More Sufi Light...

[the_hearts_monastery]

 

The Many Voices of Enlightenment

“Allah is the light of the heavens and earth. His light may be compared to a niche that enshrines a lamp, the lamp within a crystal of starlike brilliance. Light upon light; Allah guides to his light whom He will.”

 

A Koran page handwritten in light — that is, in gold and silver inks on a sheet of parchment dyed deep blue — is the exhibition’s oldest work, dating from the 10th or 11th century. Seen by candlelight, the words, which describe the rewards of Paradise, would have glinted against the dark ground like constellations in a night sky.

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Some Sufis have spoken of Black Light, the light of bewilderment, a light so bright that it has the effect of a blackout: everything familiar disappears, “like the flame of the candle in the presence of the sun,” as Rumi puts it. The idea is that God is now so blindingly near that all else becomes invisible. He is a vision of everything and nothing, and the devotee is immersed in it. The moth becomes one with the flame.