Verse of Light
Verse of the Quran
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Commentary
The verse has been the subject of many exegeses, having been commented by Avicenna, al-Ghazali, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Ibn al-'Arabi, Rumi, Mulla Sadra, Ibn Kathir, Al-Tabari, and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya.
The eighth Imam of the Twelver Imami Shiites Ali ibn Musa says in the interpretation of this verse:
He is the guide of the people of heaven and the guide of the people of the earth.
and the sixth Shiite Imam, Jafar Sadiq, has stated that:
God first spoke of His light.
The example of God's guidance is in the heart of the believer.
The glorious is inside the believer and the lamp of his heart, and the lamp is the light that God has placed in his heart.
Hence it was and remains a key Qur'anic passage to many Sufis and Muslim philosophers into the present day, who argue for esoteric readings of the Qur'an. Al-Ghazali's reflections on this verse are collected in his Mishkat al-Anwar (the "Niche of Lights").
This verse is also the primary source of one of the 99 Names of God: an-Nur (النور), "The Light".