The prophetic light
Noor-e-Muhammadi is the prophetic light that entails the core spiritual essence of human life. Muslims believe that while creating this universe, Allah created his replica in the form of Noor-e-Muhammadi. That is, God first created the light of His prophet and then gave life to other creations with his Prophet’s noor.
In this sense, the Prophet (pbuh) is the “Noor” or spiritual manifestation of God’s signs and an epitome of His wide embrace of all creations regardless of faith and creed.
This goes in detail in a narration by Jabir bin Abdullah, a companion of the Prophet. He asked the Prophet about the first thing that God created. The Prophet replied, “O Jabir! Allah created the light of prophethood before all existence”. He added: “This Light was created at a time when there was no heaven or hell, or angel, or sun, or moon, jinn or human being.” The Prophet further explained: “Allah divided the noor into four parts. From the first part, He created Qalam (pen), Lawh (tablet) from the second part, and Arsh (throne) from the third part. He split up the fourth part into four. Then He created the skies from the first part, the earth from the second and heaven and hell from the third.
Again, the fourth part was split into four. From the first, Allah created the light of the eyes of his servants. And from the second one, He created the light of their hearts so as to attain ma’rifat, that is, to get fully acquainted with the Creator.
So, the prophets and messengers were sent to everyone in every part of this planet without any distinction, to draw them closer to the Creator.
Therefore, the light of the prophethood or Noor-e-Muhammadi was created at the very outset, in full accordance by divine design. Imam Busiri, a early mystic of Islam, illustrated this point in his exegesis: “Prophet is the perfect human being. If it were not for him, no one would ever have known the Creator. Even the fabric of the universe would not have been woven into existence. For the Prophet is the heart of the divine presence and essence. He is the sign of the Oneness, the key to all the divine secrets”.
Even before declaring his prophethood, Hazrat Muhammad was called by “sadiq” (truthful) and “amin” (honest) by the Arabs
In this way, the Prophet lived his early 40 years without proclaiming his prophethood. During this pre-prophetic period, an Arab tribe was renovating the Ka’ba.
They differed as to who would put the hajar-e-aswad (sacred black stone) in its place. After a brainstorming, they concluded that the most honest person should be chosen for this ennobling job. It was none other than the Prophet Muhammad. By God’s grace, it was his hard-earned, well-deserved and richly merited achievement.
Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi is an alim (classical Islamic scholar) and a Delhi-based writer. He can be contacted at: grdehlavi@gmail.com
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