Bowing

This paper investigate the activity of the neck extensors (NE), sternocleidomastoideus (SCM), trapezius (TRP), deltoid (DT), biceps brachii (BB), triceps brachii (TB), rectus abdominal (RA), and erector spine (ES) muscles in healthy subjects during bowing and prostration using surface electromyography (EMG). A group of student aged between 23 to 28 years voluntarily participated in this study. The subjects were asked to perform two types of flexion positions, namely bowing (90° forward flexion with the hands on the respective knees) and prostration (flexion with the palms of the hands and the forehead flat on the floor). The motion signals of the muscles were recorded. The finding indicated that during the bowing, there was contraction of the NE, DT, TB, and RA muscles while the muscle relaxation was found in the SCM, TRP, BB, and ES. During prostration, there was contraction at the SCM, DT, TB, and RA but muscle relaxation was found at the NE, TRP, BB, and ES. For the muscles that showed electrical activity in both the postures, the Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test showed a statistically no significant difference between bowing and prostration only for DT (p = 0.534) and but statistically significant difference for RA and TB (p<0.05). The muscle relaxation that existed at the ES showed no significant difference between bowing and prostrating (Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test, p = 0.075). This study indicates the effects of bowing and prostration on the biomechanical response of the human muscles. Muscle contraction and relaxation that occur, show an agonist-antagonist response which is good for exercise and strengthening programmers. These two movements are involved in the Muslim's prayer, called the salat. Hence, the current experiment can be taken as a pilot study on the biomechanical response of the human muscles during one's act of performing the salat. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-21729-6_34

Philosophers commonly assume that worship is a universal attitude. Two major approaches see worship as a sui generis attitude or as the specific attitude of respect. This article criticizes the universal assumption and defines worship as a ritual that shapes a person in acquiring the attitude considered appropriate in relating to a superior such as God. Religions differ in their rituals of worship because they disagree on what this appropriate attitude is. This claim is demonstrated by distinguishing the Hebrew Bible's form of worship as bowing down. Biblical worship is shown to be political, forming the worshipper into a loyal servant of God as king. This form of worship is argued to be fundamentally ethical because it teaches that the individual's relationship with God supervenes on human relationships.

Salah is one of the basic pillars of Islam. Whereas Shahadah is only to be confessed once to enter into the fold of Islam, Zakah is due upon the completion of year, Fasting is obligatory in the month of Ramadhan, and Hajj is obligatory once in a lifetime, Salah has to be performed five times a day, every day. Even during sickness, travel, or state of fear, Salah can be shortened, but can never be skipped. Although Salah consists of many postures, according to the Quran, prostration  brings oneself closer to Allah(ST). The  Prophet(SAW) has also stated that “the closest that a servant is to his Lord is when he is in prostration.” This paper explored how we can enhance our understanding about this closeness.

The study finds that the only way to be close to Allah(ST) is to attain a thought-free state. Salah is a means to achieve such a state. Our objective during Salah should be to have a laser focus attention on what we are reciting. This is what the mystics call the state of mindfulness. While quietly repeating ‘Subhana Rubbiy al’Aalaa’ during prostration (and Subhana Rubbiy alAzeem during bowing) mentally with minimal effort, it may be possible to enter into a thought-free state where we may find ourselves present and awake, but without any thought. This is when we are closest to Allah(ST).

The electromyography (EMG) activity of the biceps femoris, rectus femoris, gastrocnemius, and fourth lumbar (L4) and fifth lumbar (L5) muscles of 5 male subjects was measured during a series of maneuvers which include standing, bowing, prostration, and sitting. Raw EMG was processed by root-mean-square (RMS) technique using a time constant of 50 ms. The results show that the gastrocnemius is the most active. The series of standing to prostration maneuvers showed 13.21±10.67 RMS, μV (mean±standard deviation), standing to bowing, 11.97± 4.89, sitting to prostration, 8.36±12.55. Preliminary EMG profiles in this study demonstrated that subjects used relatively higher levels of gastrocnemius muscle compare to the biceps femoris, rectus femoris, and fourth lumbar (L4) and fifth lumbar (L5) muscles to perform the set of moderate exercises. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.

http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-69139-6_114

This paper investigate the activity of the neck extensors (NE), sternocleidomastoideus (SCM), trapezius (TRP), deltoid (DT), biceps brachii (BB), triceps brachii (TB), rectus abdominal (RA), and erector spine (ES) muscles in healthy subjects during bowing and prostration using surface electromyography (EMG). A group of student aged between 23 to 28 years voluntarily participated in this study. The subjects were asked to perform two types of flexion positions, namely bowing (90° forward flexion with the hands on the respective knees) and prostration (flexion with the palms of the hands and the forehead flat on the floor). The motion signals of the muscles were recorded. The finding indicated that during the bowing, there was contraction of the NE, DT, TB, and RA muscles while the muscle relaxation was found in the SCM, TRP, BB, and ES. During prostration, there was contraction at the SCM, DT, TB, and RA but muscle relaxation was found at the NE, TRP, BB, and ES. For the muscles that showed electrical activity in both the postures, the Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test showed a statistically no significant difference between bowing and prostration only for DT (p = 0.534) and but statistically significant difference for RA and TB (p<0.05). The muscle relaxation that existed at the ES showed no significant difference between bowing and prostrating (Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test, p = 0.075). This study indicates the effects of bowing and prostration on the biomechanical response of the human muscles. Muscle contraction and relaxation that occur, show an agonist-antagonist response which is good for exercise and strengthening programmers. These two movements are involved in the Muslim's prayer, called the salat. Hence, the current experiment can be taken as a pilot study on the biomechanical response of the human muscles during one's act of performing the salat. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-21729-6_34

In a quantitative survey of religious attitudes and practices in a multi‐religious sample of 369 school pupils aged between 13 and 15 in London, the practice of bowing to parents was found widespread in 22% of adolescents spanning several religious affiliations and ethnicities – especially Buddhists, Hindus and those of Indian, African and ‘Other Asian’ ethnicity. Whether an adolescent bowed correlated significantly with spiritual attitudes such as wanting to abstain from alcohol, hearing religious stories, being inspired by religious festivals and liking the idea of seeing God in everything. Findings suggest bowing to parents can have religious significance on all three levels of Jackson’s Interpretive Approach and therefore cannot be regarded as a ‘cultural accretion’ of religion. Study of bowing to parents could form a unifying exercise in shared values for study of religion in the plural classroom and facilitate community cohesion in certain religious membership groups.