Light is one of the most crucial elements of life and over the course of mankind, has come to symbolise goodness, beauty, vision, life and happiness.
Light illuminates our surroundings, and allows us to discern what is happening around us. It is this ability to physically perceive that gives us the power to anticipate what is ahead. The visibility allows us navigate with ease. The further we can see, the greater the means to plan and forecast, and consequently, to get to our destination safely. Even if we see an obstacle ahead, we have the time to steer around it in a safe manner.
In cases of bad weather, the light is broken and visibility is reduced. If we were travelling at high speed, we would be forced to slow down or even stop completely to re-orient ourselves.
The absence of light is darkness, a condition that implies the unknown, the unfamiliar, and even the scary. Light has been often equated with goodness and safety while darkness carries negative connotations of fear and danger. It is in the dark that we lose the ability to see, something that predators often take advantage of.
Darkness represents the unknown, leading to the lack of knowledge, the inability to foresee or to make intelligent estimates. During severely low visibility, airports have to shut down. If you have ever driven in a dense fog, a heavy storm, or even an unlit road, you will know how the lack of vision eradicates confidence. We can end up missing a junction or taking a wrong turn because we cannot see the roads or the signboards.
If you have ever experienced a power blackout, you would appreciate how everything becomes unfamiliar, and even menacing, in the dark. Walking from one room to another would be tricky without bumping into something. Even necessary tasks, like getting food and water, become difficult – even when you are in your own territory and are familiar with the layout.
Where does the fear come from? The unknown – the lack of bearings, and the lack of ability to predict and plan. We are afraid of getting hurt or hurting someone. Fear causes doubt and makes us hesitate, we can be crippled, unstable or even paralyzed by fear. It takes away our ability to think rationally and make the right judgment. The results can be fatal.
Spiritual Light
Just like physical light, spiritual light is crucial for our survival and well being. It equips us with the right tools to understand our surroundings so that we can make life decisions with proper vision.
The absence of spiritual light leads to a spiritual darkness and blindness that makes us fearful, unable to see ahead hence unable to steer our lives into the best possible direction.
Experiencing life without spiritual light is akin to living in physical darkness. Without inner light or guidance, things will be shrouded in lack of knowledge, understanding and comprehension. The natural consequence is insecurity and the fear of the unknown, resulting in rash and harmful decisions.
Today, we are hurtling though life at high speed and in spiritual blindness. We are making hasty decisions in partial, and even total, darkness of the soul, causing us to stumble and fall. We are unable see what lies ahead. This is the spiral of the unknown. One crisis succeeds the other – we do not see it coming and we do not know how to handle it when it comes.
How do we gain inner light?
To do so, we need to find a source of illumination which gives us spiritual energy. The same way that a candle, a lightbulb, a streetlight, the moon and the sun have different levels of luminosity, the more spiritual light we have and the more constant the light shines in our lives, the greater our ability to see. With this clarity of vision comes the ability to grasp the real situation and make the right decision.
Every religion is based on the fundamental belief that it is the message from the Almighty Creator. His divine messages, or revelations, equip humankind with the map, guidance, light and even the knowledge of coping with every aspect of life. It tells us why we are here, where we are going, what will happen after we die and how to prepare ourselves for it. It is this knowledge that is the key to obtaining light.
From an Islamic perspective, revelations form an entire package of knowledge, guidance, light, mercy and success.
Once we obtain this guidance, life becomes clearer. The unknown becomes known, and the future less terrifying. Even if the terrain is unfamiliar, we will know how to handle it. Whilst still unable to predict the future, the tools of equipping ourselves to deal with what life puts in our path, are at our fingertips.
One of Allah’s attributes is that He is Light. His Guidance is light, and His intermediaries in transmitting the divine revelations to us, the angels, are beings fashioned from light. The Prophets and Messengers are like the moon, reflecting and spreading the light from their Creator. This is the infinite Light, the one which will never diminish.
Finding the Source
I once got lost on a highway. It was a dark night, and there were many accidents on the road which forced us to detour. I asked the passengers to check the map, but the battery in the torchlight was flat. Without a source to power up the torchlight, the map we had in the car was useless. It dawned on me then that even if mankind has a map to life, it is of little use if one does not have the means – both the power source and the light – to read it.
It is the same when travelling through life – we need to generate our source of inner light, and constantly replenish it so that it does not flicker out and leave us in darkness.
While this may appear to be an abstract concept, it is possible to gain that light. We achieve this by connecting ourselves to the Owner of Light – our Creator – by seeking His Guidance and begging Him to bestow upon us light and vision. If we are sincere, He will grant these to us, and He will lead us out of our personal darkness and into the light. With this, we will learn how to deal with all the incidents in life. If ones achieves and maintains this inner light, one will be able to traverse life peacefully until the day he enters Paradise and the Almighty allows him to see His beautiful face.
The Qur’an, being the final revelation of our Creator to us, contains over forty verses about noor or light of Allah. It is the source of inexhaustible illumination that our Creator has left for us to help us navigate our path in life.
How do we obtain this light? It begins with humbleness and humility: by recognising our own frailty, limitations and vulnerability, and by acknowledging how lost we are without the Light of Allah to guide us. Once we turn to Him and make the effort to get close to Him, the Almighty will take us step by step and guide us even through the worst scenario imaginable.
The brightness of the light that He grants us can range from a glimmer to a beacon, depending on our own sincerity, conviction and effort. The closer we are to Allah, the more our actions and decisions will be guided by Him, and the safer we will be.
Reported by Abu Hurairah (RA): Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, “Allah the Exalted has said: ‘I will declare war against him who shows hostility to a pious worshipper of Mine. And the most beloved thing with which My slave comes nearer to Me is what I have enjoined upon him; and My slave keeps on coming closer to Me through performing nawafil (prayer or doing extra deeds besides what is obligatory) till I love him. When I love him I become his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his leg with which he walks; and if he asks (something) from Me, I give him, and if he asks My Protection (refuge), I protect him”. [Bukhari]
With the light, we know that our main success is to live for Him, die believing in Him, enter our graves with His Mercy, and be resurrected as a believer in Him. With this, we know how to live our lives accordingly and how to deal with obstacles that are placed in our way.
Without any inner light, we have no guidance. We are vulnerable to the whisperings of the devil, where all our judgments are impaired by fear, lack of vision, suspicions, false assumptions, paranoia and uncertainty.
Where are we?
The majority of mankind, Muslims and non Muslim alike, are not following the light. Instead, we follow our temptations, desires and impulses to our destruction. This is why life then becomes a struggle.
This article is the beginning of a series on how to cope with life, because of its fundamental message. If one seeks guidance and light from Allah, and lives by that guidance and light, his life will be peaceful and successful. Everything will be fine, no matter what the adversities. If one chooses otherwise, he is doomed. Life and the hereafter will be riddled with misery and wrong turns. Allah described it in the Quran:
“Or [they are] like darknesses within an unfathomable sea which is covered by waves, upon which are waves, over which are clouds – darknesses, some of them upon others. When one puts out his hand [therein], he can hardly see it. And he to whom Allah has not granted light – for him there is no light.” [24:40]
Let us take stock of how much we spend on the light fixtures in our houses. Most houses have emergency kits containing torchlights and spare batteries in the event of blackouts. We are willing to spend the money to get the source of physical light in case of crisis and need.
How much are we willing to invest for the main light within, the one we need in every second of our lives? Are we willing to spend the time and effort to search for it, to study and to grasp this crucial light to accompany us at all times? Now ask yourself, how you can cope with life in that time of crisis, tragedy or emergency without a source of light that can guide you and allow you to know what to do and how to handle every situation for your benefit and safety, in this life and the Hereafter?
We can choose between the road of light or darkness. The one paved with light leads to peace, tranquillity, happiness, confidence, stability, and ultimate success of this life and the hereafter. The opposite will be the road of darkness, full of shadows, predators, uncertainty and peril.
May the Almighty give us the light, to choose the light, to make us live in the path of light, to achieve His light, to die with light, to be resurrected with light and to enter heaven with light, ameen.
