Recognition of Imam Part II - The Light of the Universe
The Light of the Universe
In verse (24:35), God says: "Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth; His light is as a niche in which is a lamp, and the lamp is in a glass, the glass is as though it were a glittering star; it is lit from a blessed tree, an Olive neither of the east nor of the west, the oil of which would well-nigh give light though no fire touched it - light upon light - Allah guides to His light whom He pleases and Allah strikes out parables for men; and Allah all things does know".
The wisdom and ta'wil of this verse is that the light of Allah exists in the form of knowledge, wisdom, rectitude and guidance, externally and internally, which rising from the blessed personality of the living and present Imam, illumines the heavens of the spiritual hudud and the earths of the physical hudud. This light belongs to the house of wisdom (i.e., the house of Prophethood or Imamat), the chosen members of which are called ahl-i bayt (People of the House), who are like a niche for this light. The ancestral nobility of the Prophet and his position in knowledge are like a lamp, which is like a glittering star, in which the corporeality of the holy Imam is like the vessel of this miraculous lamp and his spirituality is likened to the oil of the Olive. By the Olive is meant the family of Hazrat-i Ibrahim(`a) and Hazrat-i Muhammad(s). In the oil of this lamp, the Universal Soul and the Universal Intellect, i.e., the Holy Spirit and the ever-reaching Intellect of the Imam, are like the wick and flame. By the fire is meant the miraculous ta'yid (help) and light upon light, means one Imam after the other.
Thus the light of guidance, which radiates from the flame of the Universal Intellect of the holy Imam, spreads in the interior and exterior of the universe and existents, through the spiritual and physical hudud, so that the means of the existence and subsistence of the heaven, the earth, elements, mineral kingdom, vegetative kingdom, animal kingdom and humankind, may continue and each of the existents and creatures may receive this guidance according to its capacity and receptivity.
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