Surah Al-Maaida (5) — Ayah 15

15. O People of the Book! Our Messenger has come to you, clarifying much of what you used to hide from the Scripture, and overlooking much [41] (as well). There has come to you from Allah a light [42] and a clear Book.

[41] From this verse, it is understood that the People of the Book had either interpreted countless verses or used to conceal them from the people, and Allah Almighty had granted the Messenger of Allah ﷺ knowledge of such verses. Then, among them, there were many verses which you did not mention to the Jews at all, because there was no real need to inform them, and those verses which you did mention were also many, not few, whose mention was indispensable for the establishment of the true religion. Just as they tried to conceal the verse of stoning, and this matter is clearly evident from the following hadith.

The Jews Concealing the Verses of Allah:

It is narrated from Ibn Umar ؓ that a Jewish man and woman who had committed adultery were brought to you. The Prophet ﷺ asked the Jews, "What ruling do you find in your book regarding this?" They said, "Our scholars would blacken the faces of such people, make them ride on a donkey, and parade them around." Abdullah bin Salam ؓ said: O Messenger of Allah ﷺ! Call their scholars along with the Torah. When the Torah was brought, one of them placed his hand over the verse of stoning and began to read from before and after it. Abdullah bin Salam ؓ said to him, "Lift your hand." When he lifted his hand, the verse of stoning appeared from underneath. Thus, the Prophet ﷺ ordered them to be stoned, and they were stoned.
[بخاری۔ کتاب المحاربین۔ باب الرجم بالبلاط۔ مسلم۔ کتاب الحدود۔ باب رجم الیہود اہل الذمۃ فی الزنیٰ]
Or, as they used to conceal all the verses related to the advent of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

[42] Although in this verse some scholars have taken "light" (nur) to mean the blessed person of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, most commentators consider "light" to be an attribute of the clear Book itself, and regard the conjunction "wa" as explanatory rather than separating two different things. The reasons for this are as follows:

1. The mention of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has already occurred at the beginning of this verse. The verse begins as follows:
﴿يٰٓاَهْلَ الْكِتٰبِ قَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُوْلُنَا ......﴾

2. If "light" and "clear Book" were two separate things, then in the following verse, instead of ﴿يَهْدِي بِهِ اللّٰهُ﴾, it should have been ﴿يَهْدِيْ بهِمَا اللّٰهُ﴾.

3. In the Quran, the Quran itself and other heavenly books have been called "light" at many places, for example:
1. ﴿وَاَنْزَلْنَآ اِلَيْكُمْ نُوْرًا مُّبِيْنًا﴾ [4: 175] "And We have sent down to you a clear light" (for the Quran)
2. ﴿اِنَّآ اَنْزَلْنَا التَّوْريٰةَ فِيْهَا هُدًي وَّنُوْرٌ﴾ [5: 65] "We sent down the Torah, in which was guidance and light" (for the Torah)
3. ﴿وَاٰتَيْنٰهُ الْاِنْجِيْلَ فِيْهِ هُدًي وَّنُوْرٌ﴾ [5: 46] "And We gave (Jesus ؑ) the Gospel, in which was guidance and light" (for the Gospel)
4. ﴿مَنْ اَنْزَلَ الْكِتٰبَ الَّذِيْ جَاءَ بِهٖ مُوْسيٰ نُوْرًا وَّهُدًي لِّلنَّاسِ﴾ [6: 16] "Who sent down the Book which Moses brought, a light and guidance for the people" (for the Torah)
5. ﴿وَاتَّبَعُوْا النُّوْرَ الَّذِيْ اَنْزَلَ مَعَهُ﴾ [7: 157] "And followed the light which We sent down with him" (for the Quran)
6. ﴿وَلٰكِنْ جَعَلْنٰهُ نُوْرًا نَّهْدِيْ بِهِ مَنْ نَشَاءُ﴾ [42: 52] "But We made it a light by which We guide whom We will" (for the Quran)
7. ﴿فَامَنِوُاْ باللّٰهِ وَرَسُوْلِهِ وَالنُّوْرِ الَّذِيْ اَنْزَلْنَا﴾ [64: 8] "So believe in Allah and His Messenger and the light which We have sent down" (for the Quran)

The Debate of Light and Human:

On the contrary, all the Prophets have been called human (bashar) at every place, except at one place where the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has been called "a luminous lamp" (sirajan munira) [33: 46]. However, if here "light" is taken to mean the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, then it would mean the light of prophethood and the light of guidance, not the kind of light which the Barelvi people of today keep insisting upon, because the translation of the Quran by Maulana Ahmad Raza Khan (Kanzul Iman) and its commentary by Maulana Naeemuddin Sahib Muradabadi (Khazainul Irfan) is as follows: "Indeed, there has come to you from Allah a light and a clear Book" (Kanzul Iman), and the commentary is: "The Master of the Worlds ﷺ has been called light, because through you ﷺ the darkness of disbelief was removed and the path of truth became clear" (Khazainul Irfan).

Testimony of Senior Barelvi Scholars:

Similarly,
﴿ وَّدَاعِيًا اِلَي اللّٰهِ بِاِذْنِهٖ وَسِرَاجًا مُّنِيْرًا﴾
is translated as: "He calls towards Allah by His command and is a shining light" (Kanzul Iman), and the commentary is: "In reality, the light of your prophethood has given more illumination than thousands of suns, and the intense darkness of disbelief and misguidance was removed by your illuminating light of reality, and the paths to the recognition of Allah for the creation were made bright and clear, and those lost in the dark valleys of misguidance were guided by your light of guidance, and hearts, souls, and spirits were illuminated by your light of prophethood." (Khazainul Irfan) If the matter had remained limited to this, then there would have been no reason for disagreement. After all, which Muslim would not be willing to accept you ﷺ as the light of prophethood and the light of guidance? The disagreement arose when some extremist individuals created the issue of whether the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is light or human, and tried to prove that you ﷺ were not human but light, and those who called you human were labeled as disrespectful to the Messenger, and those who accepted you as light were called lovers of the Messenger.

Literal Distortion:

Now the question arose that in the Quran, you ﷺ have been called human at countless places, and you have been made to say with your own tongue: "Say, I am only a human like you." What is the answer to this? Two types of answers were prepared to this question. One falls under both literal and interpretive distortion, that is, in ﴿قُلْ اِنَّمَآ اَنَا بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ﴾, the word "innama" was read as two separate words "in ma," and "ma" was taken as a negation, and its translation was made as: "Indeed, I am not a human like you." In this way, these people became guilty of literal distortion. The second answer was thought that you ﷺ gave this answer to the disbelievers, who used to call and consider you human. So Allah Almighty said to you ﷺ: "Go ahead, tell them that I am only a human like you, but I am also a Messenger." That is, this answer was specific only for the disbelievers, not for the Muslims, because in reality you ﷺ were not human but light. This is interpretive distortion. The concept that is formed about Allah Almighty and His Messenger from this answer, you can imagine. Nevertheless, the fact remains that you ﷺ repeatedly and openly admitted your humanity in front of the noble Companions as well. Three such examples have been recorded under verse 110 of Surah Al-Kahf, i.e., three authentic and sound hadiths with complete references have been written. This does not mean that you ﷺ admitted your humanity only three times, but only three examples have been given because these three are sufficient to prove the point. What kind of light were you ﷺ? After denying your humanity, there is also disagreement about your being light, i.e., what kind of light you ﷺ are. Some excerpts from the senior Barelvi scholars have been given above. Furthermore, Mufti Ahmad Yar Sahib Barelvi writes: "The meaning of the Prophet ﷺ being from the light of his Lord is neither (a) that the Prophet ﷺ is a piece of God's light, nor (b) that the light of the Lord is the substance of the Prophet's light, nor (c) that the Prophet ﷺ is eternal, everlasting, and essential light like God, nor (d) that the Lord Almighty has permeated the Prophet so that disbelief and polytheism would result. Rather, you ﷺ are light in the same way as Islam and the Quran are light." (Risala Noor, p. 7, authored by Maulana Ahmad Raza Khan Sahib) But the extremist individuals are not even willing to accept the words of their own elders, rather the belief of ﴿نُوْرٌ مِنْ نُوْرِ اللّٰه﴾ has become or has been made firm in them. And these words are a regular part of the durood that Barelvi people often recite on loudspeakers in mosques. If instead of these words, they had said ﴿نُوْرٌ مِنْ نُوْرِ اللّٰهِ﴾ or ﴿نُوْرٌ مِنْ انُوْار اللّٰهِ﴾, then some explanation could have been made. But ﴿نُوْرٌ مِنْ نُوْرِ اللّٰهِ﴾ is such clear disbelief and polytheism that even Maulana Ahmad Raza Khan Sahib has accepted it as disbelief and polytheism. As for the evidence these people have for your ﷺ being light, the answer is that the source of this belief is a few fabricated hadiths, which are as follows:

1.
Resorting to Fabricated Hadiths to Prove You Are Light:

Sayyiduna Jabir ؓ says that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me:
«ان اول ما خلق اللہ نورنبيك يا جابر»
"O Jabir! Allah created the light of your Prophet (Muhammad ﷺ) before everything." This hadith is also narrated as: you ﷺ said «ان اول ماخلق اللہ نوري» ("Indeed, the first thing Allah created was my light.") This hadith is from Musannaf Abdul Razzaq and is without a chain of narration. Musannaf Abdul Razzaq is a fourth-level book of hadith, in which there is an abundance of weak and fabricated hadiths. Then, a hadith without a chain is, in any case, rejected and unreliable according to the scholars of hadith.

2. In Hakim Tirmidhi's book Nawadir al-Usul, it is narrated from Dhakwan that "the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not have a shadow in the light of the sun and the moon." Now, everyone knows the value and status of Nawadir al-Usul among the books of hadith. Hakim Tirmidhi himself belonged to the Sufi class, from whom the scholars of hadith «اخذته غفلة الصالحين» would not accept any hadith. And this Dhakwan himself is a Tabi'i (not a Companion). Then, when he himself did not see the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, how could he say such an astonishing thing about him? And if he had heard it from a Companion, why did he not mention the name? In short, this hadith is, in every respect, unreliable and fabricated. Moreover, the rest of the narrators of this hadith are also liars and fabricators.

3. The third hadith is as follows: "The needle fell from the hand of Sayyida Aisha ؓ, and after the Prophet ﷺ came, it was found due to the light of his face or his smile." Both this hadith and the previous one about the shadow have been declared fabricated by Sayyid Sulaiman Nadwi after commenting on them. [سيرة النبى ج 3 ص 775، 776] These hadiths are also, from a rational point of view, unreliable. The claim is that you ﷺ had more light than the sun, and this would require that at least in Makkah and Madinah, there would be no existence of night or darkness, which Allah Almighty has made for rest and counted among His great blessings. Then, consider that if your ﷺ light was like the sun, then what is the meaning of finding a lost needle upon entering the house? The light of the sun, by itself, reaches everywhere. Now, in comparison to these fabricated hadiths, consider the authentic hadiths.

1.
Refutation of Fabrications by Authentic Hadiths:

Sayyiduna Ubadah bin Samit ؓ says that I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: Allah created the pen first. Then He said to the pen, "Write." The pen asked, "What should I write?" Allah Almighty said, "Write the destiny of everything that has happened or will happen until the Day of Judgment (that will come into existence)." Allah created the pen first. [ترمذي ابواب القدر۔ باب بلا عنوان] From this hadith, it is understood that Allah Almighty did not create your ﷺ light first, but the pen.

2. Sayyida Aisha ؓ says: "One night I did not find the Messenger of Allah ﷺ near me. I thought perhaps he had gone to another wife. Then, when I began to search, I found that he was in prostration." [نسائي جلد 2 ص 86] This hadith refutes the belief of those people that you ﷺ were light or that light like the sun and moon emanated from you, by which a lost needle could be seen.

3. Sayyida Aisha ؓ says: When you ﷺ would perform prayer (tahajjud) at night, I would be lying with my legs stretched out in front of you. When you ﷺ would go into prostration, you would touch me, and I would withdraw my legs. Then, when you ﷺ would stand up, I would stretch out my legs again.
[بخاری۔ کتاب التہجد۔ باب مایجوز من العمل من الصلوۃ]
This hadith refutes the belief of "light." Even during your ﷺ prayer, there would be darkness in the house, and you ﷺ would touch Sayyida Aisha ؓ to alert her that you ﷺ were about to prostrate. The hadith about the light was actually fabricated under the influence of Greek philosophy. What the philosophers call the "Second Intellect," the Sufis call the "Light of Muhammad." Now, consider the further explanation of this fabricated hadith. Sayyiduna Jabir ؓ says that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me: O Jabir! Indeed, Allah Almighty created the light of your Prophet from His own light before all things. Then that light, by the power of Allah, kept moving wherever Allah willed, and at that time there was neither the Tablet nor the Pen, nor Paradise nor Hell, nor the heavens and the earth, nor the sun and the moon, nor jinn nor humans. Then, when Allah intended to create the creation, He divided that light into four parts. From the first part, He made the Pen; from the second part, the Tablet; from the third part, the Throne; and from the fourth, the entire universe. [شرح قصيده حمزيه 15 بحواله رياض السالكين ص 248] After hearing this hadith, you may wish to know how long ago this light of the Prophet was created. So here is another fabricated hadith for that:

"Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah ؓ narrates that the Prophet ﷺ asked Jibreel ؑ, 'How old are you?' Jibreel replied, 'Master! I do not know my exact age, but I know that in the fourth veil there was a star that would rise every seventy thousand years, and I have seen it seventy-two thousand times.'" The Prophet ﷺ said, "By the honor and majesty of my Lord! That star is me." Now see, Jibreel stated his age as 70,000 x 2,000 = five billion and fifty-four crore years, and this star, i.e., the light of the Prophet, was from long before that. In this fabricated hadith, the Prophet ﷺ did not state the age of his light. It seems that this "hadith fabricator" did not know more math than this. Then, it should also be remembered that this light of the Prophet was created from the light of Allah's face, because Allah Himself is said to have stated this in these words (as if this fabricated hadith is a hadith qudsi): Allah Almighty says, "I created Muhammad ﷺ from the light of My face." And by "face" is meant the sacred essence of Allah Almighty. [سر الاسرار 116 سطر 8 بحواله رياض السالكين ص 90] Then Allah Almighty confirmed this fabricated qudsi hadith with another fabricated qudsi hadith, which is: Allah Almighty said, "You are Me and I am You." [جواهر غيبي 282 بحواله رياض السالكين ص 92] The Messenger of Allah ﷺ confirmed this fabricated qudsi hadith by saying: (I am from the light of Allah, and all creation is from my light.) [مدارج النبوت ج 2 ص 60 بحواله رياض السالكين ص 249] Now, the matter is that Allah first created the light of Muhammad, and this light was a star or was in a star, from which Sayyiduna Jibreel calculated his age. Now, from this light of Muhammad or star, the Throne, Tablet and Pen, Chair, Paradise, Hell, sun and moon, and the rest of the universe are being created, from which it is understood that the light of Muhammad ﷺ is present in everything in the universe. Now, to prove this belief, another fabricated and qudsi hadith was invented, which is as follows: Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas ؓ says that Allah Almighty said, "By My honor and majesty, O Muhammad ﷺ! If you had not been, I would not have created the world." [رياض السالكين ص 244] And another fabricated qudsi hadith has also come as: «لولاك لما خلقت الافلاك» [رياض السالكين ص 191] "If, O Muhammad ﷺ, you had not been, I would not have created anything in the universe." Then, in support of this, another fabricated hadith is as follows:

When Sayyiduna Adam was sent from Paradise to the world, he would always weep and seek forgiveness. Once, he looked up to the sky and said, "O Lord! I seek forgiveness by the means of Sayyiduna Muhammad ﷺ." Revelation came: "Tell Me, who is Muhammad?" He replied, "When You created me, I saw written on the Throne «لا اله الا الله محمد رسول الله» I understood that there is no one higher than Sayyiduna Muhammad, whose name You have written with Your own name." Revelation came: "He is the Seal of the Prophets. He is from your descendants, but if he had not been, you would not have been created." [رياض السالكين ص 302] Now see, in these fabricated hadiths, there is no mention of whether Sayyiduna Adam's repentance was accepted or not. On the contrary, Allah Almighty further disappointed Sayyiduna Adam by saying, "If he had not been, you would not have been." Consider, if such an answer were given to a seeker of forgiveness, what would he feel in his heart? However, this hadith has solved many other issues, for example: (1) No matter how many years one weeps before Allah for forgiveness, it will not be accepted unless one seeks someone's intercession, and this is completely contrary to the Quranic teaching:
﴿وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمُ ادْعُوْنِيْٓ اَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ﴾
(2) Then, this intercession can be not only by one's good deeds or a living pious person, but also by someone who has not yet come into existence or is not present. If only Sayyiduna Adam had known these things before weeping for so long.

The Need and Benefits of Proving You ﷺ as Light:

Then, there are many other benefits of proving you ﷺ as light from light. The first is that just as Allah Almighty is present and witnessing, you are also present and witnessing in the same way. Thus, Arshi Sahib has provided proof of this from the following Quranic verse:
﴿وَيَكُوْنَ الرَّسُوْلُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيْدًا﴾ [2: 143]
"And the Messenger is a witness over you," i.e., present and witnessing. When the Holy Messenger is always a witness, then he is aware of the deeds of his followers—how are their deeds and at what level are they in religion? [رياض السالكين ص 234] This argument for being present and witnessing is excellent, but the problem is that the next part of this verse is as follows:
﴿لِّتَكُوْنُوْا شُهَدَاءَ عَلَي النَّاسِ﴾
Then, are all the noble Companions also present and witnessing, who are witnesses over other people and supervisors of their deeds? If so, then what remains as your distinction? However, by this stretching, one benefit of proving the Messenger of Allah ﷺ as present and witnessing is that the way is cleared for all pirs and saints, i.e., the friends of Allah, to be present and witnessing and supervisors over the deeds of their disciples. And the second benefit of proving you ﷺ as light from the light of Allah is that just as Allah Almighty or light does not die, similarly, eternal life is also established for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, as well as authority over affairs. If this had not been done, then after the death of pirs, saints, and elders, the way for eternal life and authority over affairs could never have been cleared.