From Darkness into Light



It is God Who sends to His servants clear signs

that He may lead you out of the depths of darkness

into the Light.

And truly, God is to you most Kind and Merciful.

[ Sürah al-Åadïd 57:9]



This short selection has vast implications if only we could take it to heart. It describes our essential relationship to God: we are being guided out of darkness and...

Discernment



O you who have attained to faith!

If you remain conscious of God,

He will endow you with a standard by which to discern

the true from the false,

and will clear evil from you,

and will forgive you your mistakes:

for God is limitless in the abundance of His blessing.

[ Sürah al-Anfäl 8:29]

Be Aware



Say: “I only follow whatever is revealed to me by my Sustainer:

this revelation is a means of insight from your Sustainer,

and a guidance and grace to those who will have faith.

And so when the Qur°än is voiced, pay attention to it,

and listen in silence, so that you might be graced with God's mercy.”

And remember your Sustainer humbly within yourself and with awe,

and...

Heedlessness



He whom God guides, he alone is truly guided:

whereas those whom He lets go astray—

it is they, they who are the losers!

And most certainly have We destined for Hell

many of the invisible beings and men

who have hearts with which they fail to grasp the truth,

and eyes with which they fail to see,

and ears with which they fail to hear.

...

God is Subtle



No vision can encompass Him,

but He encompasses all human vision:

for He alone is Subtle Beyond Comprehension, All-Aware.

Means of insight have now come to you

from your Sustainer through this divine Message.

Whoever, then, chooses to see,

does so for the benefit of His own soul;

and whoever chooses to remain blind,

does so to His own...

Signs of Nature



Truly, God is the One Who splits the grain and the kernel apart,

bringing forth the living from the dead,

and He is the One Who brings forth the dead out of that which is alive.

This then, is God: how then can you be so deluded?

He is the One Who causes the dawn to break,

and Who has made the night to be a source of stillness,

and the sun and the moon for reckoning...

Signs for Those Who Use Their Intelligence



Truly, in the creation of the heavens and of the earth,

and the succession of night and day:

and in the ships that speed through the sea with what is useful to man:

and in the waters which God sends down from the sky,

giving life thereby to the earth after it had been lifeless,

and causing all manner of living creatures to multiply thereon:
...