The Light of the Holy Qur'an Interpretation of (sura An-nur)
Commentary : Verse 38
لِيَجْزِيَهُمُ اللَّهُ أَحْسَنَ مَا عَمِلُوا وَيَزِيدَهُم مِن فَضْلِهِ وَاللَّهُ يَرْزُقُ مَن يَشَآءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ
"That Allah may reward them with the best of what they have done, and increase for them out of His grace. And Allah gives sustenance to whom He pleases without stint."
Commentary:
Allah compensates all shortages of Allah's men's deeds and gives them full reward. This noble verse points to the great reward of these guardians of the light of guidance who are the lovers of truth and reality. It says:
"That Allah may reward them with the best of what they have done, and increase for them out of His grace. ..."
There is nothing to get surprised at, because Allah's grace is not limited for those who deserve His Grace;
"... And Allah gives sustenance to whom He pleases without stint."
Upon the purpose of the Qur'anic phrase: /ahsana ma 'amilu/ ('the best of what they did'), mentioned in the verse, some say it refers to all good deeds, including recommended duties and compulsory ones, great or small.
Some others say it refers to the fact that Allah rewards a person who does a good deed tenfold, or sometimes 700 times or even more, as we read in Sura Al-'An'am, No.6, verse 160: " Whosever brings a good (deed), he shall have ten times its like ..." And in Sura Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 261, we read: "The likeness of those who spend their wealth in Allah's way is as the likeness of a grain (of corn) that grows seven ears, ( with) a hundred grains in every ear. And Allah multiplies (in abundance) for whom He wills ..."
Upon the commentary of the above-mentioned phrase, there is also this probability that the purpose of it is that Allah will reward them all of their deeds according to the measure of their best deeds. Even their insignificant and middle deeds will be rewarded in the row of their best deeds.
This manner is not beyond the grace of Allah, because when justice and punishment are in contemplation, equality is necessary, but when grace and generosity come in, bounties and remittal are without stint, since His Pure Essence is infinite and His bless is unlimited and His generosity is endless.
Commentary : Verse 39
وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَعْمَالُهُمْ كَسَرَابٍ بِقِيعَةٍ يَحْسَبُهُ الظَّمْاَنُ مَآءً حَتَّي إِذَا جَآءَهُ لَمْ يَجِدْهُ شَيْئاً وَوَجَدَ اللَّهَ عِندَهُ فَوَفّاهُ حِسَابَهُ وَاللَّهُ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ
"And (for) those who disbelieve, their deeds are as a mirage in a desert, which the thirsty one supposes to be water until when he comes unto it he finds it naught, and finds Allah with him Who pays him his reckoning in full; and Allah is swift in taking account." Commentary:
Since the previous verses spoke about Allah's light, the light of faith and guidance, the above verse speaks about obscurity of disbelief, ignorance,, faithlessness, dark-hearted pagans and hypocrites in order to complete the discussion and to make their position clear, and compare their status with others'. The verse speaks about those whose entity is 'layer upon layer of darkness'; in contrary to the believers whose life and thoughts are 'light upon light'.
Here the word is about individuals who are after mirage instead of water in the dry and hot desert of life and then lose their life because of thirst, while the believers have found the clear spring of guidance under the auspices of faith and have settled beside it.
At first, the verse says:
"And (for) those who disbelieve, their deeds are as a mirage in a desert,,..."
Then it continues saying:
"... which the thirsty one supposes to be water until when he comes unto it he finds it naught, and finds Allah with him Who pays him his reckoning in full; and Allah is swift in taking account."[^1]
The Arabic word /sarab/ is derived from the word 'Saraba', which means: 'walking in a slope', and the word 'Sarb' means: 'an inclined way'. Therefore, 'Sarab' is applied to a shine that appears from a distance in deserts and slopes and it seems that there is water over there, while it is nothing but a reflection of sunlight.
The Arabic word /qi'ah/ means 'a vast area and ground that has no water and plant', and, in other words, it is applied to arid deserts in which mirage is often seen.
Commentators of the Qur'an and lexicologists consider this word singular and its plural form is /qi'an/ or /qi'at/.[^2]
Physicists say that when the air gets warm, the layer of air, that is directly above the earth, gets less dense and becomes different than the adjacent layer, then the waves of light are broken and mirage is because of this. An English dictionary defines a mirage as: 'It is caused by the refraction of light rays from the object through layers of air having different densities as the result of unequal temperature distribution.'
[^1] Imam Ali (a.s.) was asked about how Allah reckons all people together. He said: "As He provides all sustenance in one time." (Majma' ul- Bayan)
[^2] Majma' ul-Bayan, Ruh ul-Ma'ani, the Commentary by QurtAbi, and Tafsir-i-Fakhr-i-Razi
Commentary : Verse 40
أَوْ كَظُلُمَاتٍ فِي بَحْرٍ لُجّـِيٍّ يَغْشَاهُ مَوْجٌ مّـِن فَوْقِهِ مَوْجٌ مِن فَوْقِهِ سَحَابٌ ظُلُمَاتٌ بَعْضُهَا فَوْقَ بَعْضٍ إِذَآ أَخْرَجَ يَدَهُ لَمْ يَكَدْ يَراهَا وَمَن لَّمْ يَجْعَلِ اللَّهُ لَهُ نُوراً فَمَا لَهُ مِن نُورٍ
"Or (the Unbelievers' deeds) is like utter darkness in a vast, abysmal sea. There covers him a wave, above which is another wave, above which is a cloud; (with layers of) darkness one over the other. When he holds out his hand, he can hardly see it. And for whomever Allah does not appoint light, for him there is no light."
Commentary:
Each deed that a believer does is light and each deed that a disbeliever does is darkness. Instead of opening way for them, disbelievers' deeds mislead them more and it will be veil upon veil. Therefore, in this noble verse the Qur'an says:
"Or (the Unbelievers' deeds) is like utter darkness in a vast, abysmal sea. There covers him a wave, above which is another wave, above which is a cloud; (with layers of) darkness one over the other. When he holds out his hand, he can hardly see it. ..."
Yes, the true light in men's life is only the light of faith, and life will be dark and obscure without it, but this light of faith comes only from Allah. The verse continues saying:
"... And for whomever Allah does not appoint light, for him there is no light."
To understand this example fully, it is first necessary to pay attention to the meaning of the Arabic word /lujjiy/. It means: 'a vast and very deep sea', and, in fact, it is derived from the Arabic word /lijaj/ which means: 'to go after or insist on a job, (usually bad ones)'. Then it has been applied to the succession of waves of the sea and to their standing behind each other.
Since if a sea is deeper and vaster, its waves are more, this word is applied to the deep and vast seas.
Now, consider a wavy and rolling sea which is very deep, and we know that sunlight, the strongest light, penetrates into the sea to a certain level and its last ray will disappear in almost a depth of 700 meter, so that in deeper parts continual darkness and eternal night rule, for no light penetrates there.
We know also this fact that if water is clear and calm, light will be reflected better, but wavy water breaks light ray, and a little amount of it can go deep into water.
And if, above a wavy sea, a dark cloud stands, the resulting darkness from it will be very dense.
First the darkness of the depth of sea, second the darkness of wavy sea, and third the darkness of dark cloud are the layers of darkness that are placed on each other. It is obvious that in such a darkness the closest objects can not be seen, and even if man holds his hand close to his eye, he can not see it.
A disbeliever who has not the light of faith is like someone who is involved in such triple darkness. On the contrary, fair-minded believers are the extension of 'light upon light'.
Some of commentators have said that this triple darkness in which faithless people are involved, is as follows: the darkness of incorrect belief,the darkness of wrong speech, and the darkness of bad behaviour. In other words, the deeds of faithless people are dark both from the point of fundamental and from the view point of their reflection in their speech, and also because of their full harmony with their other evil deeds.
Some other commentators have said that this triple darkness is the phases of their ignorance: 1) They do not know. 2) They do not know that they do not know. 3) Nevertheless, they think that they do know. And this phase is that compound and multiplied ignorance.
Some other have said since the main factors of cognizance, according to the text of the Qur'an, are 3, that is: heart (in the sense of intellect), eye, and ear, as Sura An-Nahl, No. 16, verse 78 says: "And Allah has brought you forth from the wombs of your mothers (while) you knew nothing, and He appointed for you hearing and sight and hearts ...". But disbelievers have lost both the light of heart, and the light of eye, and the light of ear and they are plunging in darkness.[^1]
It is obvious that these 3 comments are in harmony and it is possible that the verse refers to all of them.
Anyway, we conclude from these couple of verses that the deeds of disbelievers are likened a false light that appears like mirage in a dry and hot desert, and not only does not it quench their thirst, but also their thirst increases because of running.
Then, after this false light, which is the faithless hypocrites' specious deeds, there is the inward of these deeds, which is full of darkness and dense horrible obscurity. This awful inward deranges all man's senses and the closest objects will be invisible to him, even he cannot see himself, let alone others.
It is obvious that in such a terrible darkness, man is totally lonely and ignorant. He can neither find the way, nor does he have any fellow traveler, nor does not know his status, and he does not have any means, because he has not enjoyed the
[^1] Tafsir-i-Fakhr-i-Razi, following the verse
source of light, that is Allah, and he has covered with the veil of ignorance and conceit.
If you do not forget, we have said that light is the source of beauties, luminosities, life, and movement, but darkness is the source of the ugliness,death,mortality, immobility and silence. Darkness is the center of fear and hate. It is accompanied with coolness and depression. This is the status of those who lose the light of faith and plunge in the darkness of disbelief.
Some tradition about 'Light' and 'Darkness':
Once Imam Sajjad (a.s.) was asked: "Why are those who stay awake during the night and make supplication to Allah facially the best?" He said: "Because they have private communion with Allah and Allah covers them with His light."[^1]
Imam Ali (a.s.) said: "Since I heard the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: 'Night prayer is light.', I have not lost one night to perform night prayer."[^2]
The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: "Prayer is light."[^3]
The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: "Anyone who testifies rightly in order to restore a Muslim's right by it, his face will be luminous on the day of dooms and his face emit light as far as the eye can see and people know him by his name and family."[^4]
Imam Ali (a.s.) said: "There is truth with any right matter and there is light with any right thing."[^5]
[^1] 'Ilal-ush-Sharayi', Vol. 1, p. 366
[^2] Bihar, Vol. 41, p. 71, and 'Allhar us-Sadiqin, Vol. 11, p. 91
[^3] At-Taqib wat-tarhib, Vol. 1, p. 156
[^4] Bihar, 104/311/9
[^5] Kafi, 2/54/04
A man said to the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) that I would like to be mustered on the Day of Hereafter luminously. The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: "Do not commit oppression upon anyone (so that) you will be mustered in light on the Day."[^1]
The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: "Be in awe of injustice, because it causes darkness in the Day of Hereafter."[^2]
Sura Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 257: "Allah is the Guardian of those who believe. He brings them out of the darkness into the light; and those who disbelieve, their guardians are false-deities (taqut). They bring them out of the light into the darkness; they are the inhabitants of the Fire, wherein shall they abide forever."
[^1] Kanz ul-Abraham'mal
[^2] 'Usul Kafi, Vol. 4, p. 17