Short answer
No. In the book that defines it, yoga aims to still the mind until the soul stands alone. God (﷾) is not its goal. The Yoga Sutras do name a Lord, Ishvara, but as one method among others: "Or by devotion to Iśvara" (1.23). They never call him the Creator. The Bhagavad Gita does make a Lord the goal, but that Lord is Krishna, and it says perfection comes "after many births". Many people today say yoga is only exercise. If so, it can reach health, but not God. Islam offers what yoga does not: direct worship of the Creator, open to anyone today. God (﷾) says, "I am indeed close (to them)" (2:186). The Qur'an tells every person, "thou shalt meet Him" (84:6). Islam is a complete way of life, and the Qur'an invites everyone to test it.
Full explanation
What yoga aims at
The Yoga Sutras are the founding book of Yoga, one of the classical schools of Hindu philosophy. They are 195 short rules, as both translations used here count them, credited to Patanjali. Tradition says he was Patanjali the grammarian, who lived centuries earlier. J. H. Woods of Harvard found that tradition no older than the tenth century, and dated the Sutras between 300 and 500 CE. They are not part of the Veda: Shankara calls the system a Smriti, a tradition ranked below it. The book defines its subject in one line: "Yoga is the suppression of the transformations of the thinking principle." In everyday words, yoga stops the movements of the mind. The next rule gives the result: "Then the seer abides in himself." The seer is the soul. The book's last rule names the end state: kaivalya, which Woods translates as Isolation. M. N. Dvivedi, a Hindu professor of Sanskrit who translated the book in 1890, explains it as "the state of single-ness". The soul stands apart from matter, "centred in itself". Dvivedi insists that this is not annihilation. Even so, the goal is a state of one's own soul. No Lord appears in the definition or in the last rule. That matters, because a path is known by where it ends.
Woods counts 195 rules in four books (51, 55, 55 and 34). He dates the Sutras between 300 and 500 CE, and the commentary called Vyasa's between 650 and 850 CE. He finds the tradition that their author is Patanjali the grammarian no older than the tenth century, a thousand years and more after the grammarian, and not proved.
“Yoga is the suppression of the transformations of the thinking principle.”
“Then the seer abides in himself.”
“The break of the junction, through the dispersion of ignorance, is the (thing) to be warded off; it is the Kaivalya of the Seer.”
“The inverse resolution of the gunas void of the motive to act for the purusa is kaivalya; or it is the power of the soul centred in itself.”
“This state of the purusa is kaivalya or the state of single-ness.”
Yoga here does not mean union with God (﷾)
Many classes teach that yoga means union with God (﷾). The school's own commentators say otherwise. Vachaspati Mishra, who wrote about 850 CE, explains the word in this book. It comes from a root "in the sense of concentration and not" from the root "in the sense of conjunction". The commentary of Vyasa adds that those who reach Isolation "are many". So each freed soul stands by itself. None is joined to the Lord, and none becomes Him. The idea of union is found in hatha yoga, the yoga of postures and breath. One of its books, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, calls its highest state the "oneness of the self and the ultra self" (4.7). That is the claim that the soul is one with the Supreme, and Perspectives answers it. It is not what Patanjali's book teaches. So anyone who says Patanjali's yoga unites you with God (﷾) is saying what his own commentators did not.
“This [doubt] he removes by stating that [«yoga» in the phrase] «yoga is concentration» is etymologically derived from the stem yuj-a [Dhātupāṭha iv. 68] in the sense of concentration and not from the stem yuj-i [vii. 7] in the sense of conjunction.”
“Then there are those who have obtained Isolation; and those who are in Isolation (kevalin) are many.”
“This equality and oneness of the self and the ultra self, when all Samkalpas cease to exist, is called Samâdhi.”
Ishvara is one method among others
The Sutras do name a Lord, Ishvara, in five of their 195 rules (1.23, 1.24, 2.1, 2.32 and 2.45). But look at how he enters the book. Rule 1.12 gives the first method for stilling the mind: "application and non-attachment". Then rule 1.23 says, "Or by devotion to Iśvara." The word "or" matters. Dvivedi says it marks "another method", and he adds: "when nothing succeeds, the way pointed out here will be found useful". More methods follow, also with "or": controlling the breath (1.34), and meditating "according to one's predilection" (1.39). On that last rule Dvivedi writes that "it is a matter of indifference what the thing is". On rule 1.37 he says Rama, Shiva, Krishna, Christ, the Buddha "or even any imaginary entity" will do. So the method works whether or not its object is real. It cannot show that anyone is there. Rule 2.45 shows the order. From resignation to Ishvara comes Samadhi, deep concentration. Vyasa says the Lord favours the devoted yogi, and then says what the favour brings: he comes near to concentration and to Isolation. So in this book the Lord helps the yogi reach the goal. He is not the goal. Dvivedi says it outright: Patanjali "puts in an Iśvara more for purposes of meditation and other subordinate conveniences than for any cardinal important purpose". Those are the words of a Hindu translator, not a Muslim critic.
“Or by devotion to Iśvara.”
“Iśvara is a particular soul untouched by affliction, works, fruition, and impressions.”
“Preliminary Yoga (consists of) mortification, study, and resignation to Iśvara.”
“Observances consist in purity, contentment, mortification, study, and resignation to Iśvara.”
“From resignation to Iśvara (follows) the accomplishment of Samâdhi.”
“Its suppresion is secured by application and non-attachment.”
“The attainment of Parasamâdhi, or unconscious concentration, is shown to be possible by another method. This is suggested by the particle ‘or.’”
“So long as this non-attachment can be brought about by the methods indicated, well and good; but when nothing succeeds, the way pointed out here will be found useful.”
“Or by the expiration and retention of the breath.”
“Or by meditating according to one's predilection.”
“It is only necessary to habituate the mind to remain absorbed in, or to call to life, any thing for, and at a given time; it is a matter of indifference what the thing is”
“Râma, S'iva, Krsna, Christ, Buddha, or even any imaginary entity answering to the requisite quality will do, according to ones predilection.”
“By devotion, by a special kind of adoration, the Īçvara inclines [to him] and favours him merely because of [this yogin's] profound-desire. Also as a result of the profound-desire for Him, the yogin becomes most near to the attainment of concentration and to [Isolation] the result [of concentration].”
“It is well known that the Sânkhya of which the Yoga is a complement recognises no Iśvara, for Kapila definitely says that his existence is “not proved.” Patanjali puts in an Iśvara more for purposes of meditation and other subordinate conveniences than for any cardinal important purpose.”
The goal: the soul alone
Still the mind until the seer abides in himself.
Application and non-attachment
The first method.
Or devotion to Ishvara
Another method.
Or whatever you prefer
Meditate according to your own choice.
A Lord who is not called the Creator
Rule 1.24 calls Ishvara "a particular soul", untouched by what binds other souls. The commentary asks who he is "as distinct from the primary-substance and the Self", that is, from matter and souls. So the system has matter and souls, with this special soul beside them. Not one of the 195 rules calls him the Creator. Dvivedi adds that Sankhya, the sister school of Yoga, "recognises no Iśvara". Hindu teachers saw this gap themselves. The Brahma Sutra, the founding book of Vedanta, says: "Thereby the Yoga (Smriti) is refuted." Shankara, of about the 8th century, explains why: Yoga takes matter as "the independent cause of the world". Ramanuja, of the 11th and 12th centuries, says yoga's Lord is "a mere operative cause": one who acts on matter he did not make. He adds that this Lord is "neither the cause of the world" nor endowed with the qualities of Brahman, the Absolute. Shankara allows the parts of Yoga that agree with the Veda. But he says the highest aim is not reached "by the road of Yoga-practice". His own reason is his teaching that all selves are one, which the Qur'an rejects (19:93). So two leading Hindu teachers read the system the same way: its world does not come from its Lord. That matters, because a path whose Lord did not make you cannot be the path to your Creator.
“Iśvara is a particular soul untouched by affliction, works, fruition, and impressions.”
“But it is now asked who is this [being] that we have called the Īçvara, as distinct from the primary-substance and the Self?”
“It is well known that the Sânkhya of which the Yoga is a complement recognises no Iśvara, for Kapila definitely says that his existence is “not proved.” Patanjali puts in an Iśvara more for purposes of meditation and other subordinate conveniences than for any cardinal important purpose.”
“Thereby the Yoga (Smriti) is refuted.”
“This Sûtra extends the application of the preceding argumentation, and remarks that by the refutation of the Sânkhya-smriti the Yoga-smriti also is to be considered as refuted; for the latter also assumes, in opposition to Scripture, a pradhâna as the independent cause of the world, and the 'great principle,' &c. as its effects, although neither the Veda nor common experience favour these views.”
“In the first place the Yoga holds the Pradhâna, which is independent of Brahman, to be the general material cause, and hence the Lord acknowledged by it is a mere operative cause. In the second place the nature of meditation, in which Yoga consists, is determined by the nature of the object of meditation, and as of its two objects, viz. the soul and the Lord, the former does not have its Self in Brahman, and the latter is neither the cause of the world nor endowed with the other auspicious qualities (which belong to Brahman), the Yoga is not of Vedic character.”
“the highest beatitude (the highest aim of man) is not to be attained by the knowledge of the Sânkhya-smriti irrespective of the Veda, nor by the road of Yoga-practice.”
“Not one of the beings in the heavens and the earth but must come to (Allah) Most Gracious as a servant.”
- 195rules in the Yoga Sutras
- 5rules that name Ishvara
- 3rules of its own on posture
- 0rules that call him the Creator
What rules 1.24 to 1.26 get right
Some of what these rules say is true of the Lord. He is untouched by what binds people. His knowledge has no limit. He is not bound by time as we are. Woods renders rule 1.26 as "Teacher of the Primal [Sages]"; Dvivedi has "the greatest of the great". The Qur'an says such things of Allah (﷾). "No slumber can seize Him nor sleep" (2:255). He is "the First and the Last", with "full knowledge of all things" (57:3). He "taught Adam the names of all things" (2:31), and He "taught man that which he knew not" (96:5). This page does not say Ishvara is Allah (﷾), or that Patanjali was a prophet. Islam does not call God a soul among souls: nothing is like Him (42:11). The point here is one of logic. If such a Lord exists, devotion to Him cannot be one choice among many. A Lord with no limit to His knowledge is the One to serve, not a help towards a quiet mind. The Sutras stop short of that step. The Qur'an takes it: "I have only created Jinns and men, that they may serve Me" (51:56).
“Iśvara is a particular soul untouched by affliction, works, fruition, and impressions.”
“In him is the highest limit of the seed of omniscience.”
“Being unconditioned by time he is the greatest of the great.”
“Teacher of the Primal [Sages] also, forasmuch as [with Him] there is no limitation by time.”
“Allah! There is no god but He,-the Living, the Self-subsisting, Eternal. No slumber can seize Him nor sleep. His are all things in the heavens and on earth. Who is there can intercede in His presence except as He permitteth? He knoweth what (appeareth to His creatures as) before or after or behind them. Nor shall they compass aught of His knowledge except as He willeth. His Throne doth extend over the heavens and the earth, and He feeleth no fatigue in guarding and preserving them for He is the Most High, the Supreme (in glory).”
“He is the First and the Last, the Evident and the Immanent: and He has full knowledge of all things.”
“And He taught Adam the names of all things; then He placed them before the angels, and said: "Tell me the names of these if ye are right."”
“Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created- Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood: Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,- He Who taught (the use of) the pen,- Taught man that which he knew not.”
“(He is) the Creator of the heavens and the earth: He has made for you pairs from among yourselves, and pairs among cattle: by this means does He multiply you: there is nothing whatever like unto Him, and He is the One that hears and sees (all things).”
“I have only created Jinns and men, that they may serve Me.”
| Question | Yoga Sutras | Qur'an |
|---|---|---|
| Is He bound? | Untouched by what binds souls. | No slumber or sleep can seize Him. |
| What does He know? | In him knowledge reaches its highest limit. | He has full knowledge of all things. |
| Does time bind Him? | He is not limited by time. | He is the First and the Last. |
| Does He teach? | Teacher of the earliest sages. | He taught Adam, and taught man what he did not know. |
| Did He create? | Never called the Creator. | The Creator of all things. |
| Must He be served? | One method, introduced with "Or". | People were made to serve Him. |
| Where does the road end? | The soul alone. | Meeting Him. |
The Gita's yoga puts worship first
The Bhagavad Gita, part of the Mahabharata epic, uses the word yoga more widely, and it does make a Lord the goal. K. T. Telang, the Hindu judge whose 1882 translation this site uses, writes "devotion" for yoga and "devotee" for yogi. In chapter 6, Krishna tells the yogi to sit and fix the mind "on me", "regarding me as his final goal". He ranks the yogi above ascetics, men of knowledge and men of action. Then, in the chapter's last verse, he ranks one yogi above all the rest: the one who "worships me". So the Gita's own chapter on yoga ends by placing worship above technique. Islam agrees that worship comes first. But this moves the question from yoga to who is worshipped. The speaker is Krishna, who says, "I have passed through many births" (4:5). He also calls himself unborn (4:6). The same epic tells of his death, after a hunter's arrow pierced his heel. The Qur'an says God (﷾) "lives and dies not" (25:58), and "He begetteth not, nor is He begotten" (112:3). The page on whether God became a man as Rama or Krishna weighs these claims. The road is also long by the Gita's own account. Arjuna says the mind is as hard to restrain as the wind (6:34). Krishna says the yogi "attains perfection after many births" (6:45). So the Gita raises the right question, whom to worship. But its own yogi may need many lifetimes.
“he should restrain his mind, and (concentrate it) on me, and sit down engaged in devotion, regarding me as his final goal. Thus constantly devoting his self to abstraction, a devotee whose mind is restrained, attains that tranquillity which culminates in final emancipation, and assimilation with me.”
“The devotee is esteemed higher than the performers of penances, higher even than the men of knowledge, and the devotee is higher than the men of action; therefore, O Arguna! become a devotee. And even among all devotees, he who, being full of faith, worships me, with his inmost self intent on me, is esteemed by me to be the most devoted.”
“I have passed through many births, O Arguna! and you also. I know them all, but you, O terror of (your) foes! do not know them.”
“Even though I am unborn and inexhaustible in (my) essence, even though I am lord of all beings, still I take up the control of my own nature, and am born by means of my delusive power.”
“He had thought before this of everything that had been foreshadowed by the words uttered by Gāndhāri in former days. He also recollected the words that Durvāsas had spoken at the time his body was smeared by that Rishi with the remnant of the Pāyasa he had eaten (while a guest at Krishna's house). The high-souled one, thinking of the destruction of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas, as also of the previous slaughter of the Kurus, concluded that the hour (for his own departure from the world) had come. He then restrained his senses (in Yoga). Conversant with the truth of every topic, Vāsudeva, though he was the Supreme Deity, wished to die for dispelling all doubts and establishing a certainty of results (in the matter of human existence), simply for upholding the three worlds and for making the words of Atri's son true. Having restrained all his senses, speech, and mind, Krishna laid himself down in high Yoga. A fierce hunter of the name of Jarā then came there, desirous of deer. The hunter, mistaking Keçava, who was stratched on the earth in high Yoga, for a deer, pierced him at the heel with a shaft and quickly came to that spot for capturing his prey. Coming up, Jarā beheld a man dressed in yellow robes, rapt in Yoga, and endued with many arms. Regarding himself an offender, and filled with fear, he touched the feet of Keçava. The high-souled one comforted him and then ascended upwards, filling the entire welkin with splendour.”
“And put thy trust in Him Who lives and dies not; and celebrate his praise; and enough is He to be acquainted with the faults of His servants;-”
“Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him.”
“For, O Krishna! the mind is fickle, boisterous, strong, and obstinate; and I think that to restrain it is as difficult as (to restrain) the wind.”
“But the devotee working with great efforts, and cleared of his sins, attains perfection after many births, and then reaches the supreme goal.”
Is it only exercise?
Many people today answer that yoga is just stretching. On the history, they have a point. The Sutras give posture three rules of its own out of 195 (2.46-48). The first reads, "Posture is that which is steady and easy." Dvivedi adds, "never mind what shape it takes". There, posture is a seat for meditation, not a workout. A 2010 study from Oxford University Press goes further. It finds "no evidence" in the Indian tradition for the posture-based practice that dominates yoga today, seated postures for meditation apart. It traces today's classes to a new emphasis on physical culture. Health research treats yoga as exercise too. A 2022 Cochrane review found probably little or no difference between yoga and other back exercise for back function at three months. But this reply cuts both ways. If yoga is only exercise, it is no path to God (﷾). Exercise reaches the body, and that is all it claims to do. And some classes are more than exercise. Some chant Om, the word the Sutras give for Ishvara (1.27-28). Some teach surya namaskar, a name that means salutation to the sun. So what a class is depends on what is said and done in the room. On worship the Qur'an is plain: "Do not prostrate to the sun and the moon, but prostrate to Allah, Who created them" (41:37). Whether a Muslim may do the stretches alone is a question of Islamic law. This site gives a ruling only where all four schools of Islamic law agree, and it gives none here. Ask a qualified scholar.
“Posture is that which is steady and easy.”
“the general and most convenient definition of posture is that it should be perfectly steady and should cause no painful sensation, never mind what shape it takes.”
Finds "little or no evidence" that posture, apart from certain seated postures of meditation, was ever the main part of any Indian yoga tradition. He concludes that the Indian tradition shows "no evidence" for the kind of posture-based practice that dominates yoga in the English-speaking world today. That practice is not the outcome of a direct and unbroken line of hatha yoga. It grew from a new emphasis on physical culture, in an exchange between modern body-culture techniques developed in the West and modern Hindu yoga.
A review of 21 trials (2,223 participants). Compared with no exercise, yoga gave small and clinically unimportant improvements in back-related function and pain. There was probably little or no difference between yoga and other back-related exercise for function at three months; for pain and quality of life it remained uncertain.
“His indicator is the “word of glory.””
“Its constant repetition, and intent meditation on its meaning, (should be practised).”
“Among His Signs are the Night and the Day, and the Sun and the Moon. Do not prostrate to the sun and the moon, but prostrate to Allah, Who created them, if it is Him ye wish to serve.”
| Which yoga? | What it aims at | What that leaves |
|---|---|---|
| The Yoga Sutras | A still mind and the soul alone. | A Lord as one method, never called the Creator. |
| Hatha yoga | Oneness of the self and the supreme Self. | The claim that the soul is one with the Supreme. |
| The Gita's yoga | Krishna as the final goal. | The question of whom to worship. |
| A posture class | Fitness and ease. | Exercise, which reaches the body. |
Islam: worship the Creator directly
Islam begins where the Sutras stop. God (﷾) is not one method among others. To Him "is due the primal origin of the heavens and the earth" (6:101). Serving Him is the reason people were made (51:56). So in every prayer a Muslim says, "Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek" (1:5). In prayer, nothing stands between the person and God (﷾). No one must be prayed through, no state of mind reached first, no further life waited for. The Qur'an says, "I am indeed close (to them): I listen to the prayer of every suppliant when he calleth on Me" (2:186). It says, "We are nearer to him than (his) jugular vein" (50:16), and, "Call on Me; I will answer" (40:60). The Prophet (ﷺ) reported that Allah (﷾) says of His servant: if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running (Bukhari 7405). So the door is open today, even to a beginner. The page Is meditation enough? covers calm, attention and remembrance in Islam.
“To Him is due the primal origin of the heavens and the earth: How can He have a son when He hath no consort? He created all things, and He hath full knowledge of all things.”
“I have only created Jinns and men, that they may serve Me.”
“Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek.”
“When My servants ask thee concerning Me, I am indeed close (to them): I listen to the prayer of every suppliant when he calleth on Me: Let them also, with a will, Listen to My call, and believe in Me: That they may walk in the right way.”
“It was We Who created man, and We know what dark suggestions his soul makes to him: for We are nearer to him than (his) jugular vein.”
“And your Lord says: "Call on Me; I will answer your (Prayer): but those who are too arrogant to serve Me will surely find themselves in Hell - in humiliation!"”
The Prophet (ﷺ) reports that Allah says: I am as My servant thinks of Me, and I am with him when he remembers Me; if he comes a hand-span nearer to Me, I come an arm's length nearer to him, and if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running. Also in Sahih Muslim 2675.
A body that bows to Someone
Islam gives the body a part in worship. Muslims stand, bow and prostrate five times a day. But the posture is not a technique for the mind. It is an act addressed to Someone. God (﷾) says, "establish regular prayer for celebrating My praise" (20:14). The Qur'an says, "bow down in adoration, and bring thyself the closer (to Allah)!" (96:19). The Prophet (ﷺ) said a servant is nearest to his Lord when prostrating (Muslim 482). The Sutras ask for a posture "steady and easy", so that the mind can go quiet. Salah asks a creature to put its forehead on the ground before its Creator. So the question is not how a body is held. It is whom that body bows to.
“Verily, I am Allah: There is no god but I: So serve thou Me (only), and establish regular prayer for celebrating My praise.”
“Nay, heed him not: But bow down in adoration, and bring thyself the closer (to Allah)!”
Abu Huraira reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said a servant is nearest to his Lord when he is prostrating, so make much supplication then.
“Posture is that which is steady and easy.”
Where each road ends
The last rule of the Sutras leaves the soul "centred in itself". The Qur'an ends the road elsewhere: "O thou man! Verily thou art ever toiling on towards thy Lord- painfully toiling,- but thou shalt meet Him" (84:6). It also says, "to thy Lord is the final Goal" (53:42). So the believer lives for that meeting: "whoever expects to meet his Lord, let him work righteousness", and join no one in His worship (18:110). The soul at rest is told, "Come back thou to thy Lord" (89:28). So Islam's end is not a soul alone. It is a servant meeting the One who made him. No one can check what another person reaches inside. The Qur'an offers a test that anyone can take. A book from anyone but God (﷾) would hold "much discrepancy" (4:82), and it challenges anyone to produce a chapter like it (2:23). It came through Muhammad (ﷺ), the Seal of the Prophets, sent to all people (33:40; 7:158). Islam is a complete way of life, and it invites every seeker to turn to the Creator now (5:3; 2:208).
“The inverse resolution of the gunas void of the motive to act for the purusa is kaivalya; or it is the power of the soul centred in itself.”
“O thou man! Verily thou art ever toiling on towards thy Lord- painfully toiling,- but thou shalt meet Him.”
“That to thy Lord is the final Goal;”
“Say: "I am but a man like yourselves, (but) the inspiration has come to me, that your Allah is one Allah: whoever expects to meet his Lord, let him work righteousness, and, in the worship of his Lord, admit no one as partner.”
“(To the righteous soul will be said:) "O (thou) soul, in (complete) rest and satisfaction! "Come back thou to thy Lord,- well pleased (thyself), and well-pleasing unto Him! "Enter thou, then, among My devotees! "Yea, enter thou My Heaven!”
“Do they not consider the Qur'an (with care)? Had it been from other Than Allah, they would surely have found therein Much discrepancy.”
“And if ye are in doubt as to what We have revealed from time to time to Our servant, then produce a Sura like thereunto; and call your witnesses or helpers (If there are any) besides Allah, if your (doubts) are true.”
“Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) the Messenger of Allah, and the Seal of the Prophets: and Allah has full knowledge of all things.”
“Say: "O men! I am sent unto you all, as the Messenger of Allah, to Whom belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth: there is no god but He: it is He That giveth both life and death. So believe in Allah and His Messenger, the Unlettered Prophet, who believeth in Allah and His words: follow him that (so) ye may be guided."”
“This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.”
“O ye who believe! Enter into Islam whole-heartedly; and follow not the footsteps of the evil one; for he is to you an avowed enemy.”
| Way | The Creator is the goal | Worship comes first | The road ends with Him |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Yoga Sutras | |||
| A posture class | |||
| The Gita's yoga | |||
| Islam |
- Yes
- No
- Partly
The replies, answered
Yoga Sutra 1.23 — book 1, sutra 23
“Or by devotion to Iśvara.”
Cited for
"Or" does not make Ishvara a side issue. Vyasa says this way brings the yogi most near, and Dvivedi himself calls Ishvara "the final resort of beings".
The response
Take it as the best method. It is still a method, and the same line says what it is a method for: concentration and Isolation. In the same note Dvivedi says Patanjali puts Ishvara in for "subordinate conveniences", and he calls devotion the way to use "when nothing succeeds". Rule 1.39 then lets the yogi meditate on what he prefers.
Where it lands — On any reading, the Lord in the Sutras is a way to the goal and not the goal.
Vachaspati Mishra on Yoga Sutra 1.24
Vachaspati gives the Lord a part in the cycles of the worlds: as they end and begin again, He takes on pure matter and teaches, out of compassion. The cycles have no beginning, and he names only two kinds of thing, primary matter and the Self.
Cited for
The commentators do give Ishvara a part in the world. Vachaspati has him at work in its cycles and teaching out of compassion, so he is a Creator in all but name.
The response
Vachaspati's cycles have no beginning, and he names two kinds of thing, primary matter and the Self. Ramanuja states what follows: such a Lord is "a mere operative cause". The Qur'an's claim is greater. To Him is due "the primal origin of the heavens and the earth" (6:101). He is "the Creator of all things" (39:62).
Where it lands — One who works on matter he did not make is not the Creator the Qur'an describes.
Shankara, commentary on Brahma Sutra 2.1.3 — Sacred Books of the East 34, p. 298
“the highest beatitude (the highest aim of man) is not to be attained by the knowledge of the Sânkhya-smriti irrespective of the Veda, nor by the road of Yoga-practice.”
Cited for
The Upanishads themselves teach yoga, so it is Vedic, and Shankara accepts its practice.
The response
Shankara allows the parts that do not contradict the Veda. He says the Upanishad's word "Yoga" means Vedic meditation, and that the highest aim is not reached "by the road of Yoga-practice". Ramanuja says "the Yoga is not of Vedic character". So Hindu teachers do not agree that this yoga reaches the highest aim.
Where it lands — The claim that yoga is the path to God (﷾) is disputed inside Hinduism itself.
Yoga Sutra 2.46 — book 2, sutra 46
“Posture is that which is steady and easy.”
Cited for
Salah has bowing and prostration, so Muslims are doing yoga too, and both reach the same God.
The response
Two acts can look alike and mean different things. The Sutras' posture prepares the mind to go still, and "never mind what shape it takes". Salah is worship addressed to the Creator, and its bowing is commanded for His praise (20:14; 96:19).
Where it lands — What matters is whom the act is for, not the shape of the body.
Perspectives
The Yoga school
Patanjali's yoga stills the mind until the soul knows itself. Devotion to Ishvara is part of the practice, and he favours the devoted yogi.
Yoga means union, so the yogi is joined to God.
Rebuttal
The school's own commentator says the word here means concentration, "not" conjunction. The freed souls "are many", and each stands alone.
Devotion to Ishvara is part of the Sutras' practice, and Vyasa says the Lord favours the yogi. So yoga is a path to God.
Rebuttal
Vyasa's next sentence says what the favour brings: concentration and Isolation. The Lord helps along the road, and the road ends in the soul alone. A path to God (﷾) would end with God (﷾).
The Gita's way of devotion
The highest yoga is loving worship of the Lord. Krishna promises that the yogi who worships him reaches him.
Krishna ranks the worshipping yogi highest, and he says he is easily reached by the one who remembers him constantly. So yoga does lead to God, and quickly.
Rebuttal
Then the path is worship, as Islam says, and the question is whom to worship. "Easy of access" is promised to one "constantly" meditating on Krishna, and the Hindu texts themselves tell of his births and his death. The Qur'an says God (﷾) is not begotten and "dies not", and worship belongs to Him alone.
Advaita Vedanta
Some modern teachers read yoga through Advaita, the non-dualist school of Vedanta: stilling the mind shows that the soul was always God.
Yoga reveals that your true self is God, as the Upanishad says: "thou, O Svetaketu, art it".
Rebuttal
This is not the Sutras' teaching, which keeps many souls apart. Shankara himself, Advaita's chief teacher, says the highest aim is not reached "by the road of Yoga-practice". The Qur'an says every being comes to God (﷾) "as a servant" (19:93). See the page on whether the soul is the same as God.
Hatha yoga, the older yoga of postures and breath, does teach union. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika calls samadhi the "oneness of the self and the ultra self".
Rebuttal
That book salutes Shiva as the teacher of hatha yoga, and calls it "a staircase" to raja yoga, the yoga of the stilled mind. Its union is the self becoming one with the supreme Self, which is the same claim as the one above. The Qur'an says of God (﷾), "there is nothing whatever like unto Him" (42:11). A creature can draw near to its Creator, but it does not become Him.
It's only exercise
Yoga today is fitness and stress relief, and it has nothing to do with religion.
A yoga class is stretching and breathing, with no belief required.
Rebuttal
If so, it answers none of the questions a seeker brings: who made me, and what happens next. Exercise reaches the body. Those questions still need an answer, and the Qur'an gives one (23:115; 51:56).
Yoga makes me feel peaceful and close to something greater.
Rebuttal
A calm feeling shows that the body and mind have settled. It does not show whom you have reached. Dvivedi says even "any imaginary entity" can serve as the object. Islam points to Someone who answers: "Call on Me; I will answer" (40:60). The page Is meditation enough? takes this further.
The Islamic perspective
No technique is needed to reach God (﷾). He is close now, He is to be worshipped directly, and every person will meet Him.
Serving the Creator is the reason people were made.
God (﷾) is close to anyone who calls on Him, with no one in between.
The road ends in meeting the Lord.