Former Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin has acknowledged being mistaken in describing a ritual in a Selangor mosque as involving the consumption of a religious teacher’s saliva.

However, he stood firm in his belief that some people in the state have become too obsessed with their religious teachers.

NONE Mohd Asri had alleged in his weekly Malaysiakini column on April 13 that a congregation in Selangor had been consuming the saliva of a religious teacher - whom he did not name - to attain his grace.

He described how followers and other participants queued up to receive the saliva in their mouth, adding that the religious leader holds a state-appointed post and is accredited by state religious authority (Jais).

"What I wanted to express in my article was the phenomena of some people being too obsessed with religious teachers," Mohd Asri said when contacted.

“While they may not actually consume the religious teacher’s saliva, their overzealousness with his teachings still exists.”

He said this after a probe by Jais revealed that no such event had taken place.

Jais director Muhammad Khusrin Munawi said the congregation had merely shared a glass of zam-zam (sacred) water with their teacher after a religious lecture.

“Nothing that he (Mohd Asri) described ever took place. They only shared zam-zam water,” he told reporters in Shah Alam yesterday.

Muhammad Khusrin added that this was normal practice in the time of Prophet Muhammad, who would drink from the same glass as his companions.