Salah - Islamic Yoga

8/12/2019 Salah - Islamic Yoga

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Salah: Islamic Yoga12/03/2012 by Genevieve Araque

Even before I converted to Islam(of theprogressive variety), I would

sit in awe and watch my partner perform the salah(ritual prayer, also

spelled salat). I would think, no wonder he is so much more fit than Iam, he does yogafive times a day. ranted, I!ve only taken a handful

of yoga classes in my life, but when I began performing the salah myself I incorporated

what I had learned about keeping my abs engaged and my breathing normal through thestretches. Eventually, curiosity set in. I knew that one of the poses I was doing was called

child!s pose, but I wanted to know if the other poses were also named yoga poses. I went

on yoga"ournal.comand discovered that, as I had e#pected, everything I was doing was

yoga.

I mapped it all out. I begin in tadasana,which is commonly referred to as mountain pose.

I then reach up above my head, with shoulders bent, into an easy version of urdhvahastasana, a.k.a. upward salute. I then return to tadasana, and place my hands such thatthey grase both my anahata(heart) chakraand my manipura(solar$ple#us) chakra. I then

repeat my modified urdhva hastasana pose before transitioning to ardha uttanasana,a

standing half forward bend, which I also modify to be easier by placing my hands on my

knees rather than touching my fingers to the floor. %hen I repeat urdhva hastasana and gointobalasana, which, as I mentioned before, is also called child!s pose. %here are some

variations on child!s pose, and the one I do is the one with the arms stretched out in front.

&rom there, I move to virasana, or, hero!s pose. I repeat balasana and virasana beforeeither beginning again, or ending withbharadva"asana I,which is called bharadva"a!s

twist. ('lick here to view a video of the salah)

I was particularly pleased to learn that these poses bring me uite a few health benefits,

beyond what I already knew about how yoga provides good stretches and toning, as wellas helping with posture, and how yogic breathing can reduce stress. I learned that the

particular stretches and breathing that I am doing every day can be therapeutic for general

back and neck pain, sciatica, asthma, high blood pressure, flat feet, indigestion and gas,carpal tunnel syndrome, even some of the effects of pregnancy and menopause

(information taken from yoga"ournal.com). s far as the chakras, yoga"ournal.com says,

%hrough the heart chakra, we open to and connect with harmony and peace *... the solar$ple#us+ chakra is involved in self$esteem, warrior energy, and the power of

transformation it also governs digestion and metabolism. I mean, what a great daily

routine-

ith all this positive information, I thought to myself, there is no way I!m the firstperson to stumble upon this idea. /o I looked around on the internet, and sure enough, I

found an article by 0arima 1urns, 23, 45, that discusses the health benefits of yoga,

the similarity in the poses, and therefor the health benefits of the salah. %he article

discribes hospital yoga programs which use groupings of five to seven simple yoga poses.%hese programs are used, in addition to the patients! other treatments, for their health

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http://saltonyourwound.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/salah-islamic-yoga/http://saltonyourwound.wordpress.com/author/saltonyourwound/http://saltonyourwound.wordpress.com/author/saltonyourwound/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Muslim_Movementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salahhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salahhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogahttp://www.yogajournal.com/http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/492http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/492http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2489http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2489http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/898?page=5http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/898?page=5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakrahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakrahttp://www.yogajournal.com/basics/898?page=4http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/898?page=4http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2490http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2490http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/475http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/490http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/487http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/487http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoDXZgGeJKUhttp://www.yogajournal.com/http://www.islamawareness.net/Salah/yoga.htmlhttp://saltonyourwound.wordpress.com/author/saltonyourwound/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Muslim_Movementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salahhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogahttp://www.yogajournal.com/http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/492http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2489http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2489http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/898?page=5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakrahttp://www.yogajournal.com/basics/898?page=4http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2490http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/475http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/490http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/487http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoDXZgGeJKUhttp://www.yogajournal.com/http://www.islamawareness.net/Salah/yoga.htmlhttp://saltonyourwound.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/salah-islamic-yoga/


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benefits. 1urns points out the the salah is a such a routine. 2ind you, she considers it to

be a five pose regimen, where I see it as si#.

/o, imagine my surprise when I discovered that the practice of yoga has been determinedto be haram(not permissible by Islamic law) by clerics in2alaysia,Indiaand/audi

rabia. %his was especially confusing given that the /ufisect of Islam hasembracedyogafor some time. ccording to a youtubevideo I found on the sub"ect, the problem

with yoga, for Islamic clerics, is that the movements are combined with chanting andworship. 2aybe I!m missing something, but that!s e#actly what I liked about the salah.

It!s an e#ercise combined with chanting (which promotes better breathing) and worship,

which we could also call meditation (which has a tendency to calm6de$stress thepractitioner). %hat said, I was especially baffled because, as I!ve seen it practiced, hatha

yoga(what!s popular around the world) is pretty much "ust the physical movements.

In the two part video, 7oga8 1ehind the &atwa, 2uslim 9ractitioners e#plain that they do

not participate in 3induspiritual chanting during yoga. %hey do yoga purely for the

e#ercise, and calming benefits. :ne 2uslim practitioner, 2unira 3am;ah (wearing ahi"ab), says of yoga that, it could also make you more< have more concentration when

you pray. /o your mind won!t drift away anywhere when you pray. /o, that!s a goodthing, right= I certainly agree with her, and I surely think the 9rophet 2ohammad

(91>3) would, too.

2uslim instructor, ?oslin 2ohd, says, s a 2uslim, I should know what I should

practice and what I should not practice. s a fellow 2uslim, I am reminded by herwords of the @ur!an!s command to believers not to take the word of others when it comes

to religion, but rather to read and interpret for oneself (A8BC, D8,B8CF, etc). %hat

sentiment, of course goes completely against what 7usri 2ohamad (9resident of the

2uslim 7outh 2ovement in 2alaysia) says in the video8 @uestioning a fatwa G aproperly made fatwa G is uestioning an aspect of the religion of Islam. 3e goes on to

say of the anti$yoga fatwa, I accept, because it is their "ob. %hey are professionals. It!swhat they do. 1ut he later suggests that perhaps there are some practical arguments

against the fatwa that decided that cigarette smoking is haram. 'all me cra;y, but I am

pretty sure that he!s being a hypocrite there.

4ow, "ust for the sake of argument, let!s say that chanting is necessary in yoga. Het!sconsider some of the offending chants. 3ere!s a good one8 :m 1hur 1huvat /vah, :m

%at /avitur arenyam, 1hargo 5evasya 5himahi, 5hiyo 7o 4ah 9racodayat.

ccording to daily$yoga.orgit means e worship the word (shabda) that is present in

the earth, the heavens, and that which is beyond. 1y meditating on this glorious powerthat gives us life, we ask that our minds and hearts be illuminated. If we assume that, for

a 2uslim, the wordis the word of od, then I fail to see what is un$Islamic about this

chant. %he word shabdameans speech or utterance. /o, the word that was spoken by odseems to be a perfectly reasonable interpretation of the phrasing.

nother e#ample is this8 Hokah samastha sukhino bhavanthu, which means, 2ay this

world be established with a sense of wellbeing and happiness. gain, I am at a complete

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the state of spirit and consciousness. 3ence %: 5: 7: I/ 3?2.

%he practitioner on the path of yoga gets a peaceful state. 3e loves everyone and

everything. 3e goes beyond the bonds of religion, politics, society and self. henone is out of these bonds he becomes siddha. 3ow can one go beyond Islam===..

%herefore yoga is very$very 3araam for a muslim.

L.

o 'enevieve Ara(ue LM6MC6CML at P8AA amN N?eplyO

I have to say that I respectfully disagree. I know that many practitioners of

Islam see it that way, but my reading of the @ur!an simply does not reflect

what you are saying. I reali;e that I!ll need to e#plain.

%he steps of yoga are not haram (forbidden) in my understanding. &irst,they are not specifically referred to in the @ur!an as haram, and Islam

dictates that one may not call something haram that od has made halal

(not forbidden). %o show that the @ur!an lays the framework that tells usthat these steps are halal, I!ll look at each one.

7ama (>niversal 2orality)8 %he @ur!an very clearly states that od

purposely gave us different cultures and tribes, to provide us with an

opportunity to learn If all of our faiths come from one od, it isimpossible for the concept of >niversal 2orality to be considered haram.

&urthermore, the components of 7ama (compassion for all living things,

commitment to truthfulness, non$stealing, sense control, neutrali;ing thedesire to acuire and hoard wealth) are all highly praised, if not reuired in

Islam.

4iyama (?ules for 9ersonal :bservances)8 %he principles of 4iyama

(purity, contentment, disciplined use of our energy, self study, celebrationof the spiritual), are the very same that the @ur!an reuires of 2uslim

practitioners. %here is nothing haram about following the straight path.

sanas (1ody 9ostures)8 I already discussed this in this post 2uslims use

asanas from yogic practice in prayer6meditation. %his is how the 9rophet(91>3) instructed us to pray, therefore, it is halal. 4ever once are we told

that other body postures, outside of salah, are haram. If we were, we

would have to go around all day every day in e#actly those postures. /o, it

would be ridiculous to claim that other postures are haram.

9ranayama (1reath 'ontrol)8 4ot really sure what to say here. %here is

nothing in the @ur!an that dictates how a person must breathe. 2uslims

are told, in the @ur!an, not to pretend to know what they cannot know. /o,a 2uslim that tells you that you cannot control your breath, is committing

a sin.

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9ratyahara ('ontrol of the /enses)8 %his one is the whole point of

?amadan. If ?amadan is haram, 2uslims have way bigger fish to fry than

whether or not we should practice yoga.

5harana ('oncentration and 'ultivating Inner 9erceptual wareness)8 In

Islam, that!s called 0hushou!, and it!s reuired. /o, it!s not haram.

5hyana (5evotion, 2editation on the 5ivine)8 In Islam, we are reuired to

do this Q times a day. 4ot everyone really does it, in fact many "ust gothrough the motions, but it is definitely halal.

/amadhi (>nion with the 5ivine)8 %he @ur!an tells 2uslims that we are

given life when od!s breath is breathed into us. /o, union with the

divine, for us, is essencial. od is actually referred to as l$/amad, or theuncaused cause of all that e#ists. e are constantly reminded of the

oneness of od, therefore, the part of od within us, is still od, as od is

one. >nion with the divine, is not haram.

s I said before, we were given different paths for our own personalgrowth, so yoga having come from 3induism really is not an issue. I

mean, Resus (91>3) having considered himself a Rew does not make him

any less of a 2uslim prophet. 1esides, the 9rophet (91>3) tells us that alllife is born 2uslim, and that an individual!s parents make him6her a Rew, a

'hristian, a 3indu, etc. &ollowing that logic, Islam is meant to be a state

beyond religion. 4ow, I understand that many practitioners don!t do it thatway, but that doesn!t change what the 9rophet (91>3) said.

I also truly believe that you are wrong to suggest that the 9rophet (91>3)did not have the mental powers that you describe. I believe that the Islamic

term for Jenlightened yogi! is Jprophet! (and the @ur!an tells us that thereare many more than are named in the @ur!an). 'onsider that many yogis

take to meditation in caves, with the goal of having a vision of a form of

od. /o, 2ohammad (91>3), meditating in a cave and having the angel

abriel appear to him and give him the knowledge of the @ur!an (so,knowledge of od came from practice of yoga) sounds pretty yogi$like to

me.

%he most important point, though, to me, is that uestioning is not

apostasy. %he @ur!an commands us to be in constant pursuit ofknowledge, while warning us that there is too much to take it all in. If a

2uslim is convinced that uestioning and analy;ing the logic of the

@ur!an will lead them astray, they are basically saying that they do notbelieve that the @ur!an will hold up to the test. :r, put more simply, that

they do not believe.

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Salah - Islamic Yoga