Rumi: On the Semiotics of Body and Metabody

Our body is diverse and scattered. Controlled by our body, we move within time and space. As the border between us and the other, our body differentiates us from the other. It also functions as a veil that hinders our connection with the qualitative and pure worlds. Now, suppose the body wishes to move beyond quantitative and material limitations. In that case, the body must transcend beyond itself and achieve a form of existence that has no spatio-temporal constraints. The transcended body connects with the essence of existence, which, in turn, results in the creation of a presence that Rumi calls “Jān” or metabody. The metabody, according to Rumi, can reach a higher order and become one and the same with “Jānān.” How can the body move beyond itself and fuse with the metabody? Informed by Rumi’s thoughts and worldview, this study aims to investigate the semiotics of the body and metabody. The findings of this study suggest that by moving beyond the material, temporal, and spatial constraints, the action-body turns into an event-body and achieves a higher order in existence. The event-body is a Hādith-body that elevates the subject by fusing it with the metabody. The metabody moves beyond spatio-temporal constraints and reflects the essence of the presence.
 
Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
Informed by the semio-semantics of the body, one can argue that the body affects the meaning process in two ways: first, as a conservative body that repeats itself until stabilization, and second, as an event-body that looks for change. These two bodies have an all-time dialogic connection. However, due to its dependence on materiality and functionality, the conservative body hinders the movement of the event-body. The body’s transcendence necessitates its freedom from mundane and deterministic systems. If the body transcends, it can connect and correlate with the metabody, or what literature calls the “Jān.” The central question of this study is: how and under what conditions can the body move beyond its limited structures?
2. Methodology
This study adopts a discursive semio-semantics approach to investigate the main characteristics and elements of the body and explicate the body and metabody correlations in Rumi’s thought and worldview.
3. Theoretical Framework
The Saussurian linguistic tradition, which is in accordance with the signifier-signified relations, does not recognize the body as a veil between the form and the content. To present language as a deterministic structure, Russian Formalists, too, denied the presence of the body; Hjelmslev is the only one who argues that the relation between plan de l’expression and plan du contentu is undetermined. In other words, there is a border between the form (outside world) and the meaning (inside world). Fontanille believes that the border is not a determined matter but a subjective existence that the living existence sets in accordance with its relation with the lived experience or a new event (Fontanille, 2003: 34). In addition, the structuralist approach rejects the body, so radically that a structuralist like Greimas even talks of paper subjects (Greimas, 1983).
The central questions of this study are how does Rumi’s thought perceive the body and metabody? Informed by Rumi’s thought, how can one extract a semio-semantic theory of the body and metabody? To understand the theory of the metabody, one must explore the functionality of the body. The body is scattered; physically, it consists of many pieces and has different parts with different capabilities. To assemble these scattered pieces, there needs to be a unifying force above the body, which can only be coordinated by what Rumi calls “Jān.” The “Jān” or metabody is the force that unifies all the bodies.
4. Discussion and Analysis
One must investigate how metabody moves beyond the body and its functionalities to reach a higher order. In his Body and Meaning, Fontanille highlights four positions of corporeality: the first one is Corps-enveloppe or skin-body which is a body between the inside and the outside world that functions as a mediator between the elements of the two worlds; the second one is Corps-chair or the material body which is the basis of the self. It creates our subjectivity and is our source-body or stable body, which withstands changes and transformations; the third one is Corps-ceux or spatial body that hosts different organs, such as the organs of perception which can move and interpret perceptional changes; and the fourth one is Corps-point which allows us to understand the positionings of a body in relation to another.
In this regard, one can argue that the only way to move beyond these functional bodies is to move toward the metabody. To do so, one must disobey the material elements of corporeality. In other words, the body must leave its material and functional position; it must cast aside all distractions and veils from the metabody; it must leave quantitative time and enter qualitative time; it must connect with other scattered bodies; it must move beyond all external rules and shackles; and it must put aside the deterministic system and accept the eventual system. By accepting the event-body, the body prepares to join the metabody. The metabody can stand above all bodies and move toward the eternity of presence.
5. Conclusion
Informed by Rumi’s thoughts and worldview, this study concludes that if the body does not move beyond its spatio-temporal constraints, it will not be able to join the metabody. As a transparent presence, the metabody enables the subject to experience timelessness and spacelessness. The metabody moves beyond spatio-temporal constraints and reflects the essence of the presence. As Rumi argues, since the connected subject correlates with the eternal essence, it has no need for a head, face, or body.
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