Delicacies and secrets of the ruku`, sujud and their cordial disciplines

It is stated in Misbahush-Shari`ah that as-Sadiq (AS) said: "No servant bows in the ruku `for Allah, in a true way, unless Allah adorns him with the light of His Brilliance, and shades him with the shade of His Majesty, and clothes him with the gown of His chosen friends. The ruku ` is first and the sujud is second. The one who performed the first is fit for the second. The ruku ` is politeness, and the sujud is proximity. So, the one who is not well-mannered, is unfit for proximity. Therefore, perform the ruku ` like the one who is submitting to Allah with his heart, humble and afraid under His Sovereignty, drooping to Him his limbs like the one who is afraid and grieved for what one loses of the benefit of those who perform the ruku`. It is narrated that ar-Rabi` ibn Khuthaym used to keep indulged in a single ruku `all the night till dawn. In the morning he would raise his head and say: `Oh, the sincere ones have passed us and we are left behind.' Complete your ruku ` by levelling your back, and rebuke yourself for being vigilant in serving Him except with His help. Protect your heart against Satan's whispers, deceits and traps. Allah, the Exalted, raises His servants as much as they show humility to Him, and He guides them to the principles of humility and submission as much as His Greatness knows of their secrets." [589]

This noble hadith contains signs, good tidings, disciplines and instructions, as "adorning" with the "light of Allah's Brilliance", being under the "shade of Allah's Majesty" and wearing the "gown of Allah's chosen ones" are good tidings of attaining to the state of learning the Names: "And He taught Adam all the names". [590] Of that state is the taking of the state of attributive annihilation and the state of wakefulness, because Allah's adorning the servant with the state of "the light of His Brilliance" means taking him to the state of Names, which is the reality of teaching man. Taking him under the shade and shadow of "Majesty", which is of the Names of Power, and placing him in His Court, refer to annihilating the servant of himself. After this state, clothing him in "the gown of the chosen ones" is survival after annihilation. From this it is realized that the sujud is self-annihilation, as is said by the people of knowledge. The ruku` is first, and it is these states, and the sujud is second, which is nothing but the state of annihilation in the Essence.

It is also realized that the Absolute Proximity, which happens in the sujud, is not accessible except through the true ruku `. Whoever wants to be fit for the second, must acquire the discipline of the ruku ` and its proximity.

After stating the delicacies and secrets of the ruku ` and sujud, he refers to their hearty disciplines to suit the middle class. These are among the general matters, which we have referred to in the Preliminaries; and some of them belong to ruku `. Now, as most of these things have already been stated, we leave out further explanations.

Concerning Raising the Head from the Ruku`

Its secret is the return from wuquf (standing) in the multiplicity of names, as it is said: "The perfect monotheism is the negation of ascribing attributes to Him" [591], because after the awakening from the annihilation in the Names [fana'-i asma'i], the salik servant witnesses his failure and shortcoming, since the beginning of Man's sin-which is to be compensated for by his offspring-is the inclination toward the multiplicities of names, which is the inside of the "tree". Having understood the sin of himself, who is Adam's offspring, and the sin of Adam, who is his origin, he would recognize his state of humility and need, and get ready to remove the sin by way of behaving with humility in `the presence of Allah's Majesty. He would then stand erect out of this state, and with the takbir after the ruku` he would remove the multiplicities of names, and, empty-handed, he would comprehend the state of humility, helplessness and the earthly origin. The important discipline in this respect is to find out the state's great significance, and to have the heart to taste it through complete remembrance, and strive to attend [tawajjuh] to His Essence, forsaking attending [tawajjuh] to oneself, even to one's state of humility.

Know, dear, that complete rememberance of the Haqq (Allah), and absolute turning, with the inside of the heart, to the Holy Essence, will open the heart's internal eye, through which meeting Allah-the pleasure of the eyes of the walis [auliya] - takes place: "And those who strive hard for Us, We will most certainly guide them in Our ways." [592]

General Secret of the Sujud

According to the people of gnosticism and of heart, this secret is to be forsaking oneself and closing one's eyes against anything except Him; and, with a Jonahian mi'raj -which took place by sinking into the stomach of the fish -one can pay attention to his origin without seeing the veil. And, in putting the head on the dust, there is a hint at seeing the Beauty of the Beautiful in the inner heart of the dust and the origin of the world of nature.

Its hearty disciplines are to find one's reality and the original root of one's existence, and to place the brain, which is the center of the sovereignty of the soul and the Arsh of the spirit, at the lowest threshold of the State of Holiness, and to consider the world of dust as the threshold of the Master of the Kings.

Thus, the secret of the position of the sujud is to give up oneself, and the discipline of putting the head on the dust is to debase one's most high position, regarding it to be lower than the dust. Should there be in the heart a cause for these claims, in respect of the states of the salat, which are a reference to them, they are, to the people of knowledge, hypocrisy. And, as this state is the most dangerous one, the salik to Allah will have to cling to the skirt of the care of Allah, the Most High, by means of his personal disposition and inmost nature, humbly and servilely asking forgiveness for the shortcomings. But this is a dangerous state which is out of the obligations of people like us.

As we have explained in The Secret of the Salat these states in details, we refrain from repeating them in this thesis, satisfying ourselves with relating the hadith narrated in Misbahush-Sharai `ah concerning the relevant discipline.