Yoga is a form of exercise when it does not include the worship of a Hindu sun god, Sheikh Ali Zaid has said.
As religious scholars who previously condemned yoga faced criticism for staying silent after International Yoga Day was marked at the Indian High Commission on Thursday, Zaid said in a post on X that his advice was to exercise instead of doing yoga.
"Yoga becomes yoga when it includes the spiritual part of the purification of the Sun god [that Hindus believe in]. If that part is not included, it is exercise," Zaid wrote in his post.
Zaid said that the activity conducted under the name of Yoga Day at the Indian High Commission was a trap.
Yoga event at Indian High Commission.
In 2021, a group of people obstructed and stopped an event held at the Galolhu stadium to mark Yoga Day. They included persons now in senior positions of the current government as well as MPs of the ruling People's National Congress (PNC).
Some people criticised Zaid's post about yoga. Zaid said yoga was exercise without the spiritual aspect because a government that he accepts politically was in power, some people alleged.
When he faced criticism from the public on his post, Zaid made two more posts. In the first of the two later posts, Zaid said he did not have any doubt in his heart that "yoga is invalid as spread in the Hindu religion, about its evil, and that such a thing should not be allowed in an Islamic country."
In the second post, Zaid said that the judgment about yoga has not changed. Hindu yoga has always been contrary to the Islamic tenet on the oneness of God and Muslims should avoid it, Zaid wrote in his post. Zaid also reposted that post.
Yoga Day was marked in the Maldives on Thursday but it usually falls on June 21, which coincides with solstice.
