Follow For That You May Not Go Astray
I can see spider-web here. I think this will be a quarterly report by yours sincerely. You know like the quarterly financial report the listed companies are supposed to submit to Bursa Malaysia. Well as long as it doesn’t accumulate spider-web, quarterly is sufficient.
The last time I posted something here, it was something about giving wings to some people and letting them fly. But this time let’s talk about something more serious. How about the decree (fatwa) made by the National Fatwa Council (“Council”) on yoga sounds like?
Many came out with their statement and some say it is acceptable and some say the Council were ill guided so on and so forth.
Yoga, as many would know is a form of physical exercise involving stretching parts of one’s body, breathing techniques etc. However, we cannot run from the fact that yoga is first introduced as a form of meditation for the Brahmin to achieve oneness with their god. It involves meditation, reading of mantra and chants apart from the physical aspect of it. Once the have achieve a piece of mind and unite with the gods, then they will achieve “nirvana” (not the band).
Many discussions were held on the practice of yoga in Malaysia. Some says that it only involves the physical aspects of yoga and yogi (the name given to the practitioners and not yogi bear of course) are only exposed to the physical training aspect of yoga. They are not exposed to the spiritual aspect of yoga and obviously not the yoga practiced by the Brahmins.
As a believer, I stand guided by first of all, the Holy Quran, the Prophet’s Traditions and the ruling/decree made by those who has the “power” and “ability” to do so. As such, I think it is not too much for me to say that this decree made buy the Council is for the well being of the Muslims after all. I mean thanks to the “education” system we have here in the country, Muslims have not had the opportunity to learn the true spirit of Islam.
First of all, let me point out here that there are certain things in life that we Muslims should not question. If it involved your faith (akidah), then follow we must. Our faith towards Allah must not be tainted with any other things. When we proclaim that “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his Prophet”, we must have firm belief that whatever divine revelation that came down through the angel Gabriel or directly to the Holy Prophet is true and for those who recite the Profession of Faith (Kalimah Shahadah) must obey them. Whatever the revelation did not mention, the Prophet have explained them in his Traditions.
But to truly have that faith, we must be taught that particular bit. The process is called “tarbiah” (simply mean education). It starts from the moment a child is conceived and for us it goes on until the person dies.
For Islam, the first thing you should teach your children is “There is no God but Allah”. Shove that in your mind, carve it and keep it there. No matter what, there is only ONE GOD.
Coming back to yoga, without separating the physical and the spiritual aspect, then believing in some other being other then Allah would put a Muslim in a very difficult situation. I like to call this “syirik” (polytheism). But to know what is syirik or not, one should have the ability and the knowledge to differentiate between the act of believing other than Allah because this can come by actually believing in other things, or doing things (like prostrating to idols), or saying things which may erode your faith. But my question here is how many Muslims in Malaysia are able to differentiate this fact.
The degree may differ and sometimes the smallest thing like believing that something may cure the disease without putting it back to Allah is a form of syirik. But that does not mean that we should sit at a place doing nothing hoping for Allah to cure our disease (this is a different discussion all together). While balancing the question of believing in another being as a form of syirik, then the question in what I feel the important is what form of yoga does not involve the combination of the physical aspect and the spiritual aspect. We are not able to determine the two and we are in no position to evaluate whether something done in yoga would not contravene our faith. Thus, I think it is best to follow the decree unless you don’t really care whether you are part of the Muslim community or not as we are not expert in Islam and what more Hinduism.
Wallahualam.
The last time I posted something here, it was something about giving wings to some people and letting them fly. But this time let’s talk about something more serious. How about the decree (fatwa) made by the National Fatwa Council (“Council”) on yoga sounds like?
Many came out with their statement and some say it is acceptable and some say the Council were ill guided so on and so forth.
Yoga, as many would know is a form of physical exercise involving stretching parts of one’s body, breathing techniques etc. However, we cannot run from the fact that yoga is first introduced as a form of meditation for the Brahmin to achieve oneness with their god. It involves meditation, reading of mantra and chants apart from the physical aspect of it. Once the have achieve a piece of mind and unite with the gods, then they will achieve “nirvana” (not the band).
Many discussions were held on the practice of yoga in Malaysia. Some says that it only involves the physical aspects of yoga and yogi (the name given to the practitioners and not yogi bear of course) are only exposed to the physical training aspect of yoga. They are not exposed to the spiritual aspect of yoga and obviously not the yoga practiced by the Brahmins.
As a believer, I stand guided by first of all, the Holy Quran, the Prophet’s Traditions and the ruling/decree made by those who has the “power” and “ability” to do so. As such, I think it is not too much for me to say that this decree made buy the Council is for the well being of the Muslims after all. I mean thanks to the “education” system we have here in the country, Muslims have not had the opportunity to learn the true spirit of Islam.
First of all, let me point out here that there are certain things in life that we Muslims should not question. If it involved your faith (akidah), then follow we must. Our faith towards Allah must not be tainted with any other things. When we proclaim that “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his Prophet”, we must have firm belief that whatever divine revelation that came down through the angel Gabriel or directly to the Holy Prophet is true and for those who recite the Profession of Faith (Kalimah Shahadah) must obey them. Whatever the revelation did not mention, the Prophet have explained them in his Traditions.
But to truly have that faith, we must be taught that particular bit. The process is called “tarbiah” (simply mean education). It starts from the moment a child is conceived and for us it goes on until the person dies.
For Islam, the first thing you should teach your children is “There is no God but Allah”. Shove that in your mind, carve it and keep it there. No matter what, there is only ONE GOD.
Coming back to yoga, without separating the physical and the spiritual aspect, then believing in some other being other then Allah would put a Muslim in a very difficult situation. I like to call this “syirik” (polytheism). But to know what is syirik or not, one should have the ability and the knowledge to differentiate between the act of believing other than Allah because this can come by actually believing in other things, or doing things (like prostrating to idols), or saying things which may erode your faith. But my question here is how many Muslims in Malaysia are able to differentiate this fact.
The degree may differ and sometimes the smallest thing like believing that something may cure the disease without putting it back to Allah is a form of syirik. But that does not mean that we should sit at a place doing nothing hoping for Allah to cure our disease (this is a different discussion all together). While balancing the question of believing in another being as a form of syirik, then the question in what I feel the important is what form of yoga does not involve the combination of the physical aspect and the spiritual aspect. We are not able to determine the two and we are in no position to evaluate whether something done in yoga would not contravene our faith. Thus, I think it is best to follow the decree unless you don’t really care whether you are part of the Muslim community or not as we are not expert in Islam and what more Hinduism.
Wallahualam.
posted by Kampong_Boy at
2:25 pm
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