Reason and Light

(16) By his narration from his men from our Master al-Sadiq, may His might be glorified, that he was asked: "Is the light by which the rational person reasons and through whose absence the ignorant remains ignorant, of its own essence or is it of the Essence of Allah?" He, may His might be glorified, said: "It is not other than Allah, for if it were, the Essence of Allah would be distinct from it. Nor is it 'with' Allah, as if it existed by its own essence just as Allah exists by His Essence. If the subtle light—by which the rational person reasons, the sensing person perceives, the still moves, the moving becomes still, the unknown is learned, and the known is mastered—were other than Allah, it would be a god alongside Allah. Have you not heard Allah, Mighty and Majestic, saying: {Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp, the lamp is within glass, the glass as if it were a pearly white star lit from a blessed olive tree, neither of the east nor of the west} (Al-Nur: 35). Thus, the light which is the Greatest Reason and the most Radiant Clarification is not other than Allah, nor is it anything besides Him."

(17) And by his chain of transmission from the Messenger, may His might be glorified, it was said to him: "O Messenger of Allah, you have previously stated—and your word is the truth—that light is not divided within anyone nor partitioned so as to become a number. Yet we see it in everyone in varying measures, and we find it increasing in some over others?"

He, may His might be glorified, said: "Verily, number is its center, partitioning is its rising places, and differentiation is its dwellings. So in the vast and spacious it is vast, and in the narrow and restricted it is narrow. Do you not know that the First Reason, from whom its subtle [nature] appeared in the Second Reason, is that by which things are understood from Allah, by which Allah is known, and by which one is guided to Allah?