The Two Lights: Choosing the Noor That Does Not Burn
🕯 The Fake Light
In this dunya there is real light, and there is fake light. The worldly light might be your own shahwa, your own passions. It might be a friend. It might be social media. It might be certain people, certain groups you are following. To see the real light, you have to block all of these out.
Look at the moth, the butterfly. Why is it drawn to a flame, circling it until it burns and dies? Inside it carries an instinct to follow natural light — the light God ordained for it: the stars, the moon, the sun. But when a man-made light appears, it gets confused. It thinks it is following the right thing. It comes close enough, and it is killed.
This is what happens to many people. They think they are following the right light. They come very close. The speaker on the pulpit may sound right, charismatic; the path may sound good. But it is a fake, man-made light — and suddenly they are burnt. This is what happened to the ummah: it left the true light and followed the man-made light it chose at Saqifah.
🌙 The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars
This is why the Holy Prophet ﷺ told his companion Salman who the lights truly are:
أَنَا الشَّمْسُ، وَعَلِيُّ بْنُ أَبِي طَالِبٍ الْقَمَرُ، وَالْحَسَنُ وَالْحُسَيْنُ الْفَرْقَدَانِ، وَأَئِمَّةُ الْمُسْلِمِينَ النُّجُومُ
Anā ash-shams, wa ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib al-qamar, wal-Ḥasan wal-Ḥusayn al-Farqadān, wa aʾimmat al-muslimīn an-nujūm
I am the sun, and Ali ibn Abi Talib is the moon, and Hasan and Husayn are the two bright stars, and the Imams of the Muslims are the stars.
These are the ones you follow — not the fake people. It is Noor that Allah, glorified and exalted, wants us to follow.
⚖️ Alive Is Not Enough
God shows us in His own examples that you cannot move through this dunya without light. He says:
أَوَمَنْ كَانَ مَيْتًا فَأَحْيَيْنَاهُ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُ نُورًا يَمْشِي بِهِ فِي النَّاسِ كَمَنْ مَثَلُهُ فِي الظُّلُمَاتِ لَيْسَ بِخَارِجٍ مِنْهَا
Awa man kāna maytan fa-aḥyaynāhu wa jaʿalnā lahu nūran yamshī bihi fin-nās ka-man mathaluhu fiẓ-ẓulumāti laysa bi-khārijin minhā
Is one who was dead and We gave him life and made for him a light by which he walks among the people like one who is in darkness, never to emerge from it? (Qur'an 6:122)
We were basically dead. Then God gave us life — but that life alone was not enough. Wa jaʿalnā lahu nūran — and We made for him a light. To be alive is good; but without the Noor, you are still dead. Is such a person the same as the one trapped in ẓulumāt?
Notice how the Qur'an repeats this. In Surat Ibrahim:
وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا مُوسَىٰ بِآيَاتِنَا أَنْ أَخْرِجْ قَوْمَكَ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ وَذَكِّرْهُم بِأَيَّامِ اللَّهِ
Wa laqad arsalnā Mūsā bi-āyātinā an akhrij qawmaka min aẓ-ẓulumāti ilan-nūri wa dhakkirhum bi-ayyāmillāh
And We certainly sent Moses with Our signs: bring out your people from the darknesses into the light, and remind them of the days of Allah. (Qur'an 14:5)
See the pattern: ẓulumāt — darkness — is plural. There are many darknesses. But an-nūr — the light — is always singular. When God speaks of Noor in the Qur'an, it is always one.
And ayyām Allah, the days of God? In the tafsir of Ahl al-Bayt, the day of God is first the day Imam al-Hujjah (a.s.) emerges. But the scholars have said: anything that connects you to Allah through the remembrance of Muhammad and the family of Muhammad is a day of God — Muharram, Ramadan, any of them.
📿 Four Eyes: Vision and Insight
The Noor is built up through our daily and our spiritual lives. The only reason you can see anything is that light enters your eye. But does seeing mean you truly see? Some people are colour-blind — what is red to you, they see as something else entirely. The light enters, but the vision is wrong.
Remember the verse about people who look alive — talking, acting — but inside, their spirituality is dead. The Prophet ﷺ warned the companions not to keep company with the dead. They asked, how can we sit with the dead? He answered that there are many who look alive in their actions but are dead within. The dead, he said, are those who love this dunya and are more occupied with it than with the hereafter.
This is why the Qur'an says:
فَإِنَّهَا لَا تَعْمَى الْأَبْصَارُ وَلَٰكِن تَعْمَى الْقُلُوبُ الَّتِي فِي الصُّدُورِ
Fa-innahā lā taʿmā al-abṣāru wa lākin taʿmā al-qulūbu allatī fiṣ-ṣudūr
For indeed, it is not the eyes that are blinded, but blinded are the hearts which are within the breasts. (Qur'an 22:46)
People say, "But my heart has no eyes." That is wrong. In a narration, Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (a.s.) teaches that within every servant of God there are four eyes: two that see worldly things, and two within the heart that see everything related to God Almighty. That is the difference between vision and insight — between naẓar and baṣīra. Baṣīra is greater than ordinary sight. It lets you filter out all the darkness, all that displeases God, so that you see only haqq and can tell truth from bāṭil.
🕯 The Light He Gives, and the Light He Takes Away
The Qur'an returns again and again to this Noor:
اللَّهُ وَلِيُّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا يُخْرِجُهُم مِّنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ ۖ وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَوْلِيَاؤُهُمُ الطَّاغُوتُ يُخْرِجُونَهُم مِّنَ النُّورِ إِلَى الظُّلُمَاتِ
Allāhu waliyyu alladhīna āmanū yukhrijuhum min aẓ-ẓulumāti ilan-nūr, walladhīna kafarū awliyāʾuhum aṭ-ṭāghūt yukhrijūnahum min an-nūri ilaẓ-ẓulumāt
Allah is the ally of those who believe — He brings them out of darknesses into the light. And those who disbelieve — their allies are the false gods, who bring them out of light into darknesses. (Qur'an 2:257)
There are two groups: those who move from darkness into light, and those who once had light, and God takes it from them. Because nūr al-hidāya — the light of guidance — is not, believe it or not, up to me and you. Yet my actions decide whether Allah grants me that Noor.
And what changes the raw light striking the eye into true sight, into baṣīra? It is none other than the walāyah. If you do not carry the walāyah within you, then no matter how much light is shone on your eye, it stays blind. You may think you see — but there is nothing, because without the walāyah, that Noor is not enlisted within you.
🌙 The Light Within the Believer
When the verse fa-āminū billāhi wa rasūlihi wan-nūrilladhī anzalnā was put to the Imams, Abu Khalid al-Kabuli relates that he asked Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (a.s.) about it. The Imam answered:
النُّورُ وَاللَّهِ الْأَئِمَّةُ الْمَعْصُومُونَ مِنْ آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ
An-nūr wallāhi al-aʾimmat al-maʿṣūmūn min āli Muḥammad
The light, by God, is the infallible Imams from the family of Muhammad.
فَآمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَالنُّورِ الَّذِي أَنزَلْنَا
Fa-āminū billāhi wa rasūlihi wan-nūri alladhī anzalnā
So believe in Allah and His Messenger and the light which We have sent down. (Qur'an 64:8)
When an Imam — the Hujjah — swears by God, it carries enormous weight. He said: by God, this is the Noor of Ahl al-Bayt until the Day of Resurrection; by God, they are the light of God in the heavens and the earth.
Then, addressing the believer directly:
يَا أَبَا خَالِدٍ، لَنُورُ الْإِمَامِ فِي قُلُوبِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَنْوَرُ مِنَ الشَّمْسِ الْمُضِيئَةِ بِالنَّهَارِ
Yā Abā Khālid, la-nūr al-imām fī qulūb al-muʾminīn anwaru min ash-shams al-muḍīʾah bin-nahār
O Abu Khalid, the light of the Imam in the hearts of the believers is brighter than the radiant sun in the daytime.
The Noor within you — the lover of Ahl al-Bayt — is brighter than the sun on its brightest day. Why does this matter?
Think of the ocean. How many travellers drown in it? Think of a diver descending into the deepest, harshest depths, who needs light. Imagine carrying the light of the sun itself at the bottom of the deepest ocean. Imam Musa al-Kadhim (a.s.) is saying that you carry this Noor within you. So whenever you are put through any test, any ẓulmah pressing on you from every side — because you are connected to Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, your light overcomes all the darkness.
☀️ Many Lights, One Source
Amir al-Mu'minin (a.s.) said the Noor is of several kinds. Sometimes Noor means the Qur'an, for the Qur'an is called Noor. But even this points to Ahl al-Bayt, because of the two weighty things the Prophet ﷺ left behind — the Book of Allah and his family — which are never separated. When I say nūr al-Qur'an, I mean nūr Ahl al-Bayt; when I say Ahl al-Bayt, I mean the Qur'an. As the hadith says:
عَلِيٌّ مَعَ الْقُرْآنِ وَالْقُرْآنُ مَعَ عَلِيٍّ
ʿAlī maʿa al-Qurʾān wal-Qurʾān maʿa ʿAlī
Ali is with the Qur'an and the Qur'an is with Ali.
There is the Noor of the Qur'an, and Allah Himself is Noor:
اللَّهُ نُورُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۚ مَثَلُ نُورِهِ كَمِشْكَاةٍ فِيهَا مِصْبَاحٌ
Allāhu nūru as-samāwāti wal-arḍ, mathalu nūrihi ka-mishkātin fīhā miṣbāḥ
Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth. The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp. (Qur'an 24:35)
And then, nūrun ʿalā nūr — light upon light — Imam after Imam. The Noor in the Torah, the Noor in the Injil, and the Noor in the Qur'an is none other than the walāyah of Muhammad and the family of Muhammad. Why? Because on this earth you always need a Hujjah — someone ever-present who keeps everything in order. From Hadith al-Kisa we know that everything, the sun, the moon, the seas, runs for the sake of the Five beneath the cloak. This Noor is the Hujjah you believe in — and it is given only to the lovers and followers of Ahl al-Bayt. Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Qummi and Ibn Abbas both say the Noor of this verse is none other than Ali ibn Abi Talib.
🪝 The Angler Fish
So the problem remains: which light do you follow? Go back to the ocean once more. There is a fish called the angler fish — an ugly creature in the deepest dark, with a single light dangling at its front. It uses that light to lure other fish close, and then it devours them.
This is what happens to many people. They are lured toward a light they assume must be good — mashallah, something beautiful, it must be from God. They draw close, and the dunya swallows them whole. The angler fish teaches us that there are people, there are forces out there, trying to lure us in — social media, a friend, even someone from your own family — drawing you toward a light you think will help you, and suddenly you are swallowed. This is why Allah, glorified and exalted, says: be careful which Noor you follow.
🩸 The Greatest of Lights
And the greatest of all light is the one we are remembering today.
Adam himself said that when God commanded him to look upon the Throne, he saw written there:
الْحُسَيْنُ مِصْبَاحُ الْهُدَى وَسَفِينَةُ النَّجَاةِ
Al-Ḥusayn miṣbāḥ al-hudā wa safīnat an-najāh
Husayn is the lamp of guidance and the ship of salvation.
Adam said he could not at first even look toward it — the brightness of the light of Ahl al-Bayt was too great to behold. He asked, "Who is this light?" He was told: they are the lights of Muhammad, of Ali, of Fatima, of Hasan, of Husayn. These are the lights.
This is why, in the famous account, Rasulullah ﷺ was sitting with his companions when Imam Husayn (a.s.) walked in — as-salāmu ʿalayka Abā ʿAbdillāh. The Prophet ﷺ rose to take hold of him, and he began to kiss him — on the cheek, on the neck — and he wept. A companion asked, "O Messenger of Allah, he is your grandson and your son, but why are you comforting him here, why are you weeping? You should be happy."
He answered: "O servant of God, I am kissing all the places on which my beloved Husayn will be struck by enemies who call themselves Muslims. The swords will touch this beloved neck of my grandson, and his body, and the spears." If only the ummah knew the love of Aba Abdillah al-Husayn. That is why Rasulullah ﷺ would call out to him: Yā Zayn as-Samāwāti wal-Arḍ — "O adornment of the heavens and the earth." They asked, "O Messenger of Allah, are you not the adornment?" He said: "No. Al-Husayn in the heavens is greater and more magnificent than he is upon this earth."
🪦 Leaving Medina
And how heavy it was when Imam Husayn (a.s.) had to leave Medina, on a sad occasion like today. He had to leave the only comfort he had left — even after witnessing the tragedy of Fatima al-Zahra, after seeing her crushed behind the door, after the loss of his father, after the poisoning of his brother Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba. His one remaining comfort was Medina. And now even Medina he must leave, for his journey to Karbala.
He went to the grave of the Holy Prophet ﷺ and prayed until he fell asleep. And in his sleep he saw his grandfather. The Prophet ﷺ took hold of him, and Imam Husayn (a.s.) said: "O Messenger of Allah, please — the ummah have disowned me, they have abandoned me. Please take me with you." And the Holy Prophet said: "O Aba Abdillah, you cannot come to me until you reach the station of Shahada. You cannot come until you see Abbas's hands cut off. You cannot come until you see your son Ali al-Akbar cut to pieces, limb from limb. You cannot come until you see Abdullah, the infant, slaughtered — min al-warīd ila al-warīd, from one vein to the other."
لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ الْعَلِيِّ الْعَظِيمِ ۚ إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ
Lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illā billāhil ʿaliyyil ʿaẓīm. Innā lillāhi wa innā ilayhi rājiʿūn.
There is no power and no strength except with Allah, the Most High, the Most Great. Indeed, to Allah we belong and to Him we return.
وَسَيَعْلَمُ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا أَيَّ مُنقَلَبٍ يَنقَلِبُونَ
Wa sa-yaʿlamu alladhīna ẓalamū ayya munqalabin yanqalibūn
And those who have wronged are going to know to what return they will be returned. (Qur'an 26:227)
🕊 Closing Supplication
We ask Allah, glorified and exalted, for safety and for the hastened reappearance of Imam al-Hujjah (a.s.). We ask Him not to take us from this dunya until He is pleased with us. We ask Him to grant us the ziyarah of Ahl al-Bayt in this world and their intercession in the hereafter. We ask Him to cure our sick, and to keep us firm upon the walāyah until we meet Muhammad and the family of Muhammad.
هَٰذَا وَآخِرُ دَعْوَانَا أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ
Hādhā wa ākhiru daʿwānā ani al-ḥamdu lillāhi rabbil ʿālamīn
And the last of our call is that all praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds.