Edit OmarKN
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The Light of Islam is the Light of the Divine Presence, which is God - Allah.
”God is pure Light, and the many things are the rays of this Light. These rays, although they are light, are not identical to pure Light, and insofar as they are not identical with it, they are darkness. And darkness is the absence of light, which means - from this perspective - that the many things are characterized by the absence of Being - an 'absence' which the yearning soul may perceive in its search for God, although in reality nothing can be absent from the Real (Al-Haqq ).
”When God brings the entities into existence, He showers light upon darkness. In themselves, the entities are simply possibilities of existence known to God. They do not pertain to any mode of actualized existence until God's light shines upon them.”
God's Being is Light (nūr ). The impossible thing or nothingness is darkness (ẓulma ) and the existence of the cosmos is a domain of brightness or shadow between the two.
SPK214 [1]
Light, radiance and darkness. Being, existence and nonexistence. Light and darkness, He and Not He.
SPK7 [1]
*Three times in the Quran Allah (swt) characterizes the Holy Prophet ﷺ a light:
{ From Allah has come to you a Light and a Book manifest. } (5-15)
{ The likeness of His light is as a niche wherein is a Lamp (the lamp in a glass, the glass as it were a glittering star) kindled from a Blessed Tree, an olive that is neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil well-nigh would shine, even if no fire touched it; Light upon Light. } (24:35)
{ O Prophet! Truly We have sent you as a Witness, a Bearer of glad tidings, and a Warner, and as one who invites to Allah by His leave, and as a Lamp spreading Light. } (33-45/46) [2]
”He [the Prophet] was named a Light because of the clarity of his case and the fact that his Prophecy was made manifest, and also because of the illumination of the hearts of the believers and the knowers of Allah with what he brought.”[3]
”The correct view is that Prophets are a brand of human beings superior to the angels with respect to the light and the other gifts bestowed on them by Allah.”[3]
Also the Quran itself can be taken as a light, the Revelation of the Quran being a light of God. This Revelation is the truth in all ages and situations {it is either for you or against you!} and a light given to the Prophet ﷺ.
”Notwithstanding the discrepancy between the ideal of Islam and the practice of some Muslims, Islam is a force for freedom - freeing from the shackles of self-slavery. Humans may think they are free, conscious beings, but in truth they are like deluded animals.
For the seekers of transcendent truth Islam is 'the path of enlightenment and readiness for the Hereafter - here and now.'”[4]
However difficult is the case of those stuck in spiritual darkness:
”When man has shut himself off from Heaven (!) he has ended by losing his intuition of everything that surpasses himself. He has thus sunk below his own true nature, for one cannot be fully man (or woman) except by way of God, and the earth is beautiful only by virtue of its link with Heaven.” FS
Related texts
Light Over Light
The Light of the Prophet ﷺ by GF Haddad
SPK: The Sufi Path of Knowledge, W. C. Chittick, Ibn al-`Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination
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From usmanimosque.com
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More: The Light of the Prophet ﷺ by GF Haddad
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Sh F Haeri
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