A section of Muslims has said the community should join others to observe International Yoga Day on June 21 but should skip surya namaskar, a yogic exercise which involves bowing to the sun god, and avoid uttering Om, an invocation to another deity.
“Muslims can do yoga as part of physical exercise.They should not utter Om and skip surya namaskar as Islam doesn’t allow bowing to anyone except Allah,” said Mufti Aijaz Arshad Qasmi, who handled the fatwa section of Darul Uloom Deoband till 2006 and now runs the website www.fatwaonline.org.”We keep getting queries about whether Muslims can do yoga and the standard reply is “yes”, but they must ensure surya namaskar is skipped,” added Qasmi, who also runs the NGO Peace Foundation of India.
Activist Firoz Mithiborewala said, “Now that United Nations has declared June 21 as Yoga Day, it will be celebrated globally and Muslims must be part of it.It (yoga) has many health benefits.I don’t think anyone forces you to do surya namaskar which is just one of the poses in yoga.You can skip it,” said Mithiborewala.He slammed the tendency to politicize yoga, whose health benefits have been universally acknowledged.
Zafar Sareshwala, businessman, chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University and close confidant of PM Narendra Modi, said those Muslims who regularly offer namaz five times a day would not find yoga difficult.”After all, you stretch body parts in yoga and learn to concentrate.In namaz we do the same though we seek divine blessings when we offer namaz as it is mandated by Allah,” said Sareshwala.
After Muslims groups opposed the state diktat to observe International Yoga Day mandatorily, education minister Vinod Tawde clarified on Thursday that it was optional and he didn’t mean to hurt anyone’s religious sentiments.Apart from June 21 being a Sunday, it also falls during Ramzan, which begins on June 19, and may prevent many Muslims from turning up at the yoga sessions.”This will be in the beginning of Ramzan and should not be very draining and exhausting.Muslims must participate in it,” urged Mithiborewala.