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Today I have the very difficult task of doing the most complex

powerble in the entire Quran and this is not something that I am saying is the

most complex history teaches us this aya or this verse or this parable has over

50 treatises written specifically about it including Imam al-Ghazali in his

Mishkat al-Anwar. It is of course the aya to nur Allah nurus semawati wal-Ard. And you

have an entire spectrum of how to understand this parable from the philosophical to

the metaphysical to the spiritual to the mainstream orthodox to all of the

various opinions and even within mainstream you have an entire spectrum and I

have literally nine and a half minutes now so let me squeeze in this parable to one

interpretation with the caveat that there are no exaggeration dozens of

many many interpretations out there and even within each interpretation you

have a spectrum. So I'm going to be forced to stick to one specific narrative and

this is one that is found in Tafsid al-Tabari and ibn al-Jozis famous book Zadir Masir

and it is also ibn Abbas's basic paradigm and that is the following that this aya

everybody knows Allah nurus semawati wal-Ard. This aya is a parable of the heart of our

Prophet ﷺ that is one opinion there's 50 others we're going to stick with this opinion

for the rest of the aya Allah nurus semawati wal-Ard. Allah is the light of the heavens and earth

according to this paradigm here nurus semawati wal-Ard means the one who guides to the light.

So Allah is the one who is the guide as I said for every phrase there's many spectrums we're

going to have to gloss over them one interpretation Allah is the guide so he is nur and his Quran is

and the Prophet ﷺ is nur and Islam is nur and the motif of nur we have at least half a dozen

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