An-Nur

The Light

Exalted and Glorious

Indeed, there has come to you from Allah a light, and a plain Book.  (5:15)

 

So those who believe in him (Muhammad, alayhi salam) honor him, help him, and follow the light which has been sent down with him.  (7:157)

 

They want to extinguish Allah’s Light with their mouths, but Allah will not allow except that His Light should be perfected, even though the disbelievers hate it.  (9:32)

 

Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth.  (24:35)

 

They intend to put out the Light of Allah with their mouths.  But Allah will bring His Light to perfection even though the disbelievers hate it.  (61:8)

 

This attribute of Allah clearly indicates that Allah, the Most High is the Only Reality as He is the Only Light.

 

The Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him says, “God has 70,000 veils of Light.”

 

As all our lights have their source in the Primary Light, the One Reality, there can be no light unless Allah gives the light.  He who repeats this name will have inner light.

 

An-Nur is the Light of the Guide of Righteousness Who reveals the right way, through His guidance, to whomever He wishes, and to whomever He makes clear His truth.  He fills him with yearning by His imprinting of him the purifying of his essence and the cleansing of his zeal. So let us be enlightened in His righteousness through His guidance.

 

Allah Allah Allah

From: The Meanings of the Names of Our Lord by Shaykh Muhammad Sa’id al-Jamal ar-Rifa’i Head of the Higher Sufi Council in Jerusalem and the Holy Land Teacher at the Dome of the Rock (al-Aqsa)

 

AN-NUR

 

Allah is the Light shed upon the whole creation, making is apparent.  Just as this Light is responsible for making the perceptible seen, it also makes the conceivable known.  The Light that shows the conceivable is the light of faith and wisdom, and the eye that sees it is the basirah, the eye of the heart.  That Light is the light of existence: nonexistence is darkness.  That Light is the light that brought existence our of the darkness.  That Light makes itself visible as well as making all else visible.  There is not one atom among all the things that exist in the heavens and on earth and in that which is between them that does not point to the existence of its Creator.

 

… the Light of the heavens and the earth. (Surah Nur 35)

 

The sun sheds light upon the sky and the earth, enabling us to see things around us, large and small, of different shapes and colors, enabling us to identify that from which we may profit and that which may harm us.  In its light we find our way and see the pits and swamps. In the same way, Allah has bestowed upon us the light of faith, which shows us the straight path of salvation and the pit and swamps of infidelity, sin, and revolt.  That sun of faith in the heart of believers renders them beautiful of face and beautiful in character.  The light of faith eliminates the darkness of infidelity and sin within and without, bringing us to the light of truth and salvation and serenity.

 

The Devil, and one’s own devil, the ego, are thieves who like to operate in darkness and enter dark houses.  They will not enter that divine house, the heart illuminated by the light of faith.  The gate to the heart is the mind; the light of that gate is knowledge.  That light blocks out the evils of ignorance, imagination, hypocrisy, and arrogance.  The soul needs light and detests darkness.  As the light of the soul is consciousness, its darkness is heedlessness.

 

You who spend so much effort and wealth to illuminate your material life with chandeliers, sparkling jewels, and bright ostentation, why do you turn off the light of your heart?  Don’t you see that you may cause it to become used to darkness, and go blind like the bat?  If the eye of your head goes blind, someone may lead you by the hand on the road, but the one whose heart is blind cannot be led, and will be lost for eternity.

 

‘Abd an-Nur is the servant of Allah who has received the blessing of a response to the prayer of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) “O My Lord, render me light!” and who has come to know the secret of the verse of the Qur’an

Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth (Surah Nur 35)

 

Such a one knows that all existence, knowledge, thought, and feeling come from that Light, and that all existence and knowledge in the universe are nothing but that Light.

 

If believers who find their hearts darkened with doubt and sadness read Surah Nur (the Qur’anic chapter of Divine Light) seven times and recite this Name 1000 times, they will find their doubts eliminated and their hearts enlightened.

 

If a person who has lost his way recites this Name 256 times, he will find his way.

 

From: The Name & the Named by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti