Does practicing looking at the hands of a clock to increase focus count as meditation, and what is its ruling in Islamic law?

"Meditation" is synonymous with legitimate Islamic meanings such as "contemplation" (tafakkur), and its ruling is the same as that of contemplation. There is praiseworthy contemplation and blameworthy contemplation, depending on what is contemplated and what it leads to. Ibn al-Qayyim said: "Thought is the bringing together of two cognitions in the heart to yield a third cognition from them." It is the key to all good things, and it transforms one from the death of dullness to the life of alertness. As for yoga, a fatwa (definition) was previously issued prohibiting it due to the pagan religious rituals it contains, not because it involves meditation. Staring at the hands of a clock for a long time is permissible in principle, as long as it is not accompanied by another prohibition.