The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 365
PT. 18 AN-NŪR CH. 24 فِي بُيُوتٍ أَذِنَ اللهُ أَنْ تُرْفَعَ وَيُذْكَرَفِيْهَا This light is now lit in. 37 houses with regard to which اسْمُهُ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُ فِيهَا بِالْغُدُو وَالْآصَالِ Allah has ordained that they be exalted and that His name be remembered in them. Therein is He glorified in the mornings and the evenings. 2619 If be understood to mean the light of Islam, the metaphor would mean that the light of Islam is placed on so high a pillar of minaret (8) and is so resplendent as to illumine the whole world. It is, as it were, placed under a glass-globe which not only saves it from being put out by puffs of adverse winds but adds to its lustre and glory and its light will one day spread over both the east and the west and will enlighten the entire world. The words, "a tree neither of the east nor of the west," further signify a universal guidance which does not discriminate in favour of or against any people and which is equally meant for all of them. The explanation is supported by another verse of the Quran viz. "they desire to extinguish the light of Allah with the breath of their mouth; but Allah will perfect His light, however much the disbelievers might dislike it" (61:9). The metaphor may have yet another explanation. or the niche in the verse is the human body. The human body contains the spirit which makes itself manifest through the organs of the body. Like the niche the human body protects the light, namely, the spirit; and guides its expression i. e. the human body contains the or the lamp of the soul which illumines the human mind and brings it into touch with God. The lamp is contained in a (globe or glass) which protects it from harm or injury and enhances and reflects its light. This is the human brain of which the mechanism is so perfect as to have led some philosophers to think that it is the ultimate source of divine light. The light is sustained by the oil from a blessed tree, namely from those basic and eternal truths which are not the exclusive possession of any people, of the east or of the west. These eternal truths are implanted in the very nature of man and would almost make themselves manifest even without the help of Divine revelation. 2619. Commentary: The verse purports to say that the metaphor used in the preceding verse is no mere beautiful simile or the figment of the fertile imagination but a hard, material fact. There are in existence houses in which this heavenly light is lit and from them it emanates. God has decreed that these houses shall be honoured and exalted because in them live men who celebrate the praises of their Creator in the mornings and the evenings the verse embodies both a proof and a 2279