Yoga - My Side

assalamualaikum

in the name of Allah the Most Gracious the Most Merciful

I am back in Auckland. South Island(NZ) was absolutely amazing. It's hard to describe the experience in words, they are just so wonderful.

If you are looking for things like Movie World or Gold Coast, then Australia is perhaps the best choice. NZ is best known for its Milford Sound, Fox Glacier, Cape Reinga and extreme sports. The pics shall come in the next few days, InsyaAllah.

I had very limited internet access during the trip. I honestly a little bit surprised to see the news today. One of many that caught my eyes was the fatwa made by the National Fatwa Council re yoga.

Many have also defended the decision, although many have openly expressed their disappointment. Many have criticised emotionally, and a lot also have given their input, which is more appropriate.

There are flaws of course. I'll tackle this issue to the best of my understanding.

Before any fatwa is issued, the topic raised will be sent out to top university lecturers for further studies. Some of these issues may take months, and once a conclusion has been made, the Council will have the final say to accept or reject it. The yoga issue has been in the news for months remember, before the fatwa was released. The comments you have made, should have been made many months ago, not now.

Therefore before discussing this issue more deeply, please stop criticising the National Fatwa Council for not doing homework. If you have no knowledge of what is happening behind the scene, please shut keep quiet, otherwise you will look stupid if one proves you wrong.

The fatwa council itself has flaws. Over the past few years they have been to passive. They are too slow sometimes, that many times we have observed they wait for things to happen, for them to act. Islam teaches us not to follow things blindly, and many I am sure still remember that one of types of faith/imam that we learned in SPM was 'taklid(ikut-ikutan)'. The Council should instead educate what is wrong and what can be corrected for yoga to be safely practised by the Muslims. The fatwa has caught rather by surprise to many, including the non-Muslims.

Although these flaws are not academically mature, they should be discussed intellectually. Do not simply accuse these ulama's as conservative when you yourself are not smart enough not to tackle issues wisely.

Another surprise which is not too nice is the criticism by The Hindu Sangam. As we have lived together for many years, the Muslims respect your religion including the no-beef in meals, and no-pork in Muslim food, whatever fatwa issued should be regarded as internal matters of the Muslims, rather than a way to show disrespect to the non-Muslims.

Maybe I am not able to express my thoughts so cleverly here, that I recommend you to have a read at Rocky Bru's-What is Hindu Sangam saying and Tun Mahathir's Dont Make it a religous issue.

“It is like saying Muslims should not eat pork and it is not an insult to the Chinese.

“It is the same when Muslims cannot do yoga, it is not because they are insulting the Hindus.

“It is just that they should not do it. Like all other things forbidden among Muslims, it is not an insult to others. - Tun Mahathir

as I have always preferred, take things intelectually. Many of you are university educated, you would use the best text books when it comes to your discipline, for us Muslims, Quran and Hadith are our main sources when it comes to Islamic matters. As a friendly reminder, your opinion is not a say of Islam, unless they come from these 2 sources. Do not go around, and tell everyone 'they should do this and that'.

Before I end, has any of you have actually checked what the current contemporary scholars say about yoga? Or is it Malaysian scholars are the first one?

It will be interesting to see the development in the next few days.

till next time,
assalamualaikum