Third Light
The Third Light consists of three Gleams.
First Gleam:
An important aspect of the Qur’an of Miraculous Expositions’s miraculous inimitability was explained in the Thirteenth Word. It has been included here so that it might take its place among the other aspects of miraculousness, its brothers.
It is as follows: if you want to see and appreciate how, like shining stars, all the Qur’an’s verses scatter the darkness of unbelief by spreading the light of miraculousness and guidance, imagine yourself in the age of ignorance and desert of savagery where everything was enveloped in lifeless veils of nature, under the darkness of ignorance and heedlessness. Then suddenly from the elevated tongue of the Qur’an, you hear verses like: Whatever is in the heavens extols and glorifies Allah, for He is the Mighty, the Wise. Whatever is in the heavens and earth extols and glorifies Allah, the Sovereign, the Most Holy One, the Mighty, the Wise. See how those dead or sleeping creatures of the world spring to life in the minds of those listening at the sound of extols and glorifies, how they awake, spring up, and mention Allah the Most High’s names!
And at the sound of, The seven heavens and the earth and all within them extol and glorify Him, the stars in those black skies, each a lifeless piece of fire, and the wretched creatures on the face of the earth present the following view to those listening: the sky appears as a mouth and the stars as wisdom‑displaying words and truth-uttering lights. The earth appears as a head, the land and sea as tongues, and all the animals and plants as words of glorification. Otherwise you will not appreciate the subtleties of the pleasure at looking from this time to that.
For if you look at each verse as having scattered its light since that time, and having become like universally accepted knowledge with the passage of time, and as shining with the other lights of Islam, and taking its colour from the sun of the Qur’an, or if you look at it through a superficial and simple veil of familiarity, you will not truly see what sort of darkness each verse scatters or how sweet is the recital of its miraculousness, and you will not appreciate this sort of its miraculousness among its many sorts.
If you want to see one of the highest degrees of the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition’s miraculous inimitability, listen to the following comparison:
Let us imagine an extremely strange and vast and spreading tree which is concealed beneath a veil of the unseen and hidden in a level of concealment. It is clear that there has to be a relationship, harmony, and balance between a tree and all its members, such as its branches, fruits, leaves, and blossom, the same as between man’s members. Each of its parts takes on a form and is given a shape in accordance with the nature of the tree. So if someone appears and traces a picture on top of the veil corresponding to the members of the tree, which has never been seen, then delimits each member, and from the branches to the fruit, and the fruit to the leaves draws a form proportionately, and fills the infinitely distant space between its source and its extremities with drawings showing exactly the shape and form of its members, certainly no doubt will remain that the artist sees the concealed tree with an eye that penetrates and encompasses the unseen, then he depicts it.
In just the same way, the discriminating statements of the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition concerning the reality of contingent beings (that is, concerning the reality of the tree of creation which stretches from the beginning of the world to the farthest limits of the hereafter, and spreads from the earth to the divine throne and from minute particles to the sun) have preserved the proportion between the members to such a degree and have given each member and fruit a form so suitable that at the depictions of the Qur’an, all exacting scholars have declared at the conclusion of their investigations: “What wonders Allah has willed! How great are Allah’s blessings!” They have said: “It is only you who solves and unravels the talisman of the universe and riddle of creation, Oh All‑Wise Qur’an!”
And Allah’s is the highest similitude – and there is no error in the comparison – let us represent the divine names and attributes and dominical acts and deeds as a Tuba tree of light, the sphere of whose grandeur stretches from pre‑eternity to post-eternity, and the limits of whose vastness spread through infinite, endless space and encompass it, and the limits of whose deeds stretch from, Comes between man and his heart and, It is Allah Who splits the seed‑grain and date-stone; to, And the heavens rolled up in His right hand. ; and, He created the heavens and the earth in six days The All‑Wise Qur’an has described that luminous reality, the truths of those names and attributes, and acts and deeds, together with all their branches and twigs and aims and fruits, in a way so harmonious, so fitting for one another, so appropriate for one another, without marring one another or spoiling the decree of one another, or their being remote from one another, that all the people of illumination and those who have penetrated to the realities, and all the wise and the sage who have journeyed in the realm of the inner dimensions of things, have declared: “Glory be to Allah!” in the face of that Discriminating Exposition, and have affirmed it, saying: “How right, how conformable with reality, how fine, how worthy!”
Take, for example, the six pillars of belief. They resemble a single branch of those two mighty trees which look to the entire sphere of contingency and sphere of necessity: it depicts all the branches and boughs of those pillars – as far as the furthest fruits and flowers – observing such a harmony and proportion between them, and describes them in a manner so balanced, and illustrates them a way so symmetrical that the human mind is powerless to perceive it and stands astonished at its beauty. The proof that a beauty of proportion and perfect relation and complete balance have been preserved between the five pillars of Islam, which are like one twig of the branch of belief, down to the finest details, smallest point of conduct, furthest aims, most profound wisdom, and most insignificant fruits, is the perfect order and balance and beauty of proportion and soundness of the Greater Shari‘a of Islam, which has emerged from the decisive statements, senses, indications, and allusions of the comprehensive Qur’an; they form an irrefutable and decisive proof and just witness that cannot be doubted.
This means that the expositions of the Qur’an cannot be attributed to man’s partial knowledge, and particularly to the knowledge of someone unlettered. They rest rather on a comprehensive knowledge and are the word of One Who is able to see all things together and observe in one moment all truths between pre‑eternity and post-eternity. In this we believe.
Second Gleam:
Just how far the human philosophy which challenges Qur’anic wisdom has fallen in the face of that wisdom has been explained and illustrated with comparisons in the Twelfth Word and proved in the other Words. We therefore refer readers to those treatises and for now offer a further comparison from another point of view. It is as follows:
Human science and philosophy look at the world as fixed and constant. And they discuss the nature of beings and their characteristics in detail; if they do speak of their duties before their Maker, they speak of them briefly. Quite simply, they speak only of the decoration and letters of the book of the universe and attach no importance to its meaning.
Whereas the Qur’an looks on the world as transient, passing, deceptive, travelling, unstable, and undergoing revolution. It speaks briefly of the nature of beings and their superficial and material characteristics, but mentions in detail the worshipful duties with which they are charged by the Maker, and how and in what respects they point to His names, and their obedience before the divine creational commands.
We therefore shall take a look at the differences between human philosophy and Qur’anic wisdom in regard to detailed or summary consideration, and shall see which is pure truth and reality.
A watch we hold in our hand appears to be unmoving and at rest, but its inside is in perpetual upheaval through the motion of the workings and the constant anguish of the cogwheels and parts. In just the same way, together with its apparent stability, this world, which is a huge clock of divine power, is perpetually revolving within upheaval and change, transience and evanescence.
Indeed, since time has entered the world, night and day are like a two‑headed hand counting the seconds of that huge clock.
The years resemble a hand counting its minutes,
while the centuries count its hours. Thus, time casts the world onto the waves of death and decline. It assigns all the past and the future to non‑existence, leaving in existence only the present.
Together with this form which time gives the world, with regard to space also it is like an unstable clock undergoing revolution. For since the space of the atmosphere changes swiftly and quickly passes from one state to another due to being filled and emptied with clouds sometimes several times a day, it causes change like a hand counting the seconds.
And the space of the earth, the floor of the house of the world, since with life and death and the animals and plants its face changes very rapidly, like a minute‑hand it shows that this aspect of the world also is transient.
And just as the earth is thus in regard to its face, so through the revolutions and upheavals within it, and the mountains emerging as a result and disappearing, this aspect of the world is slowly passing also, like an hour hand.
And such change as the movements of the celestial bodies, the appearance of comets, the occurrence of solar and lunar eclipses, and falling stars, the space of the heavens too, the ceiling of the house of the world, shows that the heavens also are not unmoving and at rest, but are progressing towards old age and destruction. Their change is slow and tardy like the hand counting the days in a weekly clock, but in every respect it demonstrates that they are transient and passing and heading for destruction.
Thus, the world, in regard to the world, has been constructed on these seven pillars. These pillars perpetually shake it. But when the world which is thus in motion and being shaken looks to its Maker, the motion and change become the working of the pen of power, writing the missives of the Eternally Besought One. And those changing states are the mirrors of the divine names, which, being constantly renewed, display with ever‑differing depictions the manifestation of the names’ qualities.
Thus, in respect of the world, the world is both transient and hastens towards death, and is undergoing revolution. Although in reality it is departing like flowing water, to the heedless eye it appears to be frozen; due to the idea of nature, it has become dense and turbid and a veil concealing the hereafter.
Thus, through philosophical investigation and natural science, and the seductive amusements of dissolute civilization and its intoxicated passions, sick philosophy has both increased the world’s frozen state and inaction, and made denser heedlessness, and increased its opaqueness and turbidity, and caused the Maker and the hereafter to be forgotten.
Whereas, with its verses, The [Day of] Noise and Clamour, ❋ What is [the Day of] Noise and Clamour? ❋ When the Event Inevitable comes to pass. ❋ By the Mount [of Revelation]. ❋ By a Book inscribed. , the Qur’an cards the world in regard to the world like cotton, and casts it away.
Through such expositions as, Do they see nothing in the government of the heavens and the earth? ❋ Do they not look at the sky above them? – How We have made it. ❋ Do the unbelievers not see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, before We clove them asunder?, it gives the world a transparency and removes its turbidity.
Through such light‑scattering illuminations as, Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. ❋ What is the life of this world but play and amusement?, it melts the frozen, inactive world.
Through such death‑tainted expressions as, When the sun is folded up. ❋ When the sky is cleft asunder. ❋ When the sky is rent asunder. ❋ And the trumpet will be sounded, and all that are in the heavens and all that are on earth will fall down senseless, except such that it pleases Allah [to exempt], it smashes the delusion that the world is eternal.
Through such thunderous blasts as, He knows what enters within the earth and what comes forth out of it, what comes down from the skies and what mounts up to them. And He is with you wheresoever you may be. And Allah sees all that you do. ❋ And say: Praise be to Allah, Who will show you His signs, so that you shall know them. And your Sustainer is not unmindful of all that you do, it scatters the heedlessness born of the notion of nature.
Thus, from beginning to end the Qur’an’s verses which are turned towards the universe proceed according to this principle. They reveal and display the reality of the world as it is. Through showing just how ugly the ugly world is, it turns man’s face from it and points out the beautiful world’s beautiful face, which looks to the Maker. It fastens man’s eye on that. It instructs in true wisdom and knowledge, teaching the meanings of the book of the universe, and looking infrequently at the letters and decorations. It does not cause the meaning to be forgotten like drunken philosophy, nor make man enamoured of the ugly and waste his time on meaningless things due to the decoration of the letters.
Third Gleam:
In the Second Gleam we pointed to the fall of human philosophy before Qur’anic wisdom and to the miraculousness of Qur’anic wisdom. Now, in this Gleam, we shall show the degree of the wisdom and science – before Qur’anic wisdom – of the purified scholars and the saints, who are all students of the Qur’an, and of the enlightened among philosophers, the Ishrāqiyyūn, and shall briefly indicate the Qur’an’s miraculousness in this respect.
The truest evidence of the All‑Wise Qur’an’s sublimity, and the clearest proof of its truth and justice, and the most powerful sign of its miraculous inimitability is this:
it has preserved the balance of all the degrees of all the areas of divine unity together with all their necessities and not spoilt it, and has expounded them; it has preserved the balance of all the exalted divine truths; it has brought together all the ordinances dictated by the divine names and preserved their mutual proportion; and it has brought together the dominical and divine acts with perfect balance.
Thus, such preserving and balance and bringing together is a characteristic that is certainly not present in human works nor in the products of the thought of the eminent among humankind. It is to be found nowhere in the works of the saints who have penetrated to the inner face of beings, which looks to their Creator, nor in the books of the Ishraqiyyun, who have passed to the inward, hidden meaning of things, nor in the knowledge of the spiritual who have penetrated the World of the Unseen. It is as if each group adheres to only one or two branches of the mighty tree of reality, as though they have practised a division of labour; each busies itself with only the fruit or the leaves. They either know nothing of the others, or do not concern themselves with them.
Absolute reality cannot be comprehended by restricted views. To comprehend it, a universal view like that of the Qur’an is necessary. For sure others are instructed by the Qur’an, but with their particular intelligences they can see completely only one or two sides of universal reality, and are preoccupied with them, and imprisoned in them. Due to either excess or negligence they spoil the balance of reality and mar its proportion and harmony.
This truth is explained with an unusual comparison in the Second Branch of the Twenty‑Fourth Word, and now we shall point to the matter with another comparison.
For example, let us suppose there is some treasure under the sea, full of innumerable jewels of various kinds. Divers are plunging the depths to search for the treasure’s jewels. Since their eyes are closed, they understand what is there through the dexterous use of their hands. A longish diamond comes into the hand of one of them. The diver assumes that the whole treasure consists of a long, pillar‑like diamond. When he hears of other jewels from his companions, he imagines that they are subsidiary to the diamond he has found, and are facets and embellishments of it. Into the hand of another passes a round ruby, while another finds a square piece of amber, and so on; each of them believes that the jewel he perceives with his hand is the essential, major part of the treasure, and supposes that the things about which he hears are additional parts and details of it. The balance of the truths is thus spoilt, and the mutual proportion too is marred. The colour of many truths changes; in order to see the true colour of reality they are obliged to resort to forced interpretation and elaborate explanations. Sometimes even they go as far as denial and rejection. Anyone who studies the books of the Ishraqiyyun philosophers and the works of the Sufis who rely on illuminations and visions without weighing them on the scales of the Sunna, will doubtless confirm this statement of ours. That is to say, although their works concern truths similar to those of the Qur’an and are taken from the Qur’an’s teachings, because they are not the Qur’an, they are defective in that way.
The Qur’an’s verses also, which are oceans of truths, are divers for that treasure under the sea. But their eyes are open and encompass the treasure. They see what there is in the treasure and what there is not. They describe and expound it with such harmony, order, and proportion that they show the true beauty and fineness. For example, they see the vastness of dominicality expressed by the verses, And the whole of the earth will be but His handful, and the heavens will be rolled up in His hand. The Day that We roll up the heavens like a scroll rolled up for books [completed]. So too they see the all‑encompassing mercy expressed by these: Allah, there is nothing hidden from Him on the earth or in the heavens ❋ He it is Who shapes you in the wombs as He pleases. ❋ There is not a moving creature, but He has grasp of its forelock. ❋ How many are the creatures that carry not their own sustenance? It is Allah who feeds [both] them and you. They see and point out the vast extent of the creativity expressed by, Who created the heavens and the earth and made the darkness and the light. So too they see and show the comprehensive disposal and encompassing dominicality expressed by, But Allah has created you and what you do.
They see and point out the mighty truth expressed by, He gives life to the earth after its death, and the magnanimous truth expressed by, And your Sustainer inspired the bee, and the sovereign, commanding vast truth expressed by, The sun and the moon and the stars subjugated to His command. They see and show the compassionate, regulating truth expressed by, Do they not observe the birds above them, spreading their wings and folding them in? None can uphold them except the Most Merciful; indeed He sees all things, and the vast truth expressed by, His Throne extends over the heavens and the earth, and He feels no fatigue in preserving them, and the guarding truth expressed by, And He is with you wherever you may be, and the all‑encompassing truth expressed by, He is the First and the Last and the Outward and the Inward, and He is Knowing of All Things, and the proximity expressed by, It was We Who created man, and We know what dark suggestions his soul makes to him; for We are nearer to him than his jugular vein, and the elevated truth indicated by, The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a day the measure of which is fifty thousand years, and the all‑embracing truth expressed by, Allah commands justice, the doing of good, and liberality to kith and kin, and He forbids all shameful deeds, and injustice and rebellion. The Qur’an’s verses see and show in detail each of the six pillars of belief in respect of this world and the hereafter, action and knowledge. They see and show intentionally and seriously each of the five pillars of Islam, and all the principles which ensure happiness in this world and the next. They preserve their balance, perpetuate their proportion, and a form of the Qur’an’s miraculousness comes into being from the source of the beauty which is born of the mutual proportion of the entirety of those truths.
It is due to this great mystery that although the scholars of theology (kalām) are students of the Qur’an and one section of them has written thousands of works of ten volumes each on the pillars of belief, because like the Mu‘tazilites they preferred reason to revelation, they have not been able to express with clarity so many as ten of the Qur’an’s verses, or prove them decisively, or convince persuasively concerning them. It is quite simply as though they have dug tunnels under distant mountains, taken pipes with the chains of causes to the ends of the world, there cut the chains and then demonstrated knowledge of Allah the Most High and the existence of the Necessarily Existent One, which are like the water of life.
The Qur’an’s verses, however, can all extract water from every place like the staff of Moses, open up a window from everything, and make known the All‑Glorious Maker. We have actually proved and demonstrated this fact in the Arabic treatise Katre, and in the other Words, which flow forth from the ocean of the Qur’an.
It is also due to this mystery that since the leaders of the heretical groups who have passed to the inward nature of things (bāṭin) have not followed the Prophet’s (UWBP) Sunna but relied on their visions, they have returned having gone half way. Becoming leaders of a community, they have founded sects. And being unable to preserve the proportion and balance of the Qur’anic truths, they have fallen into innovation and misguidance and driven a community of people down the wrong road. Thus, the complete impotence of all of them demonstrates the miraculousness of the Qur’an’s verses.