Light upon Light

You’ll find some Sufi teachings about light here:

Flash 1
The well-known Chishti Sufi Amir Khusraw has seen the light:

What a glow everywhere I see,
Oh mother, what a brilliance!
I’ve found the Beloved, yes I found him,
In my courtyard.

I have found my pir Nizamuddin Awliya.
I roamed around the entire world,
Looking for an ideal Beloved;
And finally this presence has awakened my spirit.

Flash 2
Hazrat Nizamuddin Awliya says that the sama’ (audition of Sufi music) confers three blessings, namely:

1. Anwar : lights
2. Ahwal : states
3. Asar : symptoms.

These blessings appear from three ‘worlds’:

1. Nasut : the world in which we live.
2. Jabarut : the world or the sphere of the omnipotence.
3. Malakut : the world of the angels.

They descend upon three things, namely :

1. Arwah : spirits
2. Qulub : hearts
3. Jawarih : limbs.

And thus they descend:

Anwar descend from the world of malakut upon the spirit. Ahwal descend from the world of jabarut upon the hearts and asar descend from the world of nasut upon the limbs of men. First appear anwar , then appear ahwal and lastly come asar . With the descent of the asar there are motions and sensations in the body.

Flash 3
According to shaykh al-akbar light is “every divine inspiration that drives away the world from the heart”.

Flash 4
According to shaykh al-akbar brightness (diya) is “seeing others with the eye of the Real”.

Flash 5
According to shaykh al-akbar glimmerings (lawa’ih) are “those essential lights [of Exaltedness] which appear to the eye when it is not restricted by physicality”.

Flash 6
According to shaykh al-akbar dawnings (tawali’) are “the lights of tawhid, which comes suddenly upon the hearts extinguishing all other lights”.

Flash 7
According to shaykh al-akbar flashes (lawami’) are there “when the lights of revelation are established for as much as two moments”.

Flash 8
According to shaykh al-akbar darkness (zulma) “sometimes designates knowledge of the Essence, since nothing other than It is unveiled along with It”.

Flash 9
According to shaykh al-akbar shade (zill) is “the experience of repose behind the veil”.

Flash 10
God has 70,000 veils of light and darkness.

According to shaykh Nuruddin Isfarayini there are 28,000 veils of light,
28,000 veils of darkness and all these 56,000 veils are not exterior
to the human being (wujud-e-insani):

Agar oftad hejaabi andar in raah
Yaqin daan k’aan hejaab az maast emruz

If a veil imposes itself on this path,
You can know for sure that this veil of today belongs to you.

As for the 14,000 remaining veils, they don’t belong to the human qualities (sefaat-e-bashariyat). They arise because of the Divine jealousy.

Flash 11
An old man asked his three sons to come to him at the end of his life.
He said: “I’m unable to divide my possessions in three parts, as I own almost nothing. Each of you would have too small a part after such a division. That is why I have decided to give it to one of you only, i.e. to my best son”.

“You see a coin lying on the table for each of you. I want you to make use of this coin and spend it on something for this hut. The one who is able to fill up this hut, will get all I own”.

They left. The first son bought straw for the hut, but it was too little to fill up the hut. The second son bought sacks with feathers, but again it could not fill up the hut. The third son, who would eventually get the inheritance, bought something very small. He waited until it became dark, lighted the candle and filled the hut with light.