruling system would have been turned around by the Thais as happened to the Patani sultanate and by the communists who obviously were against neo-feudalism.
If Yoga comes from Hinduism, then all sports come from Christian and pagan sources including the Olympic Games.
If the Solat is such good exercise how come incidence of modern diseses and the mortality rate is highest among Malay Muslims. The life expectancy of MMs is the lowest in the country. Most drug addicts are MMs. So are Mat Rempits, school dropouts. Hysteria victims are 99 percent MMs. So is case buang anak. In fact MMs hog the negative stats while non-Muslims hog the high-achieving stats. For example most of the sporting medals are won by non-MM. Nichol David comes to mind.
If prostration in solat ensures blood flows to the brain nerves, and other positions do not, how come non-MMs who never prostrate don't just keel over suddenly or gradually?
If solat is a good exercise, why not just use solat to train our soccer players and Olympians?
For more "arguments" along similar line, please visit my blog.
Thank you, Tengku.
Wassalammu'alaikum.
To mr zaharan.
Dear mr zaharan, as we can read on mr tengku's blog, we have understanding that yoga are hindus ritual, how u will respon on that?
And u hav say that sum of the olympic games cum 4rm pagan n christian, Does it hav any conection with the pagan's ritual or ibadah? If yes pls bring sum proof on that problem.
As 4 yoga we do understand that it is the ritual 2 be with god. Pls respon. Tq
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