Scene: Citron Café, Bangsar.

CHONG: Sorry Azman, no more yoga for you. You have always been boasting about your erect posture and attributing it to your yoga exercise. So what are you going to do now to maintain your posture.

Azman: Yoga.

Chong: But the National Fatwa Council has already ruled that yoga is haram to Muslims. Surely you know that it is a sin to do something that is prohibited in Islam.

Azman: I’ll risk it.

Mohan: You’ll burn in hell.

Azman: I may or I may not. I leave it to God. I think He is kinder than those who are trying to speak on His behalf. My conscience is clear that I am not doing anything that will eventually erode my faith. As far as I am concerned the form of yoga I practise is only a physical exercise.

Mohan: And many of the yoga classes taught at certain gyms and boutiques are that kind of exercises. Purged of all elements of religion.

Azman: Yoga has evolved into many forms, many of which are only remotely maintaining the form of the original. Am I right Cikgu? You see guys our dear old Cikgu did a few courses under the Indian studies department when he was a student.

Zain: You are right, of course. But to me the haram ruling may be a bit hasty. Once you say it is haram it is final. It is haram, prohibited. That’s the end of the matter. It needn’t have to be that way at all.

Mohan: How could it be then?

Zain: Well, they could just warn Muslims that some of the yoga exercises they are doing are related to Hinduism. Or the council could discourage Muslims from practising yoga. Unfortunately, there is no escaping this and other fatwas – for as long you are in this country.

Mohan: Is there no way of appealing against the fatwa?

Zain: As one learned ulama said: “Can we appeal to God to change the rules according to our whims and desires?”

Chong: Wow! What a powerful answer.

Mohan: Some Hindus are apparently unhappy with the use of the word haram. Yoga is haram. A Hindu practice is haram. Like eating pork is haram.

Zain: I don’t know about that. But I read somewhere or was told to me by one of my lecturers in the Indian studies department that yoga pre-dates the Hinduism that we know today. For instance among the clay seals or amulets found in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley cities of Mohenjodaro and Harappa of 5,000 years ago were those with drawings of figures sitting in yoga positions. Small statues of figures in those positions were also found.

Chong: Yes, I too read somewhere that those positions were adopted by certain people in ancient Middle East when they meditated. Some of the ancient breathing exercises are still practised there. That form of exercises and meditation were also practised in Tibet, China and Korea. So yoga is not exclusively a Hindu practice. Maybe the name is Hindu.

Azman: Unfortunately yoga is now fatwa-ed away from Muslims. Many Muslims were doing it for years until it was pointed out by an academic from Universiti Kebangsaan that practising it may undermine the aqidah or faith of the followers of Islam. Only then the fatwa council ruled.

Zain: Actually there are a lot of Malay customary practices that originate from Hindu practices. After all Malaysia was part of Indianised Southeast Asia. Most notable is the bersanding or wedding ceremony. Also I remember my grandmother used to exclaim “Ah, what a lovely smell of heaven” when kissing a newborn baby. Unconsciously she was still part of the culture where every soul transmigrated through several births and finally heaven before being born again. I suppose we need a lot more fatwas before the Malay Muslims are thoroughly cleansed.

Azman: Anyway over the years fatwa rulings have already been made against a number of other things like tomboyishness, the wearing of male attire by women and so on.

Zain: Thus, bit by bit the free space for Muslims in this country – only in this country – is gradually fatwa-ed away. At this rate we Muslims have less freedom than the non-Muslims. Those little liberties not legislated away by our Parliament, state assemblies and local councils are ruled away or fatwa-ed away by the fatwa council.

Chong: Yes, we know that, don’t we Mohan? We certainly are better off.

Zain: And we have less religious freedom than you have. Do you know that?

Mohan: Of course we do, don’t we Chong?

Zain: And like retired judge Datuk Faiza Tamby Chik said a week ago a Malay Muslim under the Malaysian Constitution has no choice but to remain “in the Islamic faith until his or her dying days.” He is not free to change his religion.