Muslim convert introduces 'Islamic Yoga' to UK

Rakha replaces Hindu mantras with Islamic chants

CAIRO (Marwa Awad)

After searching for a year for a fitness routine compatible with her Islamic faith, Fatima Ismael, a 32-year-old British mother of three discovered Rakha, a new yoga-like workout that incorporates positive words with an Islamic message rather than Hindu mantras.

The new Islam-inspired total body fitness routine, designed by a British convert, may be the yoga alternative Muslims are searching for following a fatwa, or religious ruling, by a Malaysian sheikh denouncing yoga as un-Islamic.

Rakha, the Arabic term for prosperity, is gaining popularity among British Muslims eager for healthy lifestyles. A basic routine begins stretches and light cardiovascular exercise, which raises energy and increases awareness.

This is followed by a series of steps emulating prayer movements mixed in with tai chi techniques. Yoga breathing and stretching techniques are used throughout the routine to help center the body and relax.

Instead of Hindu mantras, anasheeds (Islam-inspired religious songs) are used to trigger the spiritual state of mind.

Fitness and Islam

Anthea Kissoon

“I feel much better on the whole, spiritually and physically. My body’s stamina improved and I am certainly more patient with my children,” Ismael said laughing.

Rakha was created by Anthea Kissoon, a British convert to Islam and fitness expert, who spent the past 12 years educating Muslims about the importance of health and fitness and will launch a Rakha training center early next year.

"Rakha fuses the benefits of breathing and stretching techniques of yoga and the slow movement of tai chi, while incorporating elements of Islamic prayer to achieve a holistic Islamic experience," Kissoon told AlArabiya.net.

Rakha movements are based on the positions of the five daily Islamic prayers, which requires movement of all parts of the body in an easy to follow, relaxing way.

“People don’t realize how meditative the Muslim daily prayer can be, and how the bodily movements the Prophet taught make for a natural exercise that revitalizes the body,” she explained.

Maintaining a healthy and fit body is a requirement in Islam, which teaches a Muslim that his or her body is a gift from Allah, according to Sheikh Fawzi Zifzaf of al-Azhar University.

“Following that is being accountable for one’s body in terms of remaining healthy. This is why there is bodily benefit in Islamic prayer, which incorporates body movement,” he told AlArabiya.net.

Yoga risks

Salma Cook, Rakha practitioner

Kissoon’s new fitness regime may be a saving grace to yoga lovers as it comes at a critical juncture following a fatwa issued Saturday by the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia forbidding yoga.

Abdul Shukor Husin, chair of the council forbid Muslims from doing yoga because the recitation of mantras, “erode the Muslim faith in the religion” since they encourage a union with God considered blasphemous in Islam, he said.

While yoga enthusiasts and some Muslim leaders have contested the fatwa, for Kissoon it “highlighted the fissure between the spiritual state and the physical state of the Muslim yoga lover.”

Hamid Sakawi, another Rakha trainer who teaches alongside Kissoon, agreed.

"Advanced levels of yoga necessitate higher states of being and awareness. Those higher states are taught through mantras that condition the human mind and infuse it with a particular philosophy which does not always line up with Islam," he said.

However, one Yoga trainer in Cairo, Walid Sabry, noted that aligning the spiritual and physical should not present dilemma for Muslim yoga devotees.

“Yoga is an exercise that aims to achieve total wellbeing. Its religious aspects can easily be avoided if the person wishes to refrain from them,” he told AlArabiya.net.

But others welcome the new exercise for both its physical and spiritual components.

“Establishing a new technique that suits Muslims is the best decision because it resolves the spiritual challenges yoga puts on Muslims who follow it seriously,” said Salma Cook, a Muslim woman who trained with Kissoon and now resides in Cairo.

"People follow yoga without having enough knowledge and so they get caught up in chants and meditations," she told AlArabiya.net.

Defiance and certification

Rakha is gaining popularity in the Arab world

Developing an Islam-compliant fitness routine was not all fun and games, Kissoon said as she recalled the frustrations of promoting Rakha.

While campainging for the yoga alternative took six years of hard work and persistence, Kissoon said that she met with resistance from some members of the British Muslim community who objected to the idea of raising fitness health awareness amongst women.

"Some in the Muslim the community said I was leading muslim women astray by teaching them fitness exercises," she recalled. "I think they would have been happy to have an Islamic style fitness class. This is where Rakha comes in," she said.

Kissoon said she found tremendous interest from young and old Muslim men and women eager to improve their lives through exercise and meditation.

Rakha is a professionally certified fitness therapy under the Complementary Medicine Association (CMA), the largest organization in the world offering alternative health and therapy.

“Such a step was important in order to begin training professionally,” said Kissoon who will begin offering Rakha courses at her new London-based center Natural Health, Nature’s Finest in addition to private training sessions and workshops.

"I am currently looking for instructors to teach Rakha and hope to spread this halal form of fitness throughout the world," said Kissoon.

Rakha courses at the center begin in January 2009 in the U.K. and are open to Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

"Making this happen is a miracle," she said.