A045
Surah: 025 - Ayah: 045
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25:45
Wisdom of Divine Shadow: In olden times a Muslim king was known as the Shadow of God. God knows whether this was a belief or just sycophancy. Anyhow, this concept expresses a search for the real truth. It is related to the question: Does the shadow of God exist in this world or not? The answer is, yes, and it is another name of the mazhar of the Divine light. As God says: "Have you not looked at your Lord, how He has extended the shadow? If He willed He would certainly have made it stationary. Then We have made the sun a guide to it. Then We seized it to Us by an easy seizing (i.e. We enfolded it)" (25:45).
When the Holy Prophet had the Divine vision (ru'yat, didar), he saw the Divine shadow (light of Imamat) through spiritual knowledge and the ibdaci body (2:247) surrounding the physical world (afaq) and the spiritual world (anfus).
Allah repeatedly unfolds and enfolds the light of Imamat or the revealed light.
God has extended the lower “I”’s of the people who are parts and shadows of the Single Soul, which when He wills, gather in the Perfect Man, then with great ease, He raises them to the Himself by taking them in the first of His hand (25:45-46). In this respect, there are three places for human beings. Firstly, they are spread in bodies, secondly, they ar gathered in the Perfect Man in the form of particles and thirdly, they have become one in the light of intellect, which is the return, provided one observes it.
Taking pride in our partial intellect, we say that everything, except light, has a shadow. But the wise Qur’an alludes that light also has a shadow of its kind. By this we come to know that the shadow of light is reflection, as the reflection of the sun takes place in a mirror. Thus see carefully in these two wisdom-filled verses (25:45-46), where exoterically, it is the mention of the shadow of body, but esoterically it is the mention of the shadow of light. That is, God, the Blessed, the Exalted, by extending the reflection of the light of azal, created the heavens, the earth and all creatures. If He wills, He makes it still, so that the secret may not be divulged or if He wills, the sun of light rises and the things are recognised in its light. Then He very easily rolls up to Himself, the collective shadow which, in fact, is one reflection (25:45-46, 21:104, 39:67), so that it may be recognised how everything, other than the Essence of God, perishes (28:88, 55:26-27).
Zill (Shadow)
See verses (25:45-46): "Have you not seen your Lord, how He has spread the shadow? If He willed He would certainly have made it still. Then We made the sun a guide to it. Then We seized it easily in Our hand." In this wisdom-filled verse there is an allusion to the fact that in the night of micraj, the holy Prophet not only had the vision (didar) of God, but he also observed how He spreads the universe of the earth and the heaven and how He easily enfolds and seizes it in His hand.
Maddaz-zilla (He spread the shadow)
It is said in verses (25:45-46): "Have you not seen how your Lord has extended the shadow? If He willed He would certainly have made it stationary. Then We have made the sun its guide. Then We seized it in Our hand with an easy seizing." Here the shadow is a parable and its object (mamthul) is the inner world, which God spreads in the entire universe, enfolds it and also keeps it spread forever. And all this is in the light of the sun of Intellect.
Q285 Would you kindly explain the ta’wali wisdom of verse (25:45): “Did you not see how your Lord extends the shadows? If He willed He would certainly have made it still (the eternal shadow). Then We made the sun a guide to it. Thereafter We seize it to Ourselves, drawing it gradually.”
A285
- Here the external shadow is a veil and the internal shadow is the veiled one.
- The shadow that is in the veil is the Divine shadow, i.e. the shadow of the Universal Intellect and the Universal Soul in the sense of souls and intellects, which God spreads out and makes eternal and everlasting, such as the people of paradise, and also seizes them to Himself. By the sun is meant the light of Intellect, through which every kind of favour is provided.
Kayfa madda'z-zill (How he has extended the shade? 25:45): The collective soul of human beings which is spread in the entire world is the shadow of the Perfect Man and the Complete Person, which appears due to the rising of the sun of the true light. Thus, this shadow by the command of God, spreads farther and farther and also becomes centred. This means that, not only can every man be away from the Single Soul, but also become close and attached to it. In this connection read verses (25:45-46) carefully.
This verse has been referred 12 times.