What is Prostration (sujud)?
Prostration is a technical term in our Order. It denotes the station of complete obliteration (mahw) of the “I” of dust (al-ana al-turabi) in the “He” of light (al-huwa al-nurani). It is the supreme act of withdrawal from all-things-other-than-God (tajrid) insofar as it obliterates the lower human nature, such that your essence becomes effaced in the exalted Essence of the Lord.
Outwardly, prostration is a form of self-abasement (tadhallul), a display of true servanthood with respect to the Lord, and a declaration of total submission to the Worshipped One, glorified be He. It is for this reason that prostration is the final position of the canonical prayer, which itself is the link between the noneternity of the servant and the eternity of the Lord. Moreover, the Beloved Prophet (ṣ) described this station by saying that, “The nearest that a servant draws unto his Lord is when he is in prostration, so make supplications abundantly [in this state].”
God says: "prostrate and draw near," and in one tradition the Beloved Prophet (s) is said to have recited [while prostrating]: “I seek refuge in Your pardon from Your punishment, and in Your pleasure from Your displeasure, and in You from You.” Through that prayer, God folded the divine acts onto the attributes, and the attributes onto the Essence, so that his was a prostration of complete annihilation (al-fanaʾ al-kulli) [in God].
Voluntary and Involuntary Prostration
Know, dear disciple, that there is nothing in the heavens and on the earth except that it is in a state of prostration before the presence of the Real, submitting entirely to Him. This is because the outward expressions of unbelief that you see are internal expressions of faith. For unbelief is the exception, not the root, of existence; whereas the root of all creation is the unswerving and innate disposition (hanifa) toward the One. However, creatures have changed [this innate disposition] with respect to its form, not with respect to its root. Their root remains unchanged within them…
God exalted says: “Thy Lord decrees that you worship none but Him,” (Q Israʾ 17:23) and God’s decree is firm and does not change…and there is no object of worship other than God. Whatever His servants turn toward in worship is none other than the Divinity that flows through those [objects of worship].
God therefore divided prostration into two sorts by saying [that servants worship]: “willingly or unwillingly.” Voluntary prostration is for those who proclaim God’s oneness and remain upon their innate disposition of the Day of Alastu: “Yes Indeed You are our Lord.” It is those who have not forgotten their Covenant with their Lord after their spirits were blown into the bodily shadows of existence. Whereas [worshipping] “unwillingly” is for those in whom the innate disposition was altered, who are seduced by forms, and became attached to the traces of cosmic existence, thus forgetting their Covenant with God.
How could you then ascribe partners with God, dear disciple, when all separative entities are impossible, and all things other than God are phantasies? Everything is prostrating and proclaiming God’s oneness.
The divine reckoning and recompense [on Judgment Day] pertains to our intentions. Therefore, those who are intent on proclaiming God’s oneness have been guided to their innate disposition, and those who are intent on pursuing other-than-God, will earn what they were intent on.
One of the aphorisms of al-Iskandari reads, “God was, and there was nothing beside Him, and He is now as He was.” Thus, everything in existence is a covering by which God conceals the innermost secret of creation. The manifest dimension of engendered existence is a deception, and its nonmanifest dimension is a lesson to behold; even though its deception is one of its lesson’s levels. Therefore, the wretched are wretched because of their distance from the root, and the felicitous are felicitous because of their proximity to the root.
Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi Al Karkari (Kaf al-astar)
