A005
Surah: 067 - Ayah: 005
Click here to see the translations
67:5
as-Sama’ ad-dunya (The heaven which is nearest)
The heaven of the personal world which is illumined with lamps is both light as well as fire, as mentioned in verse (67:5): "Verily, We have adorned the nearest heaven with lamps and We have made them missiles to drive away the devils, and We have prepared for them the chastisement of the flaming fire." The devils are deprived of the great secrets of the higher world because they did not recognise the Vicegerent of God.
`Aynu'l-yaqin or the eye of certainty is the name of the eye of the heart or the inner eye. If, as a result of Divine mercy and knowledge and good deeds, the eye of your heart opens and you see light, then you should never consider it an ordinary bounty. For, this is like your birth in the spiritual world, where all great spiritual bounties are gathered. As when a child is born in the external world, he has access to many material bounties, similarly, at this place of spirituality, you have access to Paradise and every bounty of it. Thus congratulations to you! This is the opportunity to attain happiness and healing from many diseases. Nonetheless, you should not forget the point that the extremely dazzling colourful light which is in this stage is not only bright guidance, which indicates that you should go further, but also the greatest trial and the final obstacle (67:5, 72:8). Therefore, you should pray with utmost humility that, may God, the Great, the Exalted, help and guide you and make you reach the desired destination!
The patterns of all great things which are in the macrocosm and all those events which take place there, are found in the microcosm (personal world). For instance, if there are Throne, Dais and seven heavens, then here are the head like the Throne, neck like the Dais, shoulder like the seventh heaven, arm like the sixth heaven, wrist like the fifth heaven, palm and its back like the fourth heaven, phalanx of the finger rooted in the palm like the third heaven, the middle phalanx like the second heaven and the phalanx with the nail is the first or nearest heaven. Thus, as the nearest heaven of the macrocosm prevents devils from going upwards by throwing flames upon them (67:5, 72:8), similarly, during dhikr-u `ibadat, the first heaven (i.e. phalanx with nail) repels those devils and bacteria, which come from the side of the feet, by casting flames upon them. For, there are the lamps of protection in them (37:6-7, 41:12).
The nearest heaven for human beings is on this earth, that is, the Prophets, the Legatees (awsiya) and their successors. The proof of this can be found in this noble verse: “And We adorned the nearest heaven with lamps, and made them missiles to (drive away) satans; and We have prepared for them the chastisement of the blaze” (67:5). Thus the Chosen, the holy Prophet Muhammad was the nearest heaven of spirituality for the people of his cycle, adorned only with the lamps of realities, sciences and recognitions, wisdom and guidance, in the light of which the mu'mins were able to walk on the straight path. Apart from this spiritual adornment, apparently he was a human being and had all the essential characteristics of humanity, such as eating, drinking, sleeping, marriage, walking, working and becoming subject to physical difficulties and illness and their consequences, etc. Many people used to doubt him due to these human characteristics and run away from him. This is the meaning of God’s saying that He has adorned the nearest heaven (with the lamps of guidance) and then (due to his human characteristics) made him the one who drives away the devils.
Wisdom 9: if you study the diagram of the Lamp Verse (misbah) carefully, you will note that the Lamp Verse, the Sun and the Intellect are on the same line, the reason for which has already been explained there. Another reason is that the word “misbah” is grammatically an instrumentive noun from “subh (morning)”. That is misbah is the thing from which the subh is made, that is the sun. But by the sun here is meant the sun of the personal world, which, in addition to the Prophets and the Imams, also rises in mu’mins of the first rank. Nonetheless, it should be remembered that the light which is observed in the beginning of spirituality is not that of the sun, nor the moon, but of the stars. Yet its beauty and attraction is so amazing that many people are misled into believing it to be the Divine manifestation (67:5; 72:8; 37:6-7)
Q267 It is mentioned in verse (67:5): “And verily We have beautified the nearest heaven with lamps, and We have made them missiles for the devils, and for them We have prepared the doom of flame.” Is this heaven physical or spiritual? In search of what do the devils unsuccessfully try to fly to the heaven? One of the functions of the lamps is to drive the devils away [from the heaven], what is the other function?
A267
- This is the nearest spiritual heaven in which there are lights of many colours.
- Devils want to go to heaven to overhear the conversation of the angels, so that they may tell and impress their followers.
- The other function of the lamps is to guide the saliks.
This verse has been referred 8 times.