“Light” & “Manifold Darkness”

                             “All praise is due to God, who has created

                              the heavens and the earth, and brought

                              into being the manifold darkness and the

                              light; and yet those who are bent on

                              denying the truth regard others as their

                              Sustainer’s equals”

                                                            (Qur’an, 6:1).

Light is necessary for all the beings in the universe. Limited time of darkness is necessary too, but without light there is absence, wickedness, evil.

Darkness means “the partial or total absence of light”, but it could also mean “the wickedness or evil”, or “lack of spiritual or intellectual enlightenment”.

In the Qur’an “darkness” is always used in plural, and “light” in singular. Perhaps because there are so many kinds of evil, but only one enlightenment, which could dissolve any of them. As God says: “And (know) that this is the way leading straight unto Me (= God): follow it, then, and follow not other ways, lest they cause you to deviate from His way. (All) this has He enjoined upon you, so that you might remain conscious of Him” (6:153).

Actually we see people who adjust (or try to adjust) their life according to the guidance of God, and others who do not care about God’s ordinances. The Qur’an considers the one who does not take God’s light (= guidance) as “dead” metaphorically, and the one who adjusts his life to God’s guidance as the living one: “Is then he who was dead (in spirit) and whom We thereupon gave life, and for whom We set up a light whereby he might see his way among men – (as then he) like one (who is lost) in darkness deep, out of which he cannot emerge? That is how to those people without faith their own deeds seem pleasing” (6:122).

In the terminology of the Qur’an, God’s revelation is called also “Rouh of God’s Order” (= a spiritual element as a source for human spiritual life), (42:51-52), and as “A Manifest Light” (4:174), and God’s messenger Muhammad as “A Summoner to God by His leave, and an Illuminating Lamp” (33:46).

The last messenger of God, by receiving this Light-Revelation, became the Radiant point of the Mercy of God for all mankind (21:107). And this Light-Guidance whenever taken seriously to be followed by the believer, causes God’s help to increase his/her ability to fairly follow His guidance and causes him/her to grow in God-consciousness (47:17).

Mu’adh bin Jabal reported that the Messenger of God (peace and God’s blessings be upon him) caught his hand, one day and said to him: “By God, I love you Mu’adh! So I recommend to you for never leave to recite this supplication after every prescribed prayer: O God, help me in remembering You, in thanking You, and in worshiping You well!” (Sunan Abu Dawood).

According to the earlier commentators of the Qur’an, when this verse was revealed: “And your Lord has said: Call on Me and I will respond to you. Surely those who disdain to worship Me shall enter Hell (utterly) humiliated” (40:60), some people asked the Prophet “at what time should we call on Him?” then God revealed: “And when My servants ask you about Me, then (tell them that) I am so near (to them): I respond to the call of anyone when he prays to Me; so let them, then, respond unto Me, and believe in Me, so that they might go aright” (2:186).

To go aright one will need light, and that light is God’s guidance, the Qur’an and its “Radiant Point”, the Prophet (peace and God’s blessings be upon him). “God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The likeness of His Light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass, the glass as it were a glittering star kindled from a Blessed Tree, an olive neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself), though no fire touched it. Light upon light. God guides to His Light whom He will. And God strikes similitudes for men, and God is Knower of all things” (24:35).

Abdullah bin Abbas reported: I stayed overnight with my maternal aunt Maimunah while the Messenger of God was there. I saw him get up to relieve himself then he went to the water-skin and undid its string, then he performed wudhu’ (purifying wash) – he did not use a lot of water. Then he went to his bed and slept. Then he got up again and went to the water-skin, undid its string and performed wudhu’ again, like the first time. Then he stood and prayed. When he prostrated

(during the prayer) I heard him supplicating: O God, put light in my heart, and put light in my hearing, and put light in my seeing, and put light beneath me, and put light above me, and put light on my right, and put light on my left, and put light before me, and put light behind me, and make the light greater for me. Then he slept until he started to snore, then Bilal came and woke him up for the Morning Prayer (Sunan An-Nasaie).

But not all people see things correctly, many don’t know why they exist, what is their role in this worldly life, what will happen after death, etc. They consider life without purpose, and so they are free to do whatever they like.

Then comes the selfishness, the lack of respect for others; they even have no shame in harming and destroying lands, and killing and torturing people. The industrious countries produce tremendous quantities of arms, very sophisticated arms. What interests them is the material benefit, they don’t care about others’ sufferings. According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the combined arms sales of the top 100 largest arms producing companies (in 2012 only) amounted to an estimated US$395 billion (and it was increasing in the last few years). The five biggest exporters in 2010-2014 were the USA, Russia, China, Germany and France. And the five biggest importers were India, Saudi Arabia, China, UA Emirates and Pakistan. This means that we are living in nearly a manifold darkness.

Most people in the world do not care anymore to get God’s light, because they do not really believe in God and in the Hereafter. God says: “Or (their deeds) is like the depths of darkness upon an abysmal sea, made yet more dark by wave billowing over wave, with (black) clouds above it all: depths of darkness, layer upon layer, (so that) when one holds up his hand, he can hardly see it: for he to whom God gives no light, no light whatever has he!” (24:40).

As for those who follow God’s Light and the guidance of the Prophet during their life time in this world, even in the Hereafter they will get “light” with them: “In the Day when you will see the believing men and believing women with their light shining forth before them and on their right: Good tidings for you on this day” (56:12).