Allah is called what? نور السماوات و الأرض (the light of the skies and the earth)
Is نور nur something experienced by people? Yes.
So Allah doesn't have to say, "Allah is..."
Before I explain the analogy to you in depth, which I won't today, but just
just a touch of it. Just a touch of it. Crumbs! Yes, crumbs. Yeah.
What's the way by which we can see?
Light. The Arabs actually called one of the words for the eye in Arabic "noor".
Also, another word for vision is noor. And the guy who was blind
the أعمى ('amaa) was also called فاقد نور البصر (faaqidu noor al basar)
he doesn't have light in the eyes. The twinkle of the eye. They would consider that
the ability of the eye to see.
the light of the eye. Also, obviously also our lights
not getting too scientific but our
our eyes, when do they function? When there is what? Light. If there's no light they don't function.
there's no purpose to them if there's no light. Our way to observe reality around
us is through our vision
We don't know what a tree looks like, we don't know what
our parents look like. We don't know what anything looks like
we don't know beauty, we don't know
know incentive, we don't know any of those things until we have something to see
And even those who can't see use their imagination to see.
They wonder what it must look like. In their mind they have a picture.
So, Allah calls Himself noor (light).
But not just any noor. He called Himself
نور السماوات و الأرض (nurul samawaati wa alardi -- the light of the skies and the earth) which is particular. Like Allah doesn't just call Himself رب (rabb-master)
but rather رب العالمين (rabbul aalameen -- Master of the nations) or رب السماوات و الأرض (rabbus-samaawati wa alardi- Master of the skies and the earth).
He associated that light to the skies and the earth.
"The skies and the earth" is the Quran's reference to the physical universe,
what you can see, as far as your imagination goes in the universe.
Now, Allah(swt) is comparing Himself to the thing you need to be able
to see the universe for what it is
What Allah(swt) is saying here, in brief, is without Allah(swt) you don't really see anything
you don't really see anything
you think you see it but looking at the skies and the earth without Allah
you are as lost to what it really is as someone who's blind
and can only imagine what it must really be. Someone who has faith in Allah(swt)
has a light, has the real light,
through which they can see and then they see reality.
Now, I see a tree and someone who studies agriculture
and has a PhD trees in Texas (and people do that sort of thing)
sees a tree and I can't tell you much about that tree while he can write a book on that tree
but if he doesn't have Allah in his heart guess what? He doesn't see it for what it is.
And I do. I have an advantage over him because I have نور السماوات و الأرض (nurul samawaati wa alardi --the light of the skies and the earth).
then of course when you're talking about Allah, you're talking about something that
can't be encapsulated but this is a simile, it's a parable.
You want to think about Allah(swt) the way you think about the light
with which you used to understand the world around you. Why is it a parable?
Is Allah(swt) Himself making it clear that it's a parable?
الله نور السماوات و الأرض مثل نوره (Allahu nurul samaawaati wa alardi) Allah is the light of the skies and the earth. The EXAMPLE of His light
Now the idafah changed. Instead of it being "the light of the skies and the earth"
now it's becoming
"His light" meaning the light that He just referred to in this
ayah...the parable He just gave. What can it be given a parallel to?
كمشكاة فيها مصباح (kamishkaatin feeha misbaah) To an indent, a niche
in a wall. They do this in Texas construction by the way I haven't seen
it much in East Coast because we don't have
don't have anything in the East Coast. But, whatever.
We're short on space, we don't have a lot of new construction
everything's congested already right?
In a lot of the country where we have bigger and older cities you don't get a lot of new
construction and design and things like that
you just work with what you have. In Texas they build these niches:
large rooms in which the light wants to spread. They'll build this kind of
arch thing and it's indented. You're supposed to put a lamp in there, or a light in there
or some art in there or something like that.
Now this is actually an ancient construction piece
to put a dent inside the wall, a niche, an
arch inside the wall. Why? Because they put a lamp in there and because of the
shape of the arch the light spreads to the entire room
(The light) reflects off of it and lights up the entire room
So the purpose of that niche is to spread the light. That's what it does.
That's called a مشكاة (mishkaat). So the example of Allah's light is you can think of it
as an arch
فيها مصباح (feeha misbaah) in which there's a lamp. المصباح في زجاجة (almisbaahu fee zujaajah)
The lamp is in a glass
and then He goes on to further describe the glass but the interesting thing
is that you're thinking about a house and a room
that's dark originally. It's dark
and the place that you would expect the light to be is where?
Inside this arch.
But that arch is empty unless you put what there?
A lamp. And that lamp has to be lit. And if that lamp is going to survive it must have the
right kind of oil
pure oil. And the glass should be clean because if the glass is dirty
light won't light up the room. It'll still be a dark room right?
That arch is actually the rib cage.
In the in the analogy it's describing a rib cage
It looks like an arch. And in it Allah(swt) placed a hole
and in that hole He put a lamp. And what's that lamp? Our heart. It's our heart.
And then describing that heart He said
it's got the most refined material inside
pure not inclining to the east nor the west: لا شرقية ولا غربية (la sharqiyyah wa la gharbiyyah).
In other words
you won't find this kind of oil in the East Coast you won't find it on the
West Coast. It's not even from this earth. It is
other-worldly. Do you know where it's from?
From Allah(swt). That's the روح (rooh). It's pure. It's pure
And if you know something about pure
gasoline or oil. Like really refined oil?
If the fire's over here and the gas is over there what does it look to do?
It looks to the physical eye like it (the oil) is jumping to it (the fire)
That's why Allah(swt) says يكاد زيتها يضيء (yakaadu zaytuha yudeeu) its oil wants to light up.
And it's beautiful that He said يضيء (yudeeu) and He didn't say ينير (yuneeru)
The wordينير (yuneeru) would have meant it wants to get on fire, it wants to set on fire.
But He said it wants to light up. It wants to light up.
And then it's interesting that He said يضيء (yudeeu) not ينوَّرُ (yunaw-waru) .
The word ينوَّرُ (yunaw-waru) is from the word نور (nur) but يضيء (yudeeu) comes from the word ضوء (daw')
(daw')ضوء is also light, نور (nur) is also light.
But Allah(swt) says هو الذي جعل الشمس ضياء والقمر نورا (huwa al-lathy ja-ala ash-shamsa diyaa-an wa al-qamara nooran) Surah 10:5
He is the One who made the sun ضياء (deeya' - a light) and the moon نورا (nur-aan - a light).
Nur (نور) is light that doesn't have any burning in it.
There's no heat in it. Daw' (ضوء) is
light that has burning in it. The light of Allah(swt) is noor. The light
that you feel inside, some of it,
is not entirely noor (نور), it's got an element of what?
Of daw' (ضوء) in it. Why? Because when we experience that light there's going to be some pain.
There's going to be some burning. There's going to be some sacrifices.
There's an element of difficulty inside the word يضيء (yudeeu).
ولو لم تمسسه نار (wa law lam tamsas hu naar) even if a fire doesn't touch it
Then Allah(swt) says نور على نور (nurun ala nur -- light upon light). Light upon light, a famous phrase right? Light upon light.
It's used in MSA flyers all the time. Light upon light.
What in the world does that mean? This lamp inside, this heart inside Allah put light
in it before we even got here
and then there's the light of revelation Allah sends
That's also called light (64:8): فآمنوا بالله ورسوله والنور الذي أنزلنا (fa aaminu bil Lahi wa rasoolihi wa al-noori al-lathy anzalnaa) So believe in Allah, and His Messenger and the light that We sent down
Now we're learning that Allah(swt) is the way by which you see reality and
we're also learning that revelation is the way by which you see reality.
But Allah(swt) says this light, the light outside, will not be of any benefit if your eyes are closed, if you're blind.
And what's the lamp you need inside?
The heart. So He says when this clean heart,
that is, this light that was put inside,
meets that light of revelation then the two lights collide
and the the entire entity of the human being, inside of him, is lit up
And He calls it نور على نور nurun ala nur - light upon light.
There's light upon the light you already have inside and this person gets
lit up. The darkness inside them goes away, the
sadness inside them goes away. The fears inside them go away.
The jealousy inside them goes away. It's light upon light. نور على نور Nurun ala nur.
And you just sit there listening to that like, Whoa!
يهدي الله لنوره من يشاء (Yahdi Allahu linurihi man yashaau -- Allah guides to His light...)
Now He says من يشاء (man yashaau). من يشاء is also beautiful.
(The phrase) من يشاء means "whoever wants"
it also means "whoever He wants". Such a beautiful ayah.
Allah(swt) says whoever wants can have this light, and whoever He wants can have this light.
So there are two wills here in the same ayah.
What two wills? My will and Allah(swt)'s will. Both wills.
and Allah made them simultaneous. In other words: I will give this light
I'm willing to give it to you, Allah is saying, but you have to be willing to
accept it. If you're not willing then I'm not willing.
our wills are simultaneous. It's equally your decision as it is Mine.
That's in من يشاء (man yashaa). And then He says: و يضرب الله الأمثال للناس (wa yadribu Allahu al amthaala lin-naas).
And Allah just gives examples for people.
Such a powerful example الله نور السماوات و الأرض (Allahu nurul samawaati wa alardi) Allah is the light of the skies and the earth.