Question:
Assalamu Alaikum!
I would like know if there is any prohibition in Islam against doing physical yoga execrises (the breathing exercises) without the expression of any chants and in a gender segregated classroom purely with the intention of ‘keeping fit’.
I have been attending this since I was quite young and recently wondered if this was against the teachings of Islam.
Jazakallah
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
If you are praying your prayers (salat/namaz) and doing your obligations and in addition you are doing some kind of physical training it is accepted but when you say it is yoga, you are putting yourself into situation that is questionable. There is no yoga in Islam you can train in the physical exercises that they are doing but why call it yoga? That is implementing another religion’s tradition. So call it exercise and not yoga. We are making easy for you so just mention you are going to physical training, not yoga.
Know also that yoga or other such practices taken from other faiths can be dangerous sometimes because someone with weak faith may listen to others who say “O yoga is good, and you become our guru!” or they say “come and see this guru who is visiting” and then you are in a problem.
Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
