DEOBAND, India, Jan 27 - When clerics in Malaysia banned Muslims from practising yoga, they started a heated debate in the Islamic world. But Islamic scholars in India, including those at the Darul Uloom Deoband, say they do not find anything objectionable in Muslims practising yoga.
Chanting mantras like "Om" that have religious connotation, they add, is not necessary for yoga and Muslims can replace them with verses from the Quran or references to Allah.
"Yoga is a good form of exercise. If some words, which are supposed to be chanted while performing it, have religious connotations, then Muslims need not utter those. They can instead recite verses from the Quran or praise Allah or remain silent," Maulana Abdul Khaliq Madrasi, deputy vice-chancellor of the Darul Uloom, told The Indian Express.
He said he discussed the issue with yoga experts and they told him that reciting "Om" or any other mantra was not compulsory for practising yoga.Yoga guru Swami Ramdev had earlier said that one could do yoga without pronouncing "Om" and in fact could substitute it with Allah or God or any other word.
Ramdev's Haridwar-based Patanjali Yogapeeth has already asked its Christian and Muslim followers to begin yoga with a prolonged utterance of Allah or God.
Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind spokesman Maulana Abdul Hameed Nomani said "exercises similar to yoga are found in Sufi practices" and there was nothing wrong in practising it.
Incidentally, the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind had last year opposed the Madhya Pradesh government's plan to introduce yoga in schools and sought a ban, arguing that children would have to recite religious verses.
The National Fatwa Council in Malaysia told Muslims not to practise yoga, the ulema in Indonesia asked Muslims to stop yoga while it "studies" this issue. Clerics in Egypt and Singapore too issued similar rulings. - Indian Expres
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