Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
You are doing nothing wrong by using meditation techniques as long as you do not perform the specific rituals of Buddhism and as long as you concentrate on dhikr (remembrance of Allah).
In his response to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
Muslims are encouraged to think and ponder over every wonder of Allah’s creation. Meditation is a means of calming down, especially when it is connected with making dhikr.
You are doing nothing wrong by using meditation techniques as long as you do not perform the specific rituals of Buddhism and as long as you concentrate on dhikr (remembrance of Allah).
Such techniques are not particular to Buddhism or Hinduism; they are part and parcel of religious traditions all over the world.
Using such techniques to calm the mind and gain focus and perspective is indeed a beneficial method.
Islam does not forbid such things; rather it encourages all trusted methods of emotional, spiritual, and physical healing provided they do not contain pagan elements contrary to the concept of tawhid (Oneness of Allah).
Having said this, however, I must rush to add that while meditating, you should strictly repeat the words of dhikr as taught by the Quran and Hadith rather than the typical mantras as taught by Buddhism or Hinduism.
May Allah grant us the wisdom to see truth as truth and follow it, and discern error as error and shun it. Ameen.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.