Student: Zeeshan Ahmed Siddiqui, zs03521 Section: S2, Instructor: Ms.

Sadaf Habib

Q) In this course we have discussed the allegorical verses of the Qur’an and how

philosophers, theologians, Sufis and legal scholars have interpreted the divine text differently

in view their engagement with the Qur’an within their own historical context. Among those

texts that we have discussed is the Mishkat al-Anwar by Abu Hamid Muhammad al-

Ghazali, which provides his interpretation of the Light Verse (24:35). Using only your own

careful reading of this Qur’anic verse and al-Ghazali’s Mishkat al-Anwar, critically analyze al-

Ghazali’s language and mystical terminology in decoding of various metaphors, such as light,

glass, olive tree and the overall message of the verse. Your analysis may also include your

own alternate interpretation of the verse if you have one.

Knowledge is one of the most fundamental concepts of late Islamic philosophy, and the

experience of light which has been used by philosophers such as Al-Ghazali and others is a fairly

difficult concept to grasp. In this paper, we shall try to shed some light on the famous

commentary “Al-Mishkat -al-Anwar”. In this work, Al-Ghazali tries to describe the meaning and

knowledge of light. He does this beautifully utilizing theoretical and practical understanding of

rationalist institution, Islamic Law and his understanding of Sufism.

The purpose of the book can be thought of as a commentary on the Light-Verse (24:35) and the

tradition on the veils of light and darkness that separates Allah and the physical realm. The

book can be divided into three main themes, the first theme is the treatment of light through

physical light and the eye of an observer of light, how physical light and sight leads to intelligent

light. This leads to the discussion of the physical and spiritual realm with a focus on symbology.

Page 1 of 8
The third and the final theme describes the division of mankind into four main categories based

on the closeness to Allah and the nature of light exuded by beings.

Light has always been a central theme of Islamic thought process yet one of the most

unexplored ideas as well. Mystical texts like Mishkat al Anwar do not limit themselves to mere

arguments but also heavily rely on symbology and images to express their thoughts. Thus,

descriptions heavily rely on imaginations as the thoughts cannot be fully expressed through

written texts. More importantly, light has always been part of knowledge that goes beyond

reason and into the higher domains of spirituality.

Al-Ghazali’s Mishkat is a long commentary/reply to his friend on the famous “Ayat al-

Nur” (Verse of Light, 24:35), which is as follows:

“Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The example of His light is like a

niche within which is a lamp, the lamp is within glass, the glass as if it were a

pearly [white] star lit from [the oil of] a blessed olive tree, neither of the east nor

of the west, whose oil would almost glow even if untouched by fire. Light upon

light. Allah guides to His light whom He wills. And Allah presents examples for

the people, and Allah is Knowing of all things.” (24:35)

Now that we have given the verse, we shall begin the closer look into the text. Ghazali’s text as

discussed earlier can be divided into three main parts. The first part deals with the beginning of

the verse and then gradually builds on higher and more detailed meaning of light. The author

takes great ordeal to explain and prove his thesis. He begins from the very simplest concept of

“zuhur” which is simply as something which appears or is concealed from something. This is due

to the perceptive faculties of a human which happens to be the stronger sense of all senses a

Page 2 of 8
man possesses. To these faculties belong the sight and concerning sight, the objects fall into

three categories: Dark bodies which do not reveal themselves to the ordinary eye; bodies that

reveal themselves but do not cause others to reveal themselves, e.g. the stars; bodies that

reveal themselves and also help illuminate other bodies, e.g. the Sun, the Moon.

However, it is important that along with light there is a ‘seeing’ eye present as well for

the blind cannot perceive the light. This leads us to the discussion of defects associated with the

seeing eye. Al-Ghazali argues that the eye can see others but not itself, its scope is limited by

distance, it sees the exterior of a body but not its interior, how the scope of the eye is finite.

These defects, he argues, are limited to the physical eye. For the eye of the believer is, in

reality, the eye of mind which can be called Spirit, Intelligence or Human Soul. He calls this

faculty as light as it is free from all the seven defects associated with the eye. After this detailed

comparison between the intellectual knowledge and sensory knowledge, he goes on to discuss

a third way of knowing which is through Qur’an which he compares with the Sun. The Qur’an

contains light that is available to everyone who has risen above the material world and can

perceive the inner and true meaning of things. From this he argues, that just as there are two

kinds of light there as exists two kinds of world, the physical realm and the celestial realm. For a

man to ascend to a higher realm he has to understand the symbols hidden in the physical realm

for without thoughtful cultivation of those symbols and ideas it is impossible to rise to the

spiritual realm. From this Al-Ghazali then defines several hierarchies within the light itself, that

is, the light being shed from a higher realm to lower realm and then it is reflected on those who

do not possess their own. The source, however, is one which is the light of Allah which lights

Page 3 of 8
everything, with emphasis on how true light is the Allah making light and being synonyms at

this level.

He concludes the first part by emphasizing on how the highest knowledge is only

attainable by grasping the true nature of Allah’s unity (Tawheed) and then amalgamating one’s

self into it (Faana). This, however, by no means imply that a man could reach the same level of

light which is reserved only for Allah Himself but rather the disappearance of one’s subjectivity

in the observation of the true nature of world and one’s dependency on Allah.

The second part of the book begins with the discussion of Quranic Symbolism and the

ascension to knowledge. It begins with a general discussion about images and symbols.

Symbols, metaphors or images are all tools to express ideas/thought which are difficult to

express through words alone. They also help in the development of analogies between the

physical and spiritual realms. Al-Ghazali also mentions about the ascent of man from the realm

of shadow to the realm of reality.

He begins this chapter by drawing parallels between the physical and spiritual realm, how

the world can be divided into appearance, matter, image and that of reality, spirit, idea. A man

has to ascend from this physical realm to the real realm of spirituality. This he characterizes as

the first ascension. He compares Man and Angel, where the latter does not need to ascend as

they are already part of the supernal world. Prophets he mentions have ascended to the

highest level where the hidden knowledge is revealed to them and from them the lower beings

i.e., they are light to the downward realms. They are thus denoted by symbol “Fire” and people

who derive from them are mere “torches” however people who have spiritual experience

implying a commonality with the prophets are symbolized by “Warming of fire” for being near

Page 4 of 8
to fire bring warmth rather than just knowing about the fire. He further mentions when one has

explored and identified the true meaning of both the worlds, only then one can enter “the holy

valley” just like a pilgrim walks towards Mecca, changes his robes and turns his face towards

the Kaaba.

Qur’an happens to be the main source of images and analogies in Islamic Law. It helps in

understanding the physical world but also helps in understanding the hidden world. He

mentions the example of Man’s creation in the image of God however adding his

interpretation, that is, Allah created man as the sum of all lifeforce present in the world which

is itself something rich in meaning for a person can derive his purpose from careful observation

of beings around himself. Meanwhile, the study of symbology helps in understanding the true

meaning behind the images we see around us. It helps us to identify how the visible world

reflects the light from the higher world of light for it is man’s purpose to rise above his normal

circumstances otherwise there is no difference between man and brute, for brutes too possess

a basic sense. In this chapter, he uses several examples from prophetic examples, such as

Abrahams’, Moses’, the valley, removal of sandals while entering the Holy Valley (story of

Moses) to deliver the idea of looking beyond the external images and literal reading but to

delve into the true meanings of things and images.

After thoroughly explaining the symbology required to understand the Verse of Light, Al-

Ghazali begins his explanation of the verse itself. He defines the human faculties employing

hierarchies dividing them into senses, imagination, intellect, prophetic spirit where he claimed

that prophetic spirit is the greatest faculty as it allows to fully enjoy or rather taste (zauq) the

knowledge which in turn allows the person to truly understand the meaning of things. He also

Page 5 of 8
tries to create a relation between several images in this part with different abilities mentioned

in the passage. All in all, this part of the book emphasized on reaching the highest state of

human faculty i.e. the prophetic spirit so that the metaphorical meaning of things can be

understood in their true light.

This brings us to the final part of the book which discusses the hierarchy of Veils of

Darkness and Light. This happens to be the shortest part of the book and it is an interpretation

of veil Hadith, which goes as follows:

“Allah hath Seventy Thousand Veils of Light and Darkness: were He to withdraw

their curtain, then would the splendours of His Aspect surely consume everyone

who apprehend Him with his sight.”

This part of the text primarily deals with the veils that can be a barrier to knowledge. In the

literal sense, one can think of a veil that would prevent Allah’s true self to be revealed but one

can also derive further meaning from it. Al-Ghazali describes this as the impedance of light and

obscuring knowledge by “Darkness”, making oneself content with the current sensory state and

thus leading to wrong or poor understanding of logical and spiritual reasoning. He then divides

the forms of worship into three main categories further dividing them into ten sub-categories.

He argues that the first group of people are those who are in complete darkness or rather

incomplete obscurity from the light and the knowledge. They do not believe in the existence of

Allah and neither do they believe in the Day of Judgement. They spend their lives in complete

ignorance of the Hereafter, only thinking about the “present” moment without any disregard to

the consequences of their acts to themselves and on others. The main drive that keeps them

charged is the fulfilment of bodily desires with no focus on soulful cultivation. These are people

Page 6 of 8
who seek only the world, without any regard to morality and higher purpose in life. For Al-

Ghazali, these kinds of people are the ones that are without any religion and include atheists,

materialists, ignorants, pleasure seekers, people who only run after fame, power and money.

He also believes hypocrites to be part of this group as they profess Islam in public yet do not

follow or believe in Islam.

The second group of people are those who are in between the two states i.e. between

obscurity and light. These are people who have an idea of truth and light yet they are also in

darkness by the virtues of their mistakes. This group can vary from the most primal idolaters to

practised theologians of Islam. According to Ghazali, Qur’an provides a perfect example of the

rise in the perfection of humans’ concept of divinity by the story of Abraham. Abraham found

true divinity i.e. Allah through his gradual contemplation of heavenly bodies and assessing the

flaws in each of the heavenly body. He realized that each of these bodies was limited in its

perfection and was somehow dependent upon external factors to show their complete beauty.

He thus concluded that there must some greater source of Light behind these bodies and in his

quest found the true source of Light i.e. Allah. Thus, similar to Abraham’s ascent Al-Ghazali

characterized polytheism and idolatry as the primal form of that quest yet still shrouded in

darkness while among monotheists, he argues, the ideas were unclear due to lack of

understanding of true nature of Allah’s nature and other divine attributes.

The last group he concludes are the ones who are completely engulfed in light. These are

the people who have attained the level where the darkness has been removed from their

internal eyes and they can see the truth in all its glory. However, he claims that in this group too

there are three kinds of people. The first sub-group is the one that although sees the light has

Page 7 of 8
still not merged itself with the true light of Allah, they see Allah as the Creator and Mover of

Universe i.e. the concept of materiality is still prevalent in this sub-group. The second and third

group have a more abstract idea of Allah’s divinity with a decrease in materiality as one reaches

the last level of spirituality i.e. “Al-Wasilun” and have completely merged themselves with the

Divine so much so that their self has vanished in the process.

Conclusively in his work, Mishkat al-Anwar, Al-Ghazali has explored the notion of light

and darkness through hints and allegories. In his work, Al-Ghazali has refrained from describing

light and darkness using simple words. He has described light as simply something that can

quench one’s thirst of knowledge, provides means to end intellectual confusions and provides

guidance as to how one can achieve spiritual perfection. A closer examination, one can

determine that two main focus of Ghazali’s text: an explanation of light through modern-day

theory and secondly on the practice of that explanation to attain perfection. He explains the

dual nature of things in almost all the aspects of life, sight and intelligence, the physical realm

and spiritual realm, etc. He explains how Qur’an should not be taken in its literal meaning but

rather one should devote to understanding the true nature of Qur’an so that one can rise to the

epitome of one’s self. He tries to explain non-theoretical, experiential knowledge wonderfully

thus allowing anyone to strive in the path of perfection. His approach is somewhat a mix of

psychological and practical knowledge with a heavy emphasis on cosmological elements, that

only self-realization can lead to a path of ultimate truth thus emphasizing that to gain the true

Light one only needs the resolve to achieve the light.

Page 8 of 8