an-Nūr

The Light

Begin the series ↓

Recited as it sounds in the Qur'an, 24:35.

Heard together with: an-Nūr / al-Hādī

Start with what we know

Then take away everything it needs. What is left is not a bigger version of us. It is the Name.

Episode 1

In us

The rod cells of the human eye can register a single photon of light (Tinsley and others, 2016). But we need light from outside, and darkness to see it against.

Episode 2

In nature

Off the coast of California, about three in four deep-sea animals make their own light.

Episode 3

At our best

The speed of light is now fixed exactly: 299,792,458 metres a second. The oldest light we have caught left 380,000 years after the universe began. All light travels, takes time, and fades.

Episode 4

The Break

Take away a source, fuel, travel time, fading. Every light we know travels from somewhere. an-Nūr is the One by whom anything is seen: “light upon light”, a lamp whose oil “almost glows though no fire touches it” (Qur'an 24:35).

Read: 24:35 (niche, lamp, glass, olive oil, 'light upon light'); 2:257.

From the tradition: Muslim (API 443): asked if he saw his Lord, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said '(He is) Light; how could I see Him?'; 'His veil is the light' (API 445). Bukhari 1120 'You are the Light of the heavens and the earth'. Ghazālī, Mishkāt al-anwār. In al-Maqṣad, an-Nūr is 'the manifest by whom every manifestation is': what is manifest in itself and makes other things manifest is called light.

On screen

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Where it shows up

In scripture: Q 24:35; 24:40; 2:257; Ps 27:1; Ps 139:12; 1 John 1:5.
The same thread in Jewish and Christian scripture: Ps 27:1 'GOD is my light and my help'; Ps 139:12 'darkness is not dark for You'; 1 John 1:5 'God is light'. Strong.
In the universe: Planck CMB oldest light (ESA).
In nature: Oceans: bioluminescence (Blue Planet II).
In people: Lamps in every faith's sanctuary: the mosque lamp of 24:35, the ner tamid, church candles.
In science: Electromagnetism; photosynthesis (half Earth's oxygen from ocean plankton, NOAA).