۞ ٱللَّهُ نُورُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ مَثَلُ نُورِهِۦ كَمِشْكَوٰةٍۢ فِيهَا مِصْبَاحٌ ۖ ٱلْمِصْبَاحُ فِى زُجَاجَةٍ ۖ ٱلزُّجَاجَةُ كَأَنَّهَا كَوْكَبٌۭ دُرِّىٌّۭ يُوقَدُ مِن شَجَرَةٍۢ مُّبَٰرَكَةٍۢ زَيْتُونَةٍۢ لَّا شَرْقِيَّةٍۢ وَلَا غَرْبِيَّةٍۢ يَكَادُ زَيْتُهَا يُضِىٓءُ وَلَوْ لَمْ تَمْسَسْهُ نَارٌۭ ۚ نُّورٌ عَلَىٰ نُورٍۢ ۗ يَهْدِى ٱللَّهُ لِنُورِهِۦ مَن يَشَآءُ ۚ وَيَضْرِبُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْأَمْثَٰلَ لِلنَّاسِ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عَلِيمٌۭ
Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His Light is a niche wherein is a lamp—the lamp is in a glass, the glass as it were a glittering star—lit from a blessed olive tree, neither eastern nor western, whose oil almost lights up, though fire should not touch it. Light upon light. Allah guides to His Light whomever He wishes. Allah draws parables for mankind, and Allah has knowledge of all things.
فِى بُيُوتٍ أَذِنَ ٱللَّهُ أَن تُرْفَعَ وَيُذْكَرَ فِيهَا ٱسْمُهُۥ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُۥ فِيهَا بِٱلْغُدُوِّ وَٱلْءَاصَالِ
In houses Allah has allowed to be raised and wherein His Name is celebrated; He is glorified therein, morning and evening,
رِجَالٌۭ لَّا تُلْهِيهِمْ تِجَٰرَةٌۭ وَلَا بَيْعٌ عَن ذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ وَإِقَامِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةِ وَإِيتَآءِ ٱلزَّكَوٰةِ ۙ يَخَافُونَ يَوْمًۭا تَتَقَلَّبُ فِيهِ ٱلْقُلُوبُ وَٱلْأَبْصَٰرُ
by men whom neither trade nor bargaining distracts from the remembrance of Allah and the maintenance of prayer and the giving of zakat. They are fearful of a day wherein the hearts and the sights will be transformed,
لِيَجْزِيَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ أَحْسَنَ مَا عَمِلُوا۟ وَيَزِيدَهُم مِّن فَضْلِهِۦ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ يَرْزُقُ مَن يَشَآءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍۢ
so that Allah may reward them by the best of what they have done, and enhance them out of His grace, and Allah provides for whomever He wishes without any reckoning.
وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوٓا۟ أَعْمَٰلُهُمْ كَسَرَابٍۭ بِقِيعَةٍۢ يَحْسَبُهُ ٱلظَّمْـَٔانُ مَآءً حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا جَآءَهُۥ لَمْ يَجِدْهُ شَيْـًۭٔا وَوَجَدَ ٱللَّهَ عِندَهُۥ فَوَفَّىٰهُ حِسَابَهُۥ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ سَرِيعُ ٱلْحِسَابِ
As for the faithless, their works are like a mirage in a plain, which the thirsty man supposes to be water. When he comes to it, he finds it to be nothing; but there he finds Allah, who will pay him his full account, and Allah is swift at reckoning.
أَوْ كَظُلُمَٰتٍۢ فِى بَحْرٍۢ لُّجِّىٍّۢ يَغْشَىٰهُ مَوْجٌۭ مِّن فَوْقِهِۦ مَوْجٌۭ مِّن فَوْقِهِۦ سَحَابٌۭ ۚ ظُلُمَٰتٌۢ بَعْضُهَا فَوْقَ بَعْضٍ إِذَآ أَخْرَجَ يَدَهُۥ لَمْ يَكَدْ يَرَىٰهَا ۗ وَمَن لَّمْ يَجْعَلِ ٱللَّهُ لَهُۥ نُورًۭا فَمَا لَهُۥ مِن نُّورٍ
Or like the manifold darkness in a deep sea, covered by billow upon billow, overcast by clouds; manifold [layers of] darkness, one on top of another: when he brings out his hand, he can hardly see it. One whom Allah has not granted any light has no light.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
What the passage says. At the sūra's heart stands the Verse of Light (v.35): "God is the Light of the heavens and the earth," His light likened to a lamp in a glass "as if it were a shining star," kindled from a blessed olive "neither of the east nor of the west." That light burns "in houses God has permitted to be raised," where men undistracted by trade glorify Him and fear the Day "when hearts and eyes shall be overturned" (vv.36–38); by contrast, the disbelievers' deeds are "a mirage in a plain" the thirsty man mistakes for water (v.39), and "layers of darkness in a fathomless sea… when he stretches out his hand he can hardly see it" (v.40).
How the present sources read the Light Verse. All six are present, and here they divide along two great lines of reading, each rendered as its own interpretation, not harmonized. Al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] offers the metaphysical reading: "light" is that which is manifest in itself and makes other manifest — ultimately existence — so God is "the fullest instance of light," and "His light" annexed to Himself is the special light of faith and knowledge (maʿrifa) granted the believers, the whole niche-lamp-glass image picturing its purity and intensity. The Shīʿī sources give the ʿAhl al-Bayt taʾwīl: al-Qummī [qummi] and al-Baḥrānī [bahrani_al_burhan] transmit, from al-Ṣādiq, al-Bāqir, al-Riḍā and Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn, that the niche is Fāṭima (or Muḥammad's breast), the lamp al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn (or Muḥammad), the glass the breast of ʿAlī, the blessed tree Abraham, "neither east nor west" = "neither Jewish nor Christian," and "light upon light" = "an Imam after an Imam," with "God guides to His light" glossed as guidance to the walāya of the Imams — culminating in Jābir's report (in al-Baḥrānī) mapping each phrase onto the Twelve down to "the Qāʾim, the Mahdī." Crucially, al-Qummī preserves the Imam's own guard-rail: "God has no likeness — 'do not strike likenesses for God' (16:74)" — the mathal is of the light He grants, not of His essence. Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] lays out the whole classical spread — God as Guide / Illuminator / Adorner; "His light" as faith, the Qurʾān, Muḥammad, or the proofs — and reports both the "likeness of the Prophet" reading (Kaʿb) and, side by side, al-Bāqir's and al-Riḍā's Ahl al-Bayt taʾwīl; al-Ṭūsī's [tusi_al_tibyan] own Light-Verse comment was carried in the previous passage's v.34 block, so here he supplies vv.36–40.
The houses, the worshippers, and the two parables. On "houses God has permitted to be raised" (v.36), Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī give the majority reading — the mosques — while al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī foreground the report that they are "the houses of the prophets," with Abū Bakr's question answered "the house of ʿAlī and Fāṭima — of the most excellent of them," and al-Baḥrānī's memorable exchange of al-Bāqir with Qatāda ("you are there, and we are those"). On the worshippers (v.37) all converge on al-Bāqir's and al-Ṣādiq's gloss: those who drop trade when the prayer-time comes — al-Baḥrānī adding that abandoning trade outright is "the work of Satan." On the two parables (vv.39–40), Ṭabarsī, al-Ṭūsī and al-Mīzān read them as the emptiness (mirage) and the compounded blindness (sea-darkness) of works done in unbelief — al-Mīzān extending the mirage to every denier — while al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī give the pointed taʾwīl identifying the "darknesses" with the fitan of the Umayyads and "he for whom God appointed no light" with one who has no Imam of Fāṭima's line, rendered strictly as those sources' interpretation. The published Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary] supplies the English exposition of the Light Verse's imagery and spiritual sense.
Sources present: tabarsi_majma_al_bayan, qummi, tusi_al_tibyan, bahrani_al_burhan, tabatabai_al_mizan, enlightening_commentary; silent: none.