بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
و الصلاة و السلام على أشرف المرسلين
و على اله و اصحابه أجمعين
The companion Hassan ibn Thabit (radhi Allah anhu) said in a poem about Prophet Muhammad ﷺ :
When I saw his light shining forth,
In fear I covered my eyes with my palms,
Afraid for my sight because of the beauty of his form.
So I was scarcely able to look at him at all.
The lights from his light are drowned in his light and his faces shines out like the sun and moon in one.
A spirit of light lodged in a body like the moon, a mantle made up of brilliant shining stars.
I bore it until I could bear it no longer.
I found the taste of patience to be like bitter aloes.
I could find no remedy to bring me relief other than delighting in the sight of the one I love.
Even if he had not brought any clear signs with him, the sight of him would dispense with the need for them.
Muhammad is a human being but not like other human beings.
Rather he is a flawless diamond and the rest of mankind are just stones.
Blessings be on him so that perhaps Allah may have mercy on us on that burning Day when the Fire is roaring forth its sparks.
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Ibn Wahb reported: “Malik – may Allah have mercy on him – said: “Knowledge is a light that Allah places wherever He wills. It does not consist of memorizing many narrations.””
[Hilyat Al-Awliya 8987]
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Al-Qadi Iyad reported: “Malik – may Allah have mercy on him – said: “Knowledge is not memorizing many narrations. Verily, knowledge is only a light that Allah places in the hearts.””
[Al-Imla’ ila ‘Ilm 114]
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Ibn Rajab said: “Knowledge is not memorizing many narrations or sayings, but rather it is a light that Allah places in the heart by which a servant understands the truth and he distinguishes it from falsehood.”
[Fadl ‘Ilm]
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Ibn Al-Qayyim reported: “When Imam Ash-Shafi’ee sat in front of Malik and read to him, Malik was amazed by his intelligence, wisdom, and complete understanding. Malik said: “Verily, I see Allah has placed light in your heart, so do not extinguish it with the darkness of disobedience.”
[Al-Jawab Al-Kafi]
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Imam Ashafi (rahimahu Allah) said: “I complained to Imam Waqee’ of my weak memory; he advised me to abstain from sins ; for, verily, knowledge is a light from Allah; and this light of Allah is not awarded to sinners.”
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Al-Hasan al-Basri (radiAllah ‘anhu) said: “The Knowers are the lights of their respective ages. Each Knower is a lamp of his age by which people seek illumination. Were it not for the true scholars people would become like animals.”
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“Just as Allah created the sun so that this world would receive Light, He created the Muhammadan Light for the intellects, hearts and souls to be illuminated.”
[Shaykh Salih Ja’fary]
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Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qādir Jilānī say:
“Know that since Allāh first created the soul of Muhammad ﷺ from the light of His beauty, as He said: “I created Muhammad from the light of My Face”, and as the Prophet said: “The first thing Allāh created is my soul, and the first thing Allāh created is the Pen, and the first thing Allāh created is the Intellect” – what is meant by all this is one and the same thing, and that is the haqīqa muhammadīyya. However, it was named a light because it is completely purified from darkness, as Allāh said: “There has come to you from Allah a Light and a manifest Book.””
[Sirr al-asrār fi mā yahtāju ilayh al-abrār]
“Allah says: “Whoever is blind in this world, he will be blind in the hereafter.” It is not the blindness of the eyes in one’s head but the blindness of the eyes of one’s heart that will prevent one from seeing the light of the Hereafter. As Allah says: “For surely it is not their eyes that are blind, but their hearts which are in their breasts.””
[Sirr al-asrār fi mā yahtāju ilayh al-abrār]
“When the attributes of darkness lift, light takes it place, and the one with the eye of the soul sees. He recognizes what he sees with the light of the Names of divine attributes. Then he himself is flooded by light and becomes light. These lights are still veils hiding the light of the divine Essence, but the time comes when they too are drawn back, leaving only the light of the divine Essence itself. The heart has two eyes, one lesser, the other greater. With the lesser eye one may be able to see the manifestations of Allah’s attributes and Names. This vision continues all through one’s spiritual evolution.””
[Sirr al-asrār fi mā yahtāju ilayh al-abrār]
“There is no distance, nor closeness nor farness, nor reaching, nor measure, nor direction, nor dimension. He is All-glorious, all praise is due to Him, He is the Most Merciful. He becomes visible in what He hides from you. He manifests Himself as He puts veils between Himself and you. His being known is hidden in His not being known. If any of you reach that light which is suggested in this book while you are here in this world, try to balance your book of deeds.”
[Sirr al-asrār fi mā yahtāju ilayh al-abrār]
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In the Risala Qushariya (from Imam al-Quchayri):
“I heard Muhammad ibn al-Husayn say: I heard Abu Said al-Qurashi say: I heard Ibn Ata say: “He who obeys the rulings of the Divine Law, God will enlighten his heart with the light of [divine] gnosis, and there is no better station than following in the footsteps of the Beloved ﷺ in his commands, his deeds and his moral character traits.”
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“The spiritual states are like lightning. When they last, this is nothing but self-deception and the prompting of one’s lower nature.”
[Abu al-Hasan ibn al-Sa’igh, a salaf salih]
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“[God’s] power is evident and the eyes of men are open, yet the light of spiritual sights has grown dimmer.”
[Abu Ishaq Ibrahim b. Dawud al-Raqqi]
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Sufi saying : ‘The good deeds of the righteous are the evil deeds of the ones who are brought nigh [to God].” When someone asked al-Junayd about this [phrase], he recited the following: “Flashes of light that shine, when they appear, Reveal the secret and announce the unification [with the Divine]”.
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I heard Shaykh Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami say: “I heard Mansur ibn Abdallah say: “A man came to the teaching assembly of al-Shibli and asked him: “Do the signs of true finding appear on those who experience it?” He answered: “Yes, there is a light that shines through together with the lights of ardent passion [for God]. These lights leave their traces on men’s complexions, in accordance with the verses of Ibn al-Mu’tazz:
Water flowed like rain into the cup from a pitcher
And pearls sprang up from the golden floor
All those present sang praise to God,
when they saw this wonder: The light of water in the fire of grapes
A vintage wine that [the people of] ‘Ahd had inherited from [the inhabitants of]
Iram It was a treasure that the Persian kings passed on from father to son.””
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“No one has expressed the essence of witnessing better than Amr b. Uthman al-Makki – may God have mercy on him – when he said that the lights of God’s self-manifestation appear to the heart clearly and without interruption. It is like an uninterrupted sequence of lightning in the middle of a dark night: when it occurs, the lightning turns the night into day. The same happens to the heart, when divine self-manifestation descends upon it continuously: it lives in the light of day with no night. Sufis recite the following poetry: “My night is lit by your face, whereas its darkness encompasses other people Therefore the people wander in the darkness, whereas we bask in the light of day”.
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Al-Nuri said: “One cannot attain true witnessing as long as a single livingvein remains in one’s body.” He also said: “When dawn breaks, one no longer needs a lamp.”
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“Each time the firmament of their hearts is obscured by the clouds of selfishness, the glimmers of unveiling and the flashes of closeness [to God] begin to shine in them; and amidst veiling they suddenly begin to see the glimmers [of divine grace]. A poet said: “O blazing lightning! What quarter of the sky will you shine from? At first there are glimmers, then dawnings, then flashes”. The glimmers are like lightning in that they disappear as soon as they appear. A poet said: “We have not seen each other for a long time, but when we finally met his greeting was like saying farewell””
[Imam al-Quchayri]
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Abu Hafs al-Haddad said: “The soul is nothing but darkness; its secret [heart] is its lamp; and the light of this lamp is Godspeed. Whoever is not accompanied by God’s assistance in his secret [heart], lingers in total darkness.”
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Muhammad ibn Ali al-Tirmidhi said: “Being humble means that the flames of your passion have been extinguished and the vapors of your breast have subsided, while the light of glorification of God has come to shine in your heart. [At this point] a man’s passion dies, his heart is given [a new] life, and his limbs surrender themselves to humility.”
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Abu Abdallah al-Antaki said: “When even the smallest [particle of] certainty enters one’s heart, it fills the heart with light and expels whatever doubt there is in it. Consequently, the heart becomes filled with gratitude to and fear of God Most High.”
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“I heard Muhammad ibn al-Husayn say that one Sufi said: “The first of the mystical stations is knowledge (marifa), then certainty, then confirmation (tasdiq), then sincerity (ikhlas), then [direct] witnessing (shahada), then [full] obedience (ta’a); and faith (iman) is the word that combines all these.” This individual implied that the first duty [of the faithful] is to know God – praise be to Him. This knowledge can only be obtained by fulfilling its conditions. They begin with the correct vision; then, once the proofs begin to follow one upon the other, clear evidence is obtained, and one begins [to see] the succession of [divine] lights and acquires an inner vision; then one is no longer in need of contemplating any further proofs [of God’s existence].”
[Imam al-Qushayri]
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Abu Said al-Kharraz said: “He who sees with the light of insight, sees with the light of God; the substance of his knowledge comes from God unmixed with either negligence or forgetfulness. The decree of God thus flows freely from the tongue of His [faithful] servant.” His phrase “he [the servant] sees by the light of God” means that he sees by a light which God has bestowed specifically upon him.”
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Al-Wasiti said: “Insights are flashes of light that illuminate the heart; they are a firmly established knowledge that carries the hearts of men into the realms of the Unseen, from one realm to the other until they begin to see things in such a way as God – praise be to Him wants them to see these things; they thus speak straight from their innermost hearts.”
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“The one who has insight sees by the light of God Most High. It consists of the flashes of light that shine in his heart. By means of these flashes he grasps the meanings [of things]. Such a person belongs to the elite of the faithful, who are better endowed [than those who discern marks]; they are the “ones who are learned [in the science of] the Book”, in accord with God’s words: “Be learned in [the science of ] the Book”, namely, scholars and wise men, who are adorned by the virtues of God in their thought and in their morals. They are no longer in need of communication with [God’s] creatures, nor of paying any attention and being preoccupied with them.”
[Imam al-Quchayri]
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“God Most High – praise be to Him – has favored the faithful with the [faculty] of vision and with lights, which enable them to have insights. They are none other than knowledge, which is confirmed by the Prophet ﷺ who said: “For he [the faithful] sees with the light of God””
[Imam al-Quchayri]
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“God Most High has distinguished the faithful person with knowledge and vision, which has set him apart from all other [created] forms. Thus, calling knowledge and vision “lights” is not an innovation.”
[Imam al-Quchayri]
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“A Sufi said about God’s words: “Is he who was dead and We gave him life, [and appointed for him a light to walk by among the people as one of those who are in the depth of darkness?]” that they mean, “Is he whose intellect was dead, but whom God Most High has revived with the light of insight and to whom He has given the light of [divine] revelation and direct contemplation [of divine mysteries] like a man who walks negligently among the negligent folk (ahl al-ghafla)?””
[Imam al-Quchayri]
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Abu Ali al-Juzjani said: “The friend of God annihilates his own state, while remaining in the contemplation of God – praise be to Him. God takes possession of his guidance so that the lights of His guidance would descend on him without interruption. He thus becomes completely oblivious of himself and resides with no one but God.”
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Abu Yazid al-Bistami said: “The shares (huzuz) allotted [by God] to [His] friends differ from each other in accordance with four [divine] names. Each group [acts] according to the name [assigned] to it. These names are: “The First”, “The Last”, “The Outward”, and “The Inward”. When a friend of God becomes oblivious of these names, after having been clothed with them, he achieves perfection. One whose allotted share is the divine name “Outward” contemplates the marvels of God’s power; one whose allotted share is the name ‘Inward’ contemplates the divine lights that appear in the innermost hearts [of men].”
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Al Shibli: “Sufism is a lightning that burns everything (barqa muhriqa).”
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Abu l-Tayyib al-Samarri said: “Gnosis is God’s appearance in the innermost souls [of His servants] through enlightening them with a constant stream of lights.”
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Abu Uthman al-Maghribi say: “The gnostic is someone upon whom the light of knowledge falls, so that he might observe the marvels of the unseen through it.”
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Abu Bakr al-Kattani said: “A discussion of the issue of love occurred in Mecca during the pilgrimage season. [Sufi] masters discoursed about it, al-Junayd being the youngest of all. They asked him: “Tell us what you think, Iraqi!” He lowered his head and tears streamed from his eyes. He then uttered: “When the servant of God forgets about himself, becomes united with the recollection of his Lord, renders what is due to Him, and watches Him with his heart, [then] the lights of His essence incinerate his heart, his drinking from the cup of affection becomes pure, and the Mighty One unveils the curtains of His mystery before him. [Afer that] if he talks, he talks through God; if he utters [a word], it is from God; if he moves, he moves by God’s command; if he rests, he rests with God; he is thus, through God, for God and with God.””
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Faris said: “The hearts of those who long passionately for God are enlightened by the light of God Most High. When their passionate longing is stirred, this light fills both the heavens and the earth. God then introduces them to His angels, saying: “These ones are passionately longing for Me. I want you to bear witness that I passionately long for them even more than they do.””
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