are we live okay [Music] [Music] in everyone once again we're at the doors of this most incredible Parable in the Quran Allah is the light of the skies and the Earth where we talked about the outside light and the Divine Light um and what its meanings can be including like the sun for example the heavenly bodies and all of that that Allah has illuminated that we could never have had the ability to illuminate but then from there there's an immediate transition to the light that exists inside every human being and particularly inside of the believer and Allah used as the introduction to it you you don't see in the opening you don't [Music] say that's not how you see the you just see but then there's a deg of Separation made as if to say that human beings inside of us we have the and Allah says about the something special it's a special of Allah Allah blew of him of his own R into us right so this special language used for the r and then there's something really truly special about the r that all the Angels were commanded to do s so human beings have been given something that reflects in some way the attributes of Allah Allah he himself is and the he put inside of us has some desire for Allah is Al the guide and he put inside every human soul the desire to seek guidance he's Al we seek wisdom he's we want to create things we want to engineer things we want to build things he's the unique creative initiator of the skies and the Earth and we want to invent new things we don't want to just be satisfied with what's already been created we want to invent and ReDiscover so in a sense like IM gazali you know alludes to this idea that the the r that Allah put inside of us right every name of Allah inspires has some something to do with what the r is inspired with every name of Allah Allah's name is the human soul is drawn towards Justice that Allah's name is Justice and we seek Justice we are drawn towards Justice right and so we have every every name of Allah in some way impacts the human soul naturally we have this reflection not a part of the Divine a reflection of divine attributes a reflection of divine attributes and what an amazing thing to say that Allah is the light of the skies in the earth and a likeness of that light exists something like that light something like it exists and the example of it is a niche in a wall now a niche I know Texas homes have them but most when I used to live in the east coast they didn't have them but basically in in homes in Old homes you didn't have electricity so you didn't have light bulbs and can lights and things like or chandeliers so the way people would light up their home is either they hang a lamp from the ceiling they make a hook and they hang a lamp and it's hanging in the middle or they put some kind of lamp in the middle on the table or something like that or they have a fireplace or if you really want to be safe and careful you make a curved window into the wall without actually being a window it's just wall but it's curved and it looks like an arch and it's like a dent inside the wall and you put the lamp in it and the light hits the wall and it spreads all over the room that's called a Mishka the Mishka that that's the term for Mishka we call it a Nish in a wall right so that's done and they do this I know in Texan homes they do this as a decorative thing people don't really use it for that purpose anymore they just put a flower vas there or something now right for no no purpose it's like a doohickey to put there or that's where you keep your keys right but in the old times this was used to spread light inside of a house right Allah is going to basically describe the human heart our heart using this parable and you notice that our rib cage is shaped like the niche of a wall and inside that Niche inside this rib cage is the heart right and inside that Niche it's a lamp so Allah is saying that the light of Allah that lights the skies and the Earth some kind of closeness to that light in some way some resemblance to that light exists inside this niche in a wall so before we go any further we're going to focus our attention on this niche and how is Allah describing that these man this this Divine gift that Allah has given every human being that's inside of us you know there are you can think of easily four ways that a niche benefits the first way is that it saves you space if there's a lamp hanging from the ceiling you can run into it it's an obstacle you have to work around it but if it's in the wall tucked away the light is coming without it getting in the way of anything and that's also beneficial because the believer's light the light of IM when a Believer has that light inside of him he's not creating or she's not creating obstacles for people the light they have to share the message they have to share the goodness they have to share can just be shared without them creating interruptions or creating annoyances or creating even danger for others or disruption for others there's a gentleness in the way that a Believer spreads light just like there's a gentleness in the way in which the niche spreads light without creating an interruption it doesn't impose itself then the the idea of a niche because it's a curve right and a curve has a certain direction so if the niche is angled at a certain way the light will focus in this direction if a niche is angled in this way you put the lamp there the light is focused in that direction so some parts of the room gets get less light and the parts of the room that are in the focus of the niche are going to get more light if you put a lamp in in the middle of the room then the light is going to go in every direction but if you put a lamp in the niche then the light is going to go in a particular direction more than other directions which is something to learn from also because then the believer is focused on certain things he there's more light the more light there is on something the more it's visible the more it's visible the more you can think about it the more you're aware of it if something's in the dark you're not even thinking about it it's not even in your conscious you're driving on the road it's pitch black you only see a tree what's your focus on the tree you don't if it's not on your site it's not in your vision you can't think about it it's not part of your you know your your your thought process so what does that teach us about ourselves the believer and the when they have Allah's light inside them they don't pay equal attention to everything there are some things that deserve more light more attention than others and some things are left in the dark in the dark for good reason right so there are things for example Allah says in he says if you can stay away from major sins then we will bury away from you for your other sins so there are you know there's for example earning Haram money or stealing inheritance or you know there's big sins and then there is hey you entered the bathroom with the right foot or you you know I mean okay okay it's not the best thing to do or you ate some food you didn't say you forgot to say right and now imagine someone who's really hey you didn't say and he just checking everybody at the table did you say did you say did you say did and that same guy is not paying attention to uh inheritance that he just stole from his brother right but everybodyis bis from the Haram money I just made from my brother and bought the Halal chicken with right so what happens with the light focused in the right direction the things that deserve priority and focus you're able to prioritize and shed light on those things as opposed to other things also this this means even more not just within the religion but beyond the religion there are priorities in life every one of us is in a family and in our family and friends and when family and friends exist then so do all kinds of conflicts and some conflicts are so petty and so pathetic and so meaningless but they take up so much of the space in your brain and so much of your energy and so much conversation you know what they said you know where they went you know what they did you know they didn't invite this one you know they called that one and you're just so much of your time and energy you're shedding the light on the wrong thing you understand some things you could just keep in the dark The Faults of others the petty mistakes of others and you can focus on more important things so this mishkat the fact that it directs in the right direction is also a pretty powerful indication in the Quran Allah didn't Begin by describing the lamp Allah began by describing the mishkat and Allah could have said the example of his light is a lamp in a niche but he said and then so he did the of the mishkat he emphasized the mishkat early to say this is important I need you to pay attention to this and what you can learn from it so when we learned it doesn't get in others ways the second thing we learned it it provides a particular kind of focus when someone has the light of Allah then they're focused on certain things and therefore they are not focused on other things they're not focused on other things they have a sense of priority the third is that it actually creates what's called ambient lighting if you're into interior design I'm very much into interior design there are for example you you can put if you're in your in your bedroom and you're going to sleep and they're lights are on and you put like high Lumen 4,000 Lumen lights right on top of your head like surgery lights right and the lights are on they're just beaming into your eyes it's not a pleasant experience actually if you go to really well nicely designed homes for instance they'll have an extra you know uh perforated ceiling and they'll put lights that are pointing up into the ceiling and the light is bouncing off of the ceiling and coming into the room creating softer light that's ambient light right so it's not direct light it's it's indirect light and it creates a softer more gentle environment in the in the room the niche what does it do the majority of the light is hitting the wall and then from the wall it's coming to everywhere else if the light was in the center of the room it's wherever you go it's hitting you but it's it's on the off to the side and then it's creating this ambient soft gentle light which is like the light of a Believer because a Believer is not harsh in the way that they spread their light right cuz if you imagine somebody who has like a you know those super powerful torch lights that you can take now into the woods and you can see like 300 miles into the distance right now those kind or or we all drive if somebody has their high beams on how annoying is it if they have their high beams on you understand so if you have the H which is light and you just stick it in somebody's face well there's going to be one of three one at least they're annoyed at least they're annoyed two they're not going to be able to see properly cuz your the light is too intense and three they're probably going to turn around and say I don't want to look at this man I'm not coming back here again turn that off in other words here you are thinking you're giving them light but you're actually turning them away from light in fact too much intense light can even be blinding you had the opposite effect of giving them light you actually put them in darkness over overexposure to light can actually be blinding it could be that the light lightning blinds their eyes snatches their eyesight right so the ambient light is also an imagery for the believer when they spread the goodness that they have inside them they don't spread them in the kind of intensity that blinds someone that Squints someone that makes someone turn away but actually they can feel the warmth and the comfort of the light that they're experiencing so that's actually really quite powerful something else about the first thing I mentioned that it's or the second thing the targeted light is that you you just imagine yourself you walked into the room at night and you see that certain things are lit up and you also notice that certain things are not lit up you didn't even see the lamp you didn't even see the niche and you're like why is this bright and that side isn't bright and you kind of start following the light and you oh there's a lamp over there and it's pointing in this Direction that's why this stuff is lit and that stuff isn't lit a Believer is focused on certain things and they're unconcerned about other things right their light is focused on some things and not on other things and other people notice hey man I noticed you're never talking about Petty politics and you're never talking about you know the flaws of your friends and you're never talking about these meaningless things and you're never indulging in L what the Quran calls L meaningless useless conversation you're always focused on meaningful things purposeful things kindness things gentle things why why are you like that like you see the light it's focused on certain things and you want to know where that came from you want to work backwards and you say oh there's a lamp there so a Believer just the way they carry themselves and what they're focused on becomes so different from everybody else that they become curious hey how come you're focused on that there must be a lamp inside you and they make them curious about the Iman itself right so that's really quite beautiful then finally the niche is actually also a security mechanism because lamps in the ancient world were fire there's an oil as we will see there's oil and it's lit and if it's hanging in the middle of the house and somebody accidentally bumps into it what's going to happen it's going to fall it's going to smash and the fire is going to spread on the rug or the furniture and the house is going to burn down this thing is beautiful but it's also quite dangerous if not handled properly it's dangerous what did Allah do with this Niche he described it as something placed in a secure area where no it's not used for any other purpose but to secure this thing out of the way of any other obstacle out of the reach of children for example out of the reach of other utensils you're not reaching into the niche for anything else so you accidentally knock it over and you know the the the heart of a Believer has to be protected and Allah protected it you know it's it's remarkable one of the great creations of Allah the the human being and the way the human being has been created and the way our bones have been created our skeleton has been created you notice the two strongest organs the two organs that have been protected more than anything else by the bones are the heart and the mind the skull is the strongest bones in the body and so is the rib cage it's like this entire security system just to protect the heart the private parts of a human being don't have any security system the nose which we need to breathe is very exposed the ears are very exposed the eyes are fairly exposed the mouth is exposed but the the heart and the mind are kept in the security vaults right and extra layers of security around and literally quite literally a kn around the heart to protect it and this is actually a a beautiful indication of how Allah is saying Allah gave you something worthy of protection and when you don't protect it you will create fires all around when a heart becomes corrupt when that lamp is getting used for the wrong thing or being placed in the wrong place then what happens to the world what happens to that family what happens to that person's surroundings they set themselves and everybody around them on fire they create facade right so just from the niche itself we learn so much you know so and then from there we go to in which there is a lamp now we focus on the lamp that was the niche now we focus on the lamp the word for the lamp here is is coming from the word means morning mbah literally linguistically means a tool to simulate the morning a tool to simulate the morning the morning generator is called a misbah okay so that what is a lamp then from a linguistic perspective it's trying to do what the morning had done with the sun the sun isn't there so we're going to make an artificial mini little sun with this misbah the the the the artificial morning a human attempt at the morning this is also really powerful because it's as if Allah is saying that when Allah brings his light in the morning everything gets illuminated but even when Allah removes that light and Night Comes Allah gave every human being something that can generate a reflection of that morning everyone was given a lamp we weren't left in total darkness in it there's a lamp and that lamp wants to be like the morning because it's its name is defined with the morning it's as if this n is defined with right just like the light inside of us is defined where is it getting this light from it's getting it from the Heavenly Source from Allah himself who is so there's this beautiful connection even in the way that Allah describes this lamp but then we take a couple of other steps with this lamp you know the light that Allah creates uh we had no effort in creating it Allah raises the morning sun and the light is there the Moon is there reflects Allah's light the stars are there that give light but when we have a lamp it's designed by human beings and it's made with human effort human beings have to carve out the niche human beings have to make the oil for the lamp and the Wicker the string that goes into the oil and the you know they have to generate a fire from somewhere and to light it up so the lamp won't work until human beings actually light first of all designed and light it up right it's as if Allah is saying the light inside of you is like a lamp but a lamp is no good until you make the work to put in the fuel and light it up and put it to use so human beings not we don't say all human beings are good we say all human beings are potentially good just like a lamp has light but it actually has potential light if you never put oil in it if you never put a string in it and you never lit a fire in it you're never going to see any light it's never going to happen right so it could be that every human being was endowed with goodness but they decided never to light it up they decided never to do that even though Allah put a in everyone goodness in everyone light in everyone not everyone took advantage of it if you think about other now now let's take another step if you think of other man-made resources for light in the ancient world you could have a candle that's also man-made like the lamp you could have a fire like wood whatever you set it on fire or coal or something like that and you can have yourself a fire then how is a lamp different from these two other kinds of man-made lights well first of all and most importantly actually both of those eventually run out and they cannot be regenerated you have to create a new one the candle the wax goes out you need a new candle the firewood Burns Out turns into Ash you need new new fire all together a lamp can the you don't have to new you don't need a new lamp you just constantly refuel it and clean up the glass and you can keep reusing it and regenerating it and regenerating it the light of the believer is something that needs continuous maintenance and even if you used the lamp used to work and then you stopped using it and it stopped working well if somebody found an old lamp that hasn't been used for 50 years is it possible that they can clean it up put fresh oil in it put a fresh Wicker in it and light it up again is that possible yeah it's it's actually possible in other words even when a Believer loses their light they lose their way they fall into darkness they slip up there is still hope for them to redeem themselves and rejuvenate themselves you understand so the the the the the idea that Allah described the human heart as a lamp is actually filled with a lot of hope for us because if we are in fact a lamp lamps can have good days and bad days the glass can be dirty some days the oil can be impure some days the Wicker may not work some days days the light never got fired up some some days but you can get it back on track you can fix it you can tune it up so that's the other component of light now filling a vessel cuz light won't work a lamp won't work until you fill a vessel and by the way a lot of because there's lots of modern audience all of us are modern audiences we're not talking about the lamp you have at home where you do and then the the there's a bulb inside and you tune this we're not talking about that lamp we're talking about the ancient lamp and the ancient lamp is basically multiple little pieces it's a lantern you can hold it right it's got a glass top and inside there's a string like a wicker rope type thing and it dips into oil and you light the top of it and the oil gets sucked into the Rope cuz you you soak the Rope the Rope itself but the top of it gets set on fire and the fire keeps pulling on the oil and keeps Ling like keeps uh Ablaze right and so all you need is eventually to put new oil in and it will keep on rejuvenating and keep on filling it this is the misbah this is the basic mechanism of the misbah okay so just because you fill it up with oil doesn't mean that you lit it up even if it's clean and it's filled with oil doesn't mean that it's lit even it's a modern example would be even though the lamp is plugged in doesn't mean you switched it on there's a there's a different piece and it could be that a human being is filled with knowledge good knowledge like a lamp is filled with good oil but they never really connected that knowledge to their heart and they never really illuminated themselves with that knowledge right so learning alone is not enough for the light to be lit up it's actually pretty amazing that you have this amazing pure pristine oil it wants to be lit up but on its own it's not enough there needs to be an additional spark for that to be lit up and that spark has to come from outside it has to come from another source it's not the source is not the lamp itself an external Source has to come and we'll ex discuss that external Source but to put that in in what does that mean for us it means I can learn a lot about Islam I can learn about the Quran I can learn about Islam I can learn about the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and I can fill my brain with lots and lots of data about Arabic and about history and about and about Hadith and about Quran and about I can do that but if Allah does not light that put his light on it in the end then that knowledge is just sitting there like the example of those who were given the burden of the Torah and they didn't carry it the way they were supposed to is like donkeys that are carrying loads of books on their back we can have this knowledge and it never illuminated may Allah protect us from becoming that but that is a threat that exists that in our hearts there can be so much knowledge and it never translates into anything meaningful but anyway so let's that's a little bit about theb now Allah goes further and says that lamp is inside of a glass it's inside a glass now why I mention glass because well first and foremost not just any Breeze can blow out this light because it's protected by glass what's the purpose of glass also well not only does it protect the flame it contains the oil you can keep track of how long how low you are so there's actually uh if it was not glass if it was any other kind of material right you wouldn't know how much oil is left so you can't keep track of whether you need to refuel or not right also if it wasn't glass then the light would remain inside and it would never spread and when it spreads what does it spread to whichever direction it was pointed in now there are those who have light but they like to keep it to themselves right I just I don't want to talk to anybody in my family all of them are liberal Progressive and so I just want to stay away from the FNA so I just want to keep my light to myself I just want to go to my little where all the people have more IM than I do I just want to protect my Iman I just want to just go home and then put my eyes down and go to the Masid and then go back home and go to the Masid and come back home and if anybody from the outside from the grocery store if somebody says howdy because my light might get Disturbed if I look up I barely look up when I'm driving I'm A Hazard on the road right so for the sake of Allah right so the idea is when when a Believer has uh light then the reason it's encapsulated in glass one it's protected it's protected but it's protected for its own good not so it can stay within itself so even though it's not influenced by the outside it is influencing the outside right so we're engaged with the outside we're giving light especially inside of a home it's the closest people to you you're the closest people to you are the ones that will have the most influence on you right and it's as if Allah is saying you're surrounded by this environment this dark environment where the only source of light is this lamp and instead of the lamp being darkened by the outside the outside is being illuminated by the lamp it's the other way around so the believer learns that they are actually a an impact on their environment they are not a product of their environment they are not a a a recipient of their environment they are a contri contributor to their environment right and by the way a lamp only makes sense at nighttime right so a believer's Iman truly only reflects when they are surrounded not by light but when they are surrounded by Darkness so the fact that you might be surrounded by friends that are in darkness a campus that's in darkness an office that's in darkness a business that's in darkness family members that are in darkness congratulations you get to use a lamp and you get to use it softly like we already described so much wisdom inside just a few words right then the other thing about a glass is that a glass gets dirty very quickly without anyone actually pouring any dirt on it it collects dirt the oil can start becoming grimy and make waxy film on top of the the glass and the dirtier the glass gets the light the light will still come out but the light will be muddle muddied it's not the light that was intended by the glass right or by the lamp so even though the light might be pure what is reaching people is impure so even if you are if if I'm not working on cleaning my glass then even if I'm giving people I might be giving people contaminated light corrupted light refracted light not pure light and the purpose of the lamp the glass also is that it actually helps spread the light further it exaggerates the effort the the impact of the light so Allah has given us inside of us an ability not just to share what we have but he's endowed us endowed that in a way that if we have sincere words to share sincere goodness sincere guidance to share with others based on our own sincere light that Allah will enhance it in a way that we couldn't do ourselves that's the by Design the glass but we just got to make sure that that glass remains clean the sins of a believer were described as a stain on the heart like a stain on the glass by the way glass is delicate yes or no but it's being protected by keeping it in a niche a niche so it even though it is now in a sense serving the home by giving it light it also needs to be served by making sure it remains clean the more valuable your assets are like in a business for example you can have um you know a a chemist who is your you know he's designed your patented product right so because of that one chemist the company's making hundreds of millions of dollars but he's also their single point of failure so they have to have a lot of extra security around that chemist they have to make sure that that chemist remains healthy happy doesn't go and work in another company etc etc etc because these their single point of failure so your greatest asset can also become your greatest liability right so the the delicate nature of the glass is also important to notice it's not lost upon me that um this Parable is spiritual this Parable is spiritual and all around it in this Surah the conversation is legal so the Surah is about the legal and in the center of it there is the spiritual and what's interesting about that is Judaism before Islam the the the Shar given to mam what what people did with the Shar of M Alam is they made it entirely legal focused on the legal and in doing so Allah describes their hearts became hard eventually came the injil to cover the Gap that was created by only legal and no spiritual and so through isaam Allah introduced the spiritual core of the religion to them again soam was given tat and injil right so the heart was the and that's why Christianity was a even now after all of its changes it's still a spiritual message so where Judaism became highly legal Christianity became highly spiritual what did Allah do in this Surah he surrounded it with the Lego and in the heart of it he put the spiritual and the the spiritual religion before this known around the world the spiritual religion was Christianity and in Christianity they believed that man fell from heaven right he ate from The Forbidden tree he fell from heaven and the image of God broke like a shattered glass I'm bringing this up for a reason the image of God broke like a glass shatters and now human beings can never redeem themselves because the glass is what broken and now the only one who can redeem this situation is the Redeemer therefore Jesus had to come and sacrifice himself to redeem the broken glass that is the human being human beings cannot fix what they broke Allah is describing this heart which is also glass but beautifully he put the glass in a niche and it's protected right it's almost like in a very subtle way Allah is saying that this religion isn't just legal it's also spiritual but it's a very different spirituality than the spirituality of the Christians because our glass is not broken it can get dirty and you can clean it again and it can get dirty again and you can clean it again and you can redeem yourself you're not Beyond Redemption you don't need somebody else some other creation to come and redeem you Allah can you can make Toba and you can redeem yourself you can clean yourself Subhan Allah and so he took the the essence of Judaism and the essence of Christianity and the balance between the two of them I'll get I'm getting ahead of myself neither Eastern nor Western he put it right in this Surah in the heart of this Surah it's actually mind-blowing what he did here it's absolutely profound so he says now now Allah says the the the lamp is in a glass now describing the glass the glass is like a brilliant star in the sky the the the you know we don't see the stars I tried tonight cuz after studying these aat I was like let me go look at the stars I see nothing right the thing is the Arabs did not have lit up cities and they didn't have the layers of pollution and the damage to the ozone or whatever else when you went out to the desert and you looked up there is not a place in the sky where you didn't see an entire like collage of stars it's overwhelming it's overwhelming we see only the most brilliant Stars survive all the pollution and we see them but actually the star the stars in the sky are actually overwhelming in a clear night sky there are some places in Texas I plan to go one of the photographers told me there's a place from about two and a half hours from me I forgot the name it's uh photographers go there in a particular season for stargazing it's one of the best places to look at the stars in the United States and in the world photographers flying from all over the world just to take a look at the stars over here in the Open Sky pitch black dark but the Arabs saw that every night in fact they they paid so much attention to the Stars I talked about this in they named the stars they made poetry about the Stars some Stars only show up in one season so one guy that only only comes once in a year to visit they say you're like that star man right so they would make puns with the Stars they were really connected to the stars now if you see these millions of stars in the sky some of them really stick out more than others the ones that used to stick out they used to call them this was a particular attribute they used kab pearly Stars pearly heavenly bodies for the ones that even though there's millions of stars some of them are just far more shiny than the others like Pearl sticking out Allah says this glass is like a shiny Pearl shiny pearly Heavenly star isn't he connecting this lamp to the sky first of all it's shiny that's great but he made a reference to the Sky because this lamp and this heart of a Believer is actually containing something inside it that didn't come from this Earth it came from Allah it was delivered by the Angels into the belly of the mother the the r and that used to be that R used to be in the company of Allah what's even more amazing is the Stars every Star we see in the sky is actually light that reach teed us millions of years later sometimes billions of years later right so we're looking at billions of years of History the r that Allah created of you and me that came into our mothers we were born on a certain date that R is older than the Stars it's older than even the Stars it's trillions of years old I mean our souls are ancient that were then delivered from the heavens into our bodies so there's this connection between the sky and the Earth that's being made I am an Earthly being but there's something Heavenly inside me there's something from the skies inside me IMI at this moment said something really beautiful it stuck in my head for years about this Ayah he said he said you know people living in the world are looking up at the sky and they're seeing these beautiful stars and the angels in the heavens are looking down on the earth you know like when you're Landing from a plane and you see lights in Homes at night time instead of that imagine the angels from above can see which houses have the light of IM and they can see lights light up on the dark earth like we see the stars light up in the sky Subhan Allah like they're looking just like we have this view of the pitch black and some dots of light they're looking down on the earth pit black and some dots of the light of IM in different homes like lamps lit up Subhan Allah now this tree this this this beautiful lamp in the glass being being so brilliant and and Starry is being fueled being now it could have been it was fueled or it's already been fueled Yu means it keeps on getting fueled what does that tell us that a Believer has to keep on refueling their heart it was given a certain endowment but it needs to be refueled and refueled and refueled what is it refueled with he says he says it's re it's fueled from a tree a blessed Olive Tree mindblowing again a blessed olive tree tree Tre are very important in the Quran trees are really important from a from a spiritual perspective of course the story of Heaven and Earth is about a forbidden tree isn't it but even beyond that when s alaih wasallam reaches the highest heavens and jam can't go any further what's there of all things could have been a mountain could have been a rock could have been a ceiling what's there there's a tree there like Allah really loves the analogy of the tree and there's something very spiritual about a tree the most valuable thing a Believer carries in their heart is the example of a good word is a good pure tree whose roots are deep and the branches go into the sky Allah describes Iman itself with a tree with a tree whose roots are deep now Allah is saying that this IM I have inside this IM that you have inside is being fueled the analogy is it's like it's being fueled from a tree that is blessed and blessed means it keeps on giving and giving and giving blessed trees were an expression for they give more they produce more olives than were expected that's okay so it's above expectation that it keeps on giving and giving okay but but then he adds that it's an olive tree what two prophets did I make reference to mam the law Isam the spirituality Isam spoke on the Mount of Olives and that region of the Levant is known for its olive trees The Olive in the Bible and the olive even in the Quran is almost always a reference in some direct or indirect way to the legacy of even in right so there's again a reference to now why is that important because is a from Allah is the height of spirituality he's you know and what's the it's the of the itself is also a from right so the source of it all is being compared to this blessed Olive Tree the sacred land a a a fertile land and then he makes this reference to help us appreciate something sacred about this tree something natural and beautiful about this tree but then he adds about this tree it's neither Eastern nor Western what does that mean it actually means that if you have for example a forest and there a bunch of trees and on the Eastern end end there's a tree on the Eastern end when the Sun rises on the East it gets light and when the sun is on top it gets light on top but when the Sun is setting does it get any light no it only gets light on the east side because it's on the Eastern end if it's on the western end the sun rises does it get any light no the sun is on top it gets some light when the Sun is setting it gets light if there's a tree by itself with no other tree around in the middle of the desert in the on top of a mountain by itself the sun rises it is exposed to the light the sun is at its top it's exposed to the light the Sun is setting it's exposed the entire time it is baking perfectly in the light of the Sun and those trees that get light from all sides the photosynthesis is perfect the exposure to the light is perfect those trees are going to produce the most perfect olives for the most perfect oil that's going to be created you understand and this is a reference to a r the r that the source the Divine source which was in the constant presence of Allah we're fueled by something that comes from Allah and we ourselves were like a tree in the presence of Allah that was constantly being given light by Allah himself we were in the company of Allah we spoke with Allah in the Quran we spoke with Allah in each one of us we spoke with Allah you know and there are other references in even in the creation story I argue we were witnessing the whole showdown between Adam Alam and and we were we were there watching we were we were exposed to Allah we we met with Allah and when Adam Alam was introduced Allah introduced Adam Alam to all of his children obviously we were in the presence of Adam Alam and in the presence of Allah so we we were exposed to the ultimate light and so our source is this Divine Divine tree this heavenly tree that's constantly exposed to the light and therefore it produces the most solid the the most refined oil it's neither on the Eastern end nor on the western end but it has other implications the East and West are also a reference to different societies right the mush were affiliated with Thea the Jews were affiliated with Jerusalem right Allah says he says Allah owns the East and the West wherever you turn you'll find Allah's face you'll find Allah's face in other words societies over time they develop cultural biases so somebody can have faith but that faith is mixed with tradition and culture and politics and personal agendas and it's contaminated it's got a little bit of the East and a little bit of the West it's got something from here something from there it gets you know muddled and Allah is describing the source of this tree is not some Heritage human Heritage it's not something Eastern it's not something Western it's something more pure than that so now this pure oil is filled inside of this lamp and Allah says it's light the the lamp is the imagine this pure pure oil is being poured in right and the oil is so slick and so clear and so glistening that as you're pouring it it looks like it itself is lit up that's how shiny it is but is it lit up yet no even though fire hasn't touched it yet fire hasn't even touched it but it's like it's it's looking for the fire you know pure petroleum or gasoline right it's over here and you've got a fire over here what does a petroleum do it jumps towards the fire like the more pure your fuel sources the more flammable it is it's actually looking for the flame when a human being has the light of Allah inside them even if they were Hindu in a Hindu family but they decided to preserve their goodness inside and they said they're not going to you know something inside them is looking for something or looking and you know like there's lots of IES in the world and they're looking they're like I something's missing I need to understand what this is there's something inside me and I don't F that I can't feel that void I'm going to take a yoga class and I'm going to own my way into this and they can't find it and they go to sit with some Buddhists and then they go sit with some shamans in like you know the West Indies and then they go end up in some Hindu temple and they like paint their face and they they try all kinds of spiritual dances around fires and they try all of it and they're like I can't something's missing missing then I go they end up in a Catholic Church then they end up in a Presbyterian Church then they try some devil worship they try everything they try every then they're like oh let me just try mindful exercises let me just go towards n and Freud and let me go towards Skinner let me let me find something that makes me whole and then after all of those exercises the one thing they won't consider is Islam right but the moment they start hearing about Islam they feel a I don't want to go here it's pulling I don't want to go it's pulling them right it's like something in them wants to be lit up by this by this this isn't just a description of a Believer I would argue this is actually even a description of every human being every human being that decides to preserve the goodness Allah gave them that he endowed them with to begin with the pure lamp that Allah put inside every one of us when a human being tries to connect back with that even if it got dirty over time they try to clean it up a little bit the moment they clean it up a little bit it starts getting refueled and when it gets refueled it wants to catch fire it wants to catch the light but the light I told you the light has to come from outside right it's not your own it has to come from outside now go back to the beginning of the parable the beginning of the parable was not the lamp light what was the beginning of the parable this light this potential light can can only ignite truly ignite when it meets external light and that external light comes from the revelation of Allah that's why the Quran is described I was telling you yesterday the Quran is described as believe in Allah believe in his messenger believe in the light that we sent down so this light comes down and this potential light is inside the heart and they meet each other and there's a spark and it just lights up and Allah describes the the light inside of a human being and the light of Allah's Revelation meeting each other the two lights are now meeting each other and how does he describe it light on top of light light on top of light a light that I already had and that got completed with the light that Allah gave Subhan Allah the the the Brilliance of it all the beauty of it all and this when when a Believer connects with the word of Allah with the light of Allah like I told you you can have a lot of oil but that doesn't mean has happened you have to feel something illuminate inside you something has to light up inside you and say this is it this is illum now not only does the lamp on the inside is when the light when the lamp gives light right the brightest part of the lamp is actually inside the lamp everything else is getting light but it's getting much less light what's getting the main light the lamp itself the believer may be concerned with giving dawa but when they truly have IM the first recipient of that dawa is who themselves and then they truly fulfill a container pours out what it contains it's because you're so filled with natural beautiful light that you're able to spread it out and now that by the way the the stronger the flame the the more powerful the light if that light is actually the word of Allah itself how powerful will be the light of the believer that spreads look at the history of our religion these handful of people in the Arabian Desert that nobody knew or cared about right they didn't have big buildings they didn't have castles they didn't have massive highways right there they didn't have oil yet there was nothing there the Romans didn't care about it the Persians didn't care about it no other Empire care it was just a trade route that's all it was nobody cared let them let them her their camels and their sheep it's fine they have a little well near Makkah who cares abraha tried to make a business scheme didn't work out but nobody else came and said you know what abraha failed I'll succeed N I don't want to invest that much elephant food forget it I don't want to leave it alone leave this place alone let this place remain in the dark let it remain in the dark from the worldly perspective the darkest place in the world arguably in that region was what hij and the Quran comes and from a spiritual perspective everything else is dark and the only place that has light is this place and these hearts of these sahaba have light inside them and a light illuminates their hearts and these lights start going out and pretty soon the entire world starts getting lit up by the light of Islam Allah guides to his light whoever he wants Allah guides to his Revelation whoever he wants Allah guides to the light that he put inside so there's a light inside me but I have to be guided to even seek that light inside me and then from that light inside me I'll seek the light outside which is the Revelation whoever he wants he will guide them all the way to it is not means in its direction but means all the way to it Allah will guide whoever he wants and whoever truly wants all the way to his own light and then at the end of it all Allah says and and Allah gives examples for human for all people this end of this Ayah teaches us a few things it teaches us first of all this wasn't just a description of a believer's heart everybody has a lamp and everybody has the opportunity to clean it up and to fill it with the oil and light it up it's an invitation this example is an invitation to all of humanity and it's so beautiful that Allah did that in the M Quran the Quran is about da the Mak Quran the audiences are non-muslims the M Quran from the very beginning is actually for the right and even in this Surah over and over again we sent down the Surah and we made it a mandate a mandate for who Believers for believers but you know what happens when believers become too invested within each other they start thinking this Islam is for who it's for us us Muslims our community our masjids our Center our organizations our civil rights us us us us us them them them them them in the middle of a Surah that's talking about Muslim rules Muslim Family Life Muslim internal problems Muslim hypocrisy in the middle of all of that Allah says so we don't forget that as much as we care about the this religion is like a lamp our entire religion is like a lamp and the lamp's light is not meant to stay within the lamp's light is meant to go outside but then Allah ends this Ayah with and Allah is knowledgeable of all things Allah knows everything why would Allah say that at the end let me help you understand this very simply let's imagine a a PhD in like neural Neuroscience yeah and he comes to the Masid and says I'm going to tell you guys something about Neuroscience if he starts talking the way he talks to his other PhD friends are you going to understand anything no M so he's going to say let me give you an example imagine your brain is this bottle and the neuron the scapic I don't know nothing about I'm making this up is this cap and you're like okay I'm following along H this makes sense when he's giving you these visual aids and he's got this little PowerPoint presentation and who is he who's he doing that for himself or you he's doing that for you because he already knows this stuff he just wants to say this in a way that you will understand what's the purpose of an example the teacher doesn't give an example for his own benefit the teacher gives an example for the students benefit Allah is saying the reality of what is inside you and the reality of the light of Revelation and the reality of how these two lights meet is so complex it's so intricate it's so powerful that if I talked about it directly none of you will understand it knowledge when they ask you about the soul the r tell them it is from the special command of my master and you were not given knowledge except very little you cannot understand what the r really is so to give you some idea of how Iman works the best that can be done for you is what the example of his light is something like a like a and by the way and together makes it like it's not exactly but this is the closest you can get the reality of this is far more involved than you can handle but Allah gives examples Allah knows everything Allah is doing that for you why why is he talking about a lamp why isn't he talk about spirituality why doesn't he philosophize with us why doesn't he use big words like professors do why is he telling us about oil and wicker and because you can't handle it this is for you the last bit I'll share with you here is why did Allah use the plural Allah could have said Allah is giving this example because this is one example for people but it's as if Allah is telling us not just about all examples but even within this example was a profound example by itself is a profound example is itself another example is another example is another example example is another example is another example is another example and then like it's not one example it's each one of them is profound lessons by themselves all compiled together just to give us an appreciation of the light that Allah has endowed us with and the light that he has gifted us with when he revealed this Quran to us Allah give us a newfound love of the light of Allah and I pray that Allah illuminates all of our hearts genuinely and continues to illuminate our hearts with the light of the Quran the example the the advice I Leave myself with and all of you with is Allah did allude to the fact here that the lamp has to be continuously fueled so we have to have a continuous relationship with Allah's book we need it we need that the recitation of it the memorization of it the contemplation of it the learning of it there are multiple facets of our relationship with the Quran we have to nurture all of them look at the pro oh man the most beautiful thing I didn't even tell you oh my God it just came in my head sorry 5 minutes I apologize where did the lamp you you're in the room you saw light you say where did it come from and you turn back and you see a niche you go a little closer what do you notice inside the niche a lamp then you go a little closer you notice it's a very pristine glass then you start staring inside the glass and you notice you know it's extremely shiny but inside it is a very pure kind of oil what is the camera doing it's zooming zooming zooming zooming and then you start wondering where did this oil come from and you find out the oil came from a tree the tree that is neither Eastern or west cuz by the way you're looking for a source right you were in the room where's the source of the light the niche what's the source of the light in the niche the lamp the glass the oil the tree the olive the the light hits it from all all day long in other words this would not have been possible without the tree and the tree would not have been possible without the Sun so the olive would never have given me the oil and I would have never had this lamp had it not been for the sun which takes me back to the original Parable in other words this lamp is actually a manifestation of a gift given from the ultimate light source which isn't even from this Earth so even though this is sitting inside the house it's actually directly connected to the sun it's directly connected to the Sun the believer has goodness a human being has goodness inside them and that goodness inside them is directly connected to Allah and therefore directly connected to the word of Allah so when the believer hears the word of Allah particularly Christians Allah highlighted Christians Allah said when Christians come and listen to the Quran because they keep their hearts pure Allah describes their misguidance also the Mis their misinterpretation also but he also describes that they try to keep their hearts pure he gives them that credit so with that Pure Heart they come and they want to listen to the word of Allah what does Allah say you will see that their eyes start rolling with tears they're just sitting they're just sitting and they're just because the no hit the no and the light explodes and the light explodes The Tears start rolling out you know this is the how everything comes back full circle in this Parable everything connects again in this Parable so alhamdulillah we've completed the 35th ay and insh tomorrow we're going to do the 36th to the 38th Ayah which will complete this portion of the parable and then we'll go to The Parables of Darkness because these were The Parables of light and then after that in a couple of days we're going to get to The Parables of Darkness preserve all of our light so much of the work on the Quran has been completed on B TV I want you to enjoy systematically studying the Quran from the beginning all the way to the end in brief and then in great detail and to do that I'd like for you to sign up on bv.com and once you appreciate what's going on in bayet TV I want you to become an ambassador for it and share that subscription with friends and family and give it as a gift also thank you so much of