Sujood, in a nutshell

This is a shorter piece on a topic which we've published in a longer format and which aims to sum up the main points, hopefully without compromising it.

Ambitious though it was, the object of the previous essays is to shed light on the dark complexity of the above concept, that, as the title says, Sujood is, in fact, 'more than a posture'.

a look at verse 18 of chapter 22 'Al-Hajj' makes this clear.

What's particularly noteworthy about this verse is the apparent universality of Sujood, as we see it being attributed to non human species, the moon, sun, trees, stars, mountains, mammals etc. This challenges the notion that sujood is a posture performed during prayer, and even the argument that those other non human species are involved in sujood in their own 'physical' way. The point is, we are to completely suspend the idea of the physicality of 'sujood', and instead, consider a wider, broader view thereof.

In the article we noted that Sujood is the quintessential motion, and Islam the quintessential sujood, meaning (as the syllogism inevitably leads to) that Islam is the quintessential motion. What we mean there is that all creatures are engaged, in one manner or another, in teleology, whether voluntarily for humans; having 'self-initiative', personally chosen 'aims', 'goals', 'pursuits', a significant percentage of which is and can be inessential (this says that they are 'involved' in teleology').

Or involuntarily, 'nature's calls' as the idiom goes, food & sustenance, sleep, reproduction etc.. things we deem 'essential' and without which, our species would not survive (this says that they themselves, are 'teleological'--their 'natural' habits). Sujood covers both domains of being, and so from this perspective, 'nature', in the Aristotelian sense, of simply 'being', of having 'essentials', the tree being a tree, growing in a certain way, yielding fruit etc, and acting 'accordingly', expresses sujood in one way, a way that suffices for understanding the above passage. Verse 83 of chp 3 'Al Umran' emphasizes the point, 'willingly or unwillingly'.

The other sense of Sujood pertains to what's 'voluntary', or, to the creature's volition; but this is 'volition' as expressed within the biological parameters (limits) assigned to the creature. Thus the involuntary side of being, the biological or psychological limits imposed upon the creature allow for a certain--albeit restricted--degree of freedom (this is familiar to biologists), i refer you to a passage by S.Alexander where he discusses the difference between identity and 'repetition'

"it means that repetition brings not exact identity but modifications within limits of an identical plan of construction. The more comprehensive is the plan, the greater the room left for variations which may themselves be specific variations of kind"

Space, Time & Diety' p231

The two aspects are intrinsic to one another (conspecific, or, congenial), limitation ≠ Incapacitation, but the opposite, 'capacity', the restriction serves the function of 'specifying' the type of 'freedom', and freedom falls back upon the 'law' (limitation) in performing its (appointed) task. The correct term would be 'program', or 'plan of construction' (I use law sparingly, as the term stresses the limits of certain actions rather than what can be expressed within it). That massive leeway that represents the creatures' freedom, is analogous to the way language works: we're given 26 or so letters, but from this restriction, spawned tens of thousands of words, numerous dialects and accents, millions of books, a whole civilisations. This is because 'function' or 'process' consists in 'variation' from a select number of rules or conditions. This relation between limitation and freedom is itself infinite, as each entry, each variation, though a 'free product', may serve as a new rule or law, and so on.

What we call 'Subjectivity', maybe defined as how we proceed from restrictions to 'restricted' acts, this does not happen on its own!, it demands a 'subject'; an 'exponent', a process of allopoiesis. Allopoiesis is

"is the process whereby a system produces something other than the system itself" (wikipedia article)

"Really, the effect is something quite dissimilar : the falling water is distributed differently from the resting water"

Space, Time & Diety' p286

This dynamic is what allows the universe to keep going, and is what God means when he says that he created 'seven heavens and seven earths', so that instead of using a term like 'infinity', as we do, God, and the people of the book (and Quranic arabic), would use to the number 7, though, i defer the explanation to another post.

Subjectivity is absolutely essential here, and it's tantamount to 'infinity', by serving as the exponent of a certain 'program', he performs the function of bringing into expression all those 'possibilities' which are contained formally and potentially in it. It's what the scientist or philosopher calls 'causality. Thus the agent (the subject), in the context of sujood, is 'he' who possesses the 'capacity' to act 'in accordance' to the law to which he's formally restricted.

That a human being acts in a human like way, to speak in a human way, to walk on two legs, describes a mode of sujood that’s characteristic of and exclusive to humans (the limitation), but how he chooses to articulate himself within the biological parameters to which he/she is confined, e.g where his two legs take him, what he chooses to invest his human intellect into, the ideas he chooses to represent and stand for, expresses and thereby completes the concept of sujood.

'Prostrating' here 'Yasjudoon' (the verb form of Sujood), does not refer to the physical posture as suggested in the translation, but rather, to the above described sense of sujood, it's to be understood as 'comportment', a complex notion involving what we call 'exportation', of being rendered an 'exponent' or agent for the 'principle' or 'law' in question (the sun in the verse)

Thus, more than a shiny celestial object, the sun embodies a certain function/principle, and when rendered the object of sujood, the agent, becomes an 'exponent' for said principle, the difficulty lies in defining or locating the principle, to do so we require 'instances' of exportation' (exporta), instances of 'agency' as had enabled Hoopeo from the verse to make his astute observation. As Alexander put it:

"When single instance is of the right character it may be sufficient to establish a law ; and the business of the logician is to define that rightness of character."

Space, Time & Diety' p230

Thus far from the apparent simplicity of 'perceiving', there lies another, more intelligent, more 'noetic' faculty within the 'impressionable', but necessary, one of merely 'seeing'; What Husserl calls 'eidetic reduction'

"In short, eidetic phenomenology strives for a priori eidetic knowledge (Wesenserkenntnis), i.e., knowledge of essences and eidetic laws. By contrast, empirical sciences yield a posteriori factual knowledge (Tatsachenerkenntnis) of actually existing particulars, empirical generalities, and their contingent regularities"

Jaakko Belt; 'Eidetic Variation: a Self‑Correcting and Integrative Account'

A more, 'extreme' let's say, demonstration of this faculty, is performed by Joseph, the dream/vision interpreter, (see chp12, Verses 34-41).

In conclusion, Sujood entails two aspects, a voluntary and involuntary, the first refers to the creature's biological 'circumstance', its genus, what it happens to be, what defines its mode of subsistence. The other concerns how it chooses to comport itsel

f within those biological or circumstantial limits of being. In the latter case, it's granted the ability to form such limits as it finds itself confined to, e.g, to 'hunting' a certain prey, is a goal which the lion sets for himself, that, given its comprehensiveness, must be attenuated and broken down into mini goals, and perused accordingly, within the general plan of 'catching a prey', there lies a leeway of freedom, by which to perform and execute the task, but the 'agenda' remains.

The highest expression of sujood, as noted in the longer format, is that where said 'volition', or voluntary comportment, is directed at the 'order'. It involves a conscious or intentional performance of those tasks which, to the highest possible degree, are conducive to the 'continuity' and prosperity the species. Thus it necessarily involves a kind of 'orientation' towards the whole, the very genus which, in another sense, limits him. Here, where the object of sujood is the order itself, we can no longer speak of limitation, but alternately, and somewhat paradoxically, of abundance, because the limitation that's imposed upon the particular creation is surpassed by a 'broadening' of possibilities, and the increase in variation with respect the genus.

Thus, to give justice to the verse (18 of chapter 22 'Al-Hajj'); the tree, a mountain, a star are in a state of sujood because, in functioning the way they do, they make themselves 'useful' to us, and by us, I mean all those life forms that might find them useful!. It's therefore, of particular interest, that God should mention precisely those things (moon, sun, mountains, earth, heavens, trees) because these are creations which all creatures whatsoever not only benefit from, but without which they can survive, or in the case of the earth and heavens, exist!. The implication here is that not all creatures are useful to the same degree, but that there's a hierarchy, and their chief task is to be 'conducive' to the highest degree to which they are formally capable.

Obviously more can be said about this, but this should give us what we may call 'the gist of things'.