Sahih International
Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp, the lamp is within glass, the glass as if it were a pearly [white] star lit from [the oil of] a blessed olive tree, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil would almost glow even if untouched by fire. Light upon light. Allah guides to His light whom He wills. And Allah presents examples for the people, and Allah is Knowing of all things.
Sahih International
[Such niches are] in mosques which Allah has ordered to be raised and that His name be mentioned therein; exalting Him within them in the morning and the evenings
Sahih International
[Are] men whom neither commerce nor sale distracts from the remembrance of Allah and performance of prayer and giving of zakah. They fear a Day in which the hearts and eyes will [fearfully] turn about -
Sahih International
That Allah may reward them [according to] the best of what they did and increase them from His bounty. And Allah gives provision to whom He wills without account.
Sahih International
But those who disbelieved - their deeds are like a mirage in a lowland which a thirsty one thinks is water until, when he comes to it, he finds it is nothing but finds Allah before Him, and He will pay him in full his due; and Allah is swift in account.
Sahih International
Or [they are] like darknesses within an unfathomable sea which is covered by waves, upon which are waves, over which are clouds - darknesses, some of them upon others. When one puts out his hand [therein], he can hardly see it. And he to whom Allah has not granted light - for him there is no light.
Light is of 2 kinds:
1-Physical light e.g. light of the sun
2-Spiritual light e.g. light of the Quran, or when Allah says he brings people out of darkness into light, angels are made of spiritual light, Ruh is light
Allah is the light of the heavens and the Earth, means that Allah is the source of all light. Allahs physical lamp for this planet is the sun.
In order to have vision, we need eyes and light around us to see. So we need both a light inside and a light outside. In Arabic, ability to see is also called having light.
Suppose we have the ability to see but Allah takes away the Sun, we wont be able to see anymore.
Allah revealed the light of Quran from above for human beings.
There are 2 kinds of human beings: Spiritually blind are those whose hearts are closed and they are unable to see and appreciate the light of Quran.
The other kind of people are those who are spiritually able to see.
Hazrat Ali says that there are 2 kinds of minds, a mind we were born with and a mind we built over time.So Hazrat Ali means that the Ruh is fully mature even before it came into our bodies and it was mature whenAllah took the oath alastu birabbikum. The Ruh is separated from Allah when its sent to the world in a mothers belly. And a baby cries when its born, so its given an Azaan to calm him. We are given Azaan when we are born and Namaz Janaza will be prayed on us when we die, so this life is just similar to the gap between Azan and Iqamah. Thats how brief it is. Do something good in between Azan and Iqamah as its precious.
If you stop respecting the intellect, the Ruh, the spiritual heart given to you as a child,your physical mind is of no use. Just like the light of the sun is no good if the light of the eyes is missing.
Physical light is the source of light on the planet. Without spiritual light, there can be no spiritual life, and the hearts become dead, and the eyes do not see.
When Allahs physical light is there then our lights pretty much become useless as Allahs light is enough. At night, we need our lights to be turned on. But even if we turn on all our lights they cannot compete with Allahs lamp. There is absolutely no comparison between our light and Allahs light. Our light is so limited.
Allahs light gives life but our light cannot give anything life.
Our ideas may be good but it is nothing compared to Allahs ideas. But when Allah reveals His light, it completes us and we can see so much and appreciate so many things that were hidden without Allahs light. Our heart opens to so many things. For example when our plane is landing somewhere at night, we cant appreciate any scenery but when it lands at day we are overawed by everything we see. Just like there is difference between night and the day, Allahs light makes so much difference.
Niche is similar to the shape of a ribcage, lamp is similar to our heart. When the light hits the niche, it lights you up and you can even from the outside that the light is on.
When does the difference become clear between a light that is on and a light that is off? at NIGHT! Light becomes prominent when their is darkness around us, spiritual darkness around us.
Misbaah is an Ism aala..Subh means morning.. Misbaah is a tool that tries to replicate the morning. It tries to replicate the morning. Just like our Ruh when it was with its Lord it was fullly in light but when it was brought to Earth it felt deprived of that light and then Allah gave us Misbaah so it tried to mimic that morning light.
Lamp is surrounded by a glass. Why? because lamp needs protection so that its not easily blown out by the wind. So spiritually, our heart is protected by the glass from waswasa of shetaan who also blows.
We remember Allah and do Zikr and think of Allah to CLEAN the dirt which gathers on the glass, so if we are surrounded by constant dirt we need to clean ourselves constantly, Allah asks us to clean the glass at least 5 times a day through Salaah. Our heart is delicate just like a glass is delicate. If the glass is clean, you can right through it, similarly a person with a clean glass is honest and their zaahir and baatin are the same, they are transparent.
This glass is like a brilliant shining star. Stars can be seen at night time. Its compared with a shining brilliant star because we have gotten our light from outside this world. We came from Allah with this light.
Fuel is important. Pure fuel lasts longer and burns better.The fuel for this lamp comes from an outside source, a tree Mubaarak which produces so much more beyond our expectations. Which means that the Ruh is capable of becoming better and better and drawing closer and closer to Allah and theres no limit to it.
Allama Iqbal and Shaykh abdullah adhimi are 2 scholars who had some remarkable thoughts about this.
Human beings produce and manufacture a lot of things. And we have a lot of creativity. For example, the phone first developed was old fashioned. Now we have wireless, internet, bluetooth etc. We have modified our clothes with time.We improved everything! Furniture, crockery, buildings etc. We have the desire of perfection so we keep striving more and more and try to improve. We improve everything we are passionate about. This spirit is not found in animals and no other specie.
Our Ruh was in the company of Allah, the company of the perfect, and our Ruh is now constantly searching for perfection and beauty. This desire is because we were in the company of perfection. This pursuit for perfection is a SPIRITUAL trait. We don't even realize it.
The heart is never satisfied, our light is never enough, until we experience something thats perfect i.e. Allahs light.
Whats the Arab word for oil? Zaiyt. Because there is no other Zaiyt but Zaitoon, means that for Arabs the epic oil is Zaitoon oil/Olive tree. There is a lone olive tree, imagine it. The sun rises and it bakes it from the Eastern Side and when the sun sets, the sun beams on its western side. Such trees grow best because they get to have all the light.Allah says here that the olive tree is neither Eastern nor Western. Its been sunbathed constantly so it produces the purest oil. Our Ruh was in the constant present of Allah. Allah created our Ruh at the same time when he created Adam AS. So we have been baking in the light of Allah for a long time and we have only been on Earth for a limited time. After being with Allah, the oil is put in the lamp and put it in our ribcage on Earth.
The oil wants to catch fire again although the fire even hasnt touched it. This oil does not even need fire! This lamp does not even need fire to lit up!
Then it hears the call of the caller calling it to the light of Allah. And we say this is exactly what we were looking for. This can complete my light.LIGHT UPON LIGHT.
Allah guides ALL the way to His light whoever He wills. It means Allah will continue to guide you until you are standing with Allah again.
Allah will do it for whoever wants it and whoever Allah wants.
And Allah knows everything. Allah is just giving this example for you as a teacher. Allah does not need examples.
Baata=place where you spend the night, or talk the night, or plan the night etc.. so its fitting because the lamp shines brightest in the night
Daara is another word for home, it means the place you keep circling or going back to
Zakara does not mean just to remember, but to speak out,Zikr means both to mention something and remember something.
Imam Raazi said that the people of the Earth look at the sky at the twinkling stars, and the people of the sky are looking at the Earth,at the homes where Zikr is being done and they are shining spiritually.
Fajr, Maghrib, Isha, the common thing between these 3 prayers is darkness. These are the 3 prayers in which we mention the name of Allah loudly in Salaah. Mentioning Allahs name is equivalent to spreading Allahs light. When there is more darkness and more ignorance, we need to go out of the way to spread Allahs light and remove the darkness. When the light is already there, we do not need to speak out loud as in Zuhr and Asr.
His name is mentioned in morning and evening (i.e. Fajr, and Maghrib Isha). Since Rijaal or men are mentioned, it can also refer to Masaajid which young men need to fill and that will be the day we will become different people, especially at these times of darkness. Fajr and Isha at the Masjid is part of becoming real men.
There are people whom sale and commerce does not distract from Allah. Imagine its Jumma time and he gets a customer at the time of Jummah prayer and he usually doesnt get many customers. Does he serve the customer and enjoy his sale or go remember Allah? Thats the temptation
Zakaat is mentioned here for a reason. Its a spiritual tax. And it only applies to Halaal earning. So Allah here wants to say that you can only be clean and purified if you make clean money and give out of that to purify our money. Even the disbelievers used to have this sense to rebuild Kaabah only out of pure money, not out of money from gambling or prostitution etc Nowadays we have lost that sense of making Halaal money and choosing the right career. We take huge loans based on interest just to get some status symbols. You only become a real man if you are productive and contributing to the society.
They fear a day on which the hearts and eyes are going to be turned over. Why hearts and eyes? because the entire parable had to do with eyes and heart(physical and spiritual light).
Did you ever hear a teacher who said that I will take multiple exams and add your highest 5 scores and average them to the rest even if you do badly in the remaining. So Allah here just does that. He says Allah will take the BEST of what we did and compensate us based on that. And grade us according to that. So Allah will really really count some particular deeds and pass us based on that. And he will add some more points out of his own favour, if your best was not that good. Allah provides whoever he wants without any limits.
A pure heart naturally becomes concerned with giving others. Thats another reason why Allah mentioned Zakaat. Zakaat is the spirit of caring for others. It can be thought of metaphorically. It makes you a purer person. It helps you. Your attitude to others tells a lot about your relationship with Allah. You become soft with everyone. When you love Allah, you begin to love Allahs creation.
Those who disbelieve, their deeds are like a mirage in a low land
Or its like multiple shades of darkness(lujjaaj implies persistence and turbulence) in the middle of an ocean, then a wave comes and covers him, above this wave there is another bigger wave and above and beyond that there are clouds, its a dark night. If he took out his own hand, he wont even be able to see it. Then whoever Allah does not give light, they cannot possibly have any light
Both these examples have to do with the inability to see.
The first case of the mirage is of one who thinks they are doing good deeds but its just a mirage and their deeds amount to nothing. A mirage looks good but it has no reality. Some people even think that what they are doing is good but its not good for Allah because they are showing off or not doing it for Allah purely or they are doing it the wrong way. e.g. some people rob a bank but are very kind to the poor. Some become a part of unjust wars and think they are serving their country. Some people earn from a haraam source but give a lot of charity. They are all living in a delusion. Some people think they can make up for their bad deeds by doing a good deed. Its true that good deeds wipe away bad deeds but that happens when you do sincere tawbah from a bad deed and replace it with good deeds. Suppose you work at a company and you keep piling up your work and keep promising the boss I will put extra hours and make up for it later. How long will the boss let you do it? He will fire you. Some people unfortunately ignore the things that are very important for Allah and are a big deal and compensate it by doing things which are just for extra credit e.g. going for umrah praying taraweeh or not fasting and just paying for those missed fasts without a genuine excuse etc. and in their mind they think that this will balance the equation.
It as is they are trying to bribe Allah through these shortcuts. We need to check our niyyah again and again. Are we truly doing what we are doing for Allah or are we doing it just to make a show of it?
Some people say that at least they are not in the depths of the ocean, they are doing something, some good deeds, so they are happy with the mirage by saying that at least they are not a bad person. But they forget that both of them are blindness.
The 2nd is of the person who is surrounded by bad company and is in darkness of sins. They have completely blocked access to any good influence. When someone is in darkness for a long time, they become really agitated by light. So they become really agitated by good advice. Its going to be a painful difficult struggle initially for them to find light again.If he took his hands out he wont be able to see it. Hands are a symbol of deeds, so it shows that he is not even able to see the reality of his deeds.
Whoever Allah might not have given light, for him there is no light. It shows that Allah GAVE everyone light within themselves, in their inside, even if there is no light on their outside.
Even for Firaun who was the epitome of evil,Allah even said for him that remind him maybe it will benefit him. So it shows that the possibility exists.
People try to busy themselvess in drug and rock and roll to escape reality so that they do not have to THINK about it. They just want to become blind to reality. They may have everything but they are still not happy. They are drowned in darkness. And a lot of such people commit suicide.
e.g. There was a woman who decided to become an actress, and they told her you would have to let go completely and let go of your beliefs and morals to mould yourself into every character just like an empty vessel. In other words, they asked her to kill her light. She did it for 2 years but then she could not bear it. Then she joined a circus. But there too after a while she began to feel the clothing is inappropriate. Then she came across a muslim there who was praying and after talking to him, she accepted Islam. They both left the circus and got married and mashaaAllah now have children who are Huffaaz.
When Allahs physical light is there then our lights pretty much become useless as Allahs light is enough. At night, we need our lights to be turned on. But even if we turn on all our lights they cannot compete with Allahs lamp. There is absolutely no comparison between our light and Allahs light. Our light is so limited.
Allahs light gives life but our light cannot give anything life.
Our ideas may be good but it is nothing compared to Allahs ideas. But when Allah reveals His light, it completes us and we can see so much and appreciate so many things that were hidden without Allahs light. Our heart opens to so many things. For example when our plane is landing somewhere at night, we cant appreciate any scenery but when it lands at day we are overawed by everything we see. Just like there is difference between night and the day, Allahs light makes so much difference.
Niche is similar to the shape of a ribcage, lamp is similar to our heart. When the light hits the niche, it lights you up and you can even from the outside that the light is on.
When does the difference become clear between a light that is on and a light that is off? at NIGHT! Light becomes prominent when their is darkness around us, spiritual darkness around us.
Misbaah is an Ism aala..Subh means morning.. Misbaah is a tool that tries to replicate the morning. It tries to replicate the morning. Just like our Ruh when it was with its Lord it was fullly in light but when it was brought to Earth it felt deprived of that light and then Allah gave us Misbaah so it tried to mimic that morning light.
Lamp is surrounded by a glass. Why? because lamp needs protection so that its not easily blown out by the wind. So spiritually, our heart is protected by the glass from waswasa of shetaan who also blows.
We remember Allah and do Zikr and think of Allah to CLEAN the dirt which gathers on the glass, so if we are surrounded by constant dirt we need to clean ourselves constantly, Allah asks us to clean the glass at least 5 times a day through Salaah. Our heart is delicate just like a glass is delicate. If the glass is clean, you can right through it, similarly a person with a clean glass is honest and their zaahir and baatin are the same, they are transparent.
This glass is like a brilliant shining star. Stars can be seen at night time. Its compared with a shining brilliant star because we have gotten our light from outside this world. We came from Allah with this light.
Fuel is important. Pure fuel lasts longer and burns better.The fuel for this lamp comes from an outside source, a tree Mubaarak which produces so much more beyond our expectations. Which means that the Ruh is capable of becoming better and better and drawing closer and closer to Allah and theres no limit to it.
Allama Iqbal and Shaykh abdullah adhimi are 2 scholars who had some remarkable thoughts about this.
Human beings produce and manufacture a lot of things. And we have a lot of creativity. For example, the phone first developed was old fashioned. Now we have wireless, internet, bluetooth etc. We have modified our clothes with time.We improved everything! Furniture, crockery, buildings etc. We have the desire of perfection so we keep striving more and more and try to improve. We improve everything we are passionate about. This spirit is not found in animals and no other specie.
Our Ruh was in the company of Allah, the company of the perfect, and our Ruh is now constantly searching for perfection and beauty. This desire is because we were in the company of perfection. This pursuit for perfection is a SPIRITUAL trait. We don't even realize it.
The heart is never satisfied, our light is never enough, until we experience something thats perfect i.e. Allahs light.
Whats the Arab word for oil? Zaiyt. Because there is no other Zaiyt but Zaitoon, means that for Arabs the epic oil is Zaitoon oil/Olive tree. There is a lone olive tree, imagine it. The sun rises and it bakes it from the Eastern Side and when the sun sets, the sun beams on its western side. Such trees grow best because they get to have all the light.Allah says here that the olive tree is neither Eastern nor Western. Its been sunbathed constantly so it produces the purest oil. Our Ruh was in the constant present of Allah. Allah created our Ruh at the same time when he created Adam AS. So we have been baking in the light of Allah for a long time and we have only been on Earth for a limited time. After being with Allah, the oil is put in the lamp and put it in our ribcage on Earth.
The oil wants to catch fire again although the fire even hasnt touched it. This oil does not even need fire! This lamp does not even need fire to lit up!
Then it hears the call of the caller calling it to the light of Allah. And we say this is exactly what we were looking for. This can complete my light.LIGHT UPON LIGHT.
Allah guides ALL the way to His light whoever He wills. It means Allah will continue to guide you until you are standing with Allah again.
Allah will do it for whoever wants it and whoever Allah wants.
And Allah knows everything. Allah is just giving this example for you as a teacher. Allah does not need examples.
Baata=place where you spend the night, or talk the night, or plan the night etc.. so its fitting because the lamp shines brightest in the night
Daara is another word for home, it means the place you keep circling or going back to
Zakara does not mean just to remember, but to speak out,Zikr means both to mention something and remember something.
Imam Raazi said that the people of the Earth look at the sky at the twinkling stars, and the people of the sky are looking at the Earth,at the homes where Zikr is being done and they are shining spiritually.
Fajr, Maghrib, Isha, the common thing between these 3 prayers is darkness. These are the 3 prayers in which we mention the name of Allah loudly in Salaah. Mentioning Allahs name is equivalent to spreading Allahs light. When there is more darkness and more ignorance, we need to go out of the way to spread Allahs light and remove the darkness. When the light is already there, we do not need to speak out loud as in Zuhr and Asr.
His name is mentioned in morning and evening (i.e. Fajr, and Maghrib Isha). Since Rijaal or men are mentioned, it can also refer to Masaajid which young men need to fill and that will be the day we will become different people, especially at these times of darkness. Fajr and Isha at the Masjid is part of becoming real men.
There are people whom sale and commerce does not distract from Allah. Imagine its Jumma time and he gets a customer at the time of Jummah prayer and he usually doesnt get many customers. Does he serve the customer and enjoy his sale or go remember Allah? Thats the temptation
Zakaat is mentioned here for a reason. Its a spiritual tax. And it only applies to Halaal earning. So Allah here wants to say that you can only be clean and purified if you make clean money and give out of that to purify our money. Even the disbelievers used to have this sense to rebuild Kaabah only out of pure money, not out of money from gambling or prostitution etc Nowadays we have lost that sense of making Halaal money and choosing the right career. We take huge loans based on interest just to get some status symbols. You only become a real man if you are productive and contributing to the society.
They fear a day on which the hearts and eyes are going to be turned over. Why hearts and eyes? because the entire parable had to do with eyes and heart(physical and spiritual light).
Did you ever hear a teacher who said that I will take multiple exams and add your highest 5 scores and average them to the rest even if you do badly in the remaining. So Allah here just does that. He says Allah will take the BEST of what we did and compensate us based on that. And grade us according to that. So Allah will really really count some particular deeds and pass us based on that. And he will add some more points out of his own favour, if your best was not that good. Allah provides whoever he wants without any limits.
A pure heart naturally becomes concerned with giving others. Thats another reason why Allah mentioned Zakaat. Zakaat is the spirit of caring for others. It can be thought of metaphorically. It makes you a purer person. It helps you. Your attitude to others tells a lot about your relationship with Allah. You become soft with everyone. When you love Allah, you begin to love Allahs creation.
Those who disbelieve, their deeds are like a mirage in a low land
Or its like multiple shades of darkness(lujjaaj implies persistence and turbulence) in the middle of an ocean, then a wave comes and covers him, above this wave there is another bigger wave and above and beyond that there are clouds, its a dark night. If he took out his own hand, he wont even be able to see it. Then whoever Allah does not give light, they cannot possibly have any light
Both these examples have to do with the inability to see.
The first case of the mirage is of one who thinks they are doing good deeds but its just a mirage and their deeds amount to nothing. A mirage looks good but it has no reality. Some people even think that what they are doing is good but its not good for Allah because they are showing off or not doing it for Allah purely or they are doing it the wrong way. e.g. some people rob a bank but are very kind to the poor. Some become a part of unjust wars and think they are serving their country. Some people earn from a haraam source but give a lot of charity. They are all living in a delusion. Some people think they can make up for their bad deeds by doing a good deed. Its true that good deeds wipe away bad deeds but that happens when you do sincere tawbah from a bad deed and replace it with good deeds. Suppose you work at a company and you keep piling up your work and keep promising the boss I will put extra hours and make up for it later. How long will the boss let you do it? He will fire you. Some people unfortunately ignore the things that are very important for Allah and are a big deal and compensate it by doing things which are just for extra credit e.g. going for umrah praying taraweeh or not fasting and just paying for those missed fasts without a genuine excuse etc. and in their mind they think that this will balance the equation.
It as is they are trying to bribe Allah through these shortcuts. We need to check our niyyah again and again. Are we truly doing what we are doing for Allah or are we doing it just to make a show of it?
Some people say that at least they are not in the depths of the ocean, they are doing something, some good deeds, so they are happy with the mirage by saying that at least they are not a bad person. But they forget that both of them are blindness.
The 2nd is of the person who is surrounded by bad company and is in darkness of sins. They have completely blocked access to any good influence. When someone is in darkness for a long time, they become really agitated by light. So they become really agitated by good advice. Its going to be a painful difficult struggle initially for them to find light again.If he took his hands out he wont be able to see it. Hands are a symbol of deeds, so it shows that he is not even able to see the reality of his deeds.
Whoever Allah might not have given light, for him there is no light. It shows that Allah GAVE everyone light within themselves, in their inside, even if there is no light on their outside.
Even for Firaun who was the epitome of evil,Allah even said for him that remind him maybe it will benefit him. So it shows that the possibility exists.
People try to busy themselvess in drug and rock and roll to escape reality so that they do not have to THINK about it. They just want to become blind to reality. They may have everything but they are still not happy. They are drowned in darkness. And a lot of such people commit suicide.
e.g. There was a woman who decided to become an actress, and they told her you would have to let go completely and let go of your beliefs and morals to mould yourself into every character just like an empty vessel. In other words, they asked her to kill her light. She did it for 2 years but then she could not bear it. Then she joined a circus. But there too after a while she began to feel the clothing is inappropriate. Then she came across a muslim there who was praying and after talking to him, she accepted Islam. They both left the circus and got married and mashaaAllah now have children who are Huffaaz.
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