

BHOPAL: She's a devout Muslim. She offers namaz five times a day. And she also does surya namaskar, breathing in with the name of Allah. Syed Rubab Fatima , 47, has been practising yoga since 2000 and led the international yoga day celebrations at the sprawling Lal Parade Grounds in Bhopal, sharing the dais with chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan . Clad in spotless white, she performed four kriyas with athletic zeal for 30 minutes, her postures sometimes motionless and trance-like.

And it was a massive heart attack in 2007, which drew her to yoga. "Doctors said I have to follow a strict health regime and advised me to do asanas. Soon, I stopped taking medicines after six months. I was healed. I began advising others to do yoga."

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Fatima feels there's no religious contradiction in yoga. "Namaz is the best yoga. If you are offering namaz five times a day, you are actually doing yoga. But, yogic breathing exercises boost concentration. I can breathe in with the sound of Allah and not say Om'. And the benefits are the same," said Fatima.

She was lucky not to face opposition from her family when she decided to take the plunge. "There's so much controversy about surya-namaskar, but I perform this asana regularly, but breathe in with the name of Allah. I am a Muslim, but I feel there's no religious conflict in performing asanas."

She learnt her first yoga lessons from a well-known yoga master, Pawan Guru. "Now, I am doing asanas at Shaskiya Yoga Kendra near Red Cross Hospital, Bhopal, under guidance of Dev Dayal Bharti. I never felt any discrimination for being a Muslim at yoga classes. My guru emphatically said that I can take the name of my God and practise breathing. And I need not pronounce Om."

Fatima wants to launch a yoga centre, particularly for Muslim women in Bhopal. Hindus too are welcome, she says. "Yoga is a fitness regime. Muslim women are usually in purdah and can neither go to gym or are aware of fitness regimes. These women can come in burqa and perform asanas indoors under a female instructor and still be in purdah. There are 99 names of Allah and I am trying to discover a similar vibration which is closer to Om," said Fatima.

