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The Notion of “Light” Interpreted … S. Khanabadi and M. Dehghani Firouzabadi/ 61
The name Light rightly He is the Light, there is
refers to the ultimate and no other light than Him,
supreme Light, above which He is all the lights, He
no other light exists, and is the universal Light.
which is the Source of the one (Ghazali, 1924: 55)
that descends on others... I do Regarding the phrase “God
not hesitate to say that the term is the Light of the Heavens and
light applied to something of the Earth”, Ghazali speaks
other than the principal Light of two levels of light that fill
is a pure metaphor (madjaz). the Universe. The first level
(Ghazali, 1924: 50-51) concerns the sensible and material
At this level, Ghazali lights, visible to the outer eye,
parallels the questions of which come from the light of
existence and essence with the the stars, the Moon and the
term Light asserting that the Sun in the heavens and light
object whose light depends on rays that spread over the Earth.
another has no existence in The second level concerns
itself. According to Ghazali, immaterial and non-physical
non-existence is a kind of lights. This light, in the vision
darkness and existence is a of Ghazali, is rooted in
kind of light. Darkness is “angelic substances”, in a
maximum nonexistence. world superior to that of ours.
Thus, Ghazali explains the
notion of unity in the world by Five Illuminating Spirits of
this relationship of subordination Human being
between the lights of creatures As for the five terms, i.e.
and the Divine Light. In Niche, Glass, Lamp, Olive,
reality, for Ghazali the Light is and Oil, which are evoked in
God and God is the Light, And the verse of Light, in the
light for creatures enjoying second chapter of his book,
divine grace is a means and a Ghazali relates these five symbolic
favor of existence. terms to the five illuminating
spirits of human being:
