Full Lecture Transcript (Cleaned)
Meditation and other faiths — 0:00
brother sultan from new jersey asks that is meditation as practiced by modern practitioners allowed in the sharia or is there some overlap with rituals of other faiths he then says that there are many recent studies that acknowledge that there's a lot of positive results some uh it helps in in mindfulness and stress and being focused and well-being so the islamic ruling on meditation as it is practiced in our times in the answer to this in a nutshell is that there is no doubt that rituals of another faith are not allowed for us to do anything that is inherently a ritual and therefore for example uh to bow down in front of an idol for example to show servitude to another god or to do anything that is uniquely characteristic of another faith another akida another religion that is a symbol of their religion so for example they would not be allowed for a muslim to for example wear a cross because that is something that indicates faith that is against our faith so clearly anything to do with the rituals or the theology or the specific practices of another religion uh would not be permissible for us it would either be haram at the very least or it would might even audibly be a type of quranship depending on many other factors at the same time that is one understanding at the same time cultures habits cuisines of any civilization the default is that these are permissible and halal and therefore how one dresses the colors of one's uh a dress the style of one's dress the eating uh that you know our cuisines that might happen the language that we speak our hand gestures for example all of these are cultural and the sharia did not come to dictate any one culture over any other culture so this is something we should all know by now the issue comes there are some aspects that are somewhat in the middle there are some things that people do that are perhaps a little bit in rituals and perhaps a little bit in culture and therefore we need to in those gray areas be a little bit more uh careful and examine what exactly is being asked about in this particular um instance uh the the type of meditation or the origins of this practice might for example be with certain strands of buddhism uh there's no question that certain you know religions have a type of meditation that is ritualistic in nature now the question that uh i'm asking you is that the type of meditation that you are practicing is it something that is completely separate and distinct from what has originated from another faith and that is meant to achieve a type of enlightenment i.e it is a spiritual journey for the people who practice it is it somehow related to that or is it disconnected from that so if a person sits down before going to work for a few minutes and just clears his or her mind up and just focuses on the day plans out what am i going to be doing for example you know i don't see any problem with that at the same time if you're going to adopt a certain posture and start uttering certain rituals in ancient sanskrit or whatever then clearly you have crossed over to something that is ritualistic in nature and therefore i would uh put the question back to you and ask yourself that when you are doing what you are doing is there an element of another ritual another civil another faith tradition involved or is it simply a means of just cleansing your mind and focusing for the day and making sure that you are better but let's say prepared for the day and if that is the case then at some level we all meditate like we just take a moment and we didn't begin our task and whatnot at some level every one of us does that having said that i would also say that the sharia has its own mechanisms that are definitely far better and this reminds me your question actually reminded me of uh ibn taymiyyah's routine ibn al-qayyim the famous student of his visited him uh in the early morning and he said that hebentamiya was sitting after fajr for many hours doing his dikka and his quran and then when he finished he turned around and he said you know this is my spiritual food if i don't get my food for the day i cannot be productive for the rest of the day and so we have our own mechanisms and may i suggest to you that early morning is a time that you should do your quran and you should do some vikr you should just sit alone cut off from any you know noise any iphone anything just literally sit after salafi fajr do some quran do some zikr and that meditation quote unquote will be infinitely better and actually prepare you for the day spiritually and mentally and that will be something that will be in conformity with the sunnah because that is exactly what our prophet salallahu salaam did that he would sit after salat al-fajr and he would do his and this was the practice of many of the righteous so i advise you to do that even though as i said if you uh simply cleanse your mind and focus and concentrate in and of itself you may call it what you will all of us do it at a certain level and it would be permitted to do that and allah knows best foreign