“Muslims should stop practising yoga; movement in Islamic prayers already promote good health”

 

“JUST tell the Muslim to pray properly because in the movement of the Islamic prayer, there are (already) many health benefits.”

That seems to be the reminder which the Malaysian Yoga Sports Association president Prof Dr Lingham Pillai conveyed to celebrity Muslim convert preacher Firdaus Wong Wai Hung which the latter recently highlighted in his Instagram account.

“Muslims shouldn’t participate in yoga because yoga originated from Hinduism and as such, Muslims should respect JAKIM’s fatwa which forbids the participation of Muslims,” the Multiracial Reverted Muslims (MRM) president cited Lingham as telling him during their two-hour meeting.

“People have been misusing our logo to promote yoga to the public and Muslims to which I’ve lodged many police reports.”

Delving further on the art of yoga, Lingham admitted that it is inappropriate for some yoga teachers to tell Muslims that “yoga can help them to become a better Muslim”.

“I’ve conducted research and studies on the movement in Islamic prayers, hence just tell your fellow Muslims to pray properly because there are already many health benefits in all the movement,” he apparently shared with Firdaus.

Apparently, a commenter concurred with what Lingham has espoused to Firdaus.

“I once joined YTT (yoga teacher training) in India for 200 hours. From what I learned, every asana (pose) and breathing technique is very related to Hinduism,” revealed the netizen by the name of Ashikin Amran.

“Although this has been modernised in Malaysia whereby there are no adherence to rituals or chanting of Hindu verses, even the yoga warm-up session is called “sun salutation”.

“After I came to understand the meaning of each pose. I started to reflect on myself and eventually left yoga even though I had a yoga certificate.”

However, another commenter reckoned that it is fine “to treat yoga as an exercise and not more than that” for it really complements his obligatory daily prayers.

“It’s obviously syirik (idolatory) when yoga incorporates religious elements and is rooted as a mindset. But I do yoga as an exercise whereby the steps are the same as Pilates and that really benefits the body,” he added. 

- Focus Malaysia