Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The similitude of His light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass. The glass is as it were a shining star. (This lamp is) kindled from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself) though no fire touched it. Light upon light. Allah guideth unto His light whom He will. And Allah speaketh to mankind in allegories, for Allah is Knower of all things
In the printed edition: Sūrat Al-Nūr begins at vol. 6, p. 190(Tūnis 2022, 10 vols.)
The site’s Arabic edition follows Warsh ʿan Nāfiʿ; the reference text quoted here and the matcher behind the Fī Riyāḍ loci are Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim. Content is nearly identical, but verse-boundary numbering diverges in a handful of places. Each locus carries its own witness’s numbering. Page references follow the ten-volume Tunis 2022 printing this site was transcribed from; published scholarship on this text cites the six-volume Tunis 2010 printing, whose pagination is different.
4
loci in the corpus
2
distinct acts
1931 – 1964
attested span
1 of 4
text available
This verse across his life
Each mark is one work in which Shaykh Ibrāhīm engages this verse, placed by date of composition. Hollow marks are loci we know of but cannot yet show.
1930
1940
1950
1960
1931Kāshif al-ilbās
1950-1960Tafsīr maʿānī
March–April 1956al-Ḥikam al-quṭbiyya
1964Fī riyāḍ
Exegesis of the verse
Sustained interpretation of the verse as a verse — lemma, gloss, expansion.
Tafsīr maʿānī al-Qurʾān al-karīm
تفسير معاني القرآن الكريمtafsīr○ reported
1950-1960 · Wolof · cassette not identified · audio · compiled by Introduction by Ibrāhīm M. Diop, Niasse's personal secretary · the annual Ramaḍān cycle
Not located. Sixty-two cassettes of Wolof exegesis covering the whole Qurʾān, recorded 1950–1960 (ALA IV #72). The boxed set has never been located. This locus is listed because the cycle is complete, not because the passage has been found — and because Wolof, not Arabic, was Shaykh Ibrāhīm's normal language of delivery.
al-Ḥikam al-quṭbiyya al-maʾkhūdha min al-qalam al-Sīrīnbiyya
الحكم القطبية المأخوذة من القلم السيرينبيةtafsīr● verified
Shaʿbān 1375 / March–April 1956 · Arabic · al-Ḥikam al-quṭbiyya (ed. AK), p. 5 · held at students’ request
Light is of four kinds: a light that shows you and is not itself seen; a light that shows you and is seen, like the light of the eye; a light that only shows you, like the light of the intellect; and a light that shows you the existent and shows you the non-existent — and that is God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. He likened the believer's heart to the glass as a lesson to you… glass breaks quickly, and so does the heart. Guard it well.
Working transcription — not yet proofread against the printing.
FOUR LIGHTS: that which shows you and is not seen; that which shows you and is seen (the eye's light); that which only shows you (the intellect's light); and that which shows you the existent AND the non-existent — and that is God. Then the zujāja as the believer's heart: glass breaks fast; too much sleep, food and mixing with worldly people clouds it. COLLATION TARGET — Wright 2024 cites Fī Riyāḍ vol. 4, pp. 217-218 on this verse but does not analyse it.
Fī riyāḍ al-tafsīr li-l-Qurʾān al-karīm
في رياض التفسير للقرآن الكريمtafsīr◌ session coverage
1383 / 1964 · Arabic · Lesson 36 — vol. 7, p. 3 · numbered by Ḥafṣ · the annual Ramaḍān cycle
Session transcribed; this āya not located within it. Lesson 36 is titled by sūra rather than by āya; its bounds (Q 24:1–Q 25:77) assume the session opens at the first verse of its first named sūra, and of the thirty sessions that state their own range, three do. Read the edges as unsettled. Of the 141 āyāt in that span, 49 are quoted in the transcription; this one is not among them, so whether he comments on it is not established. The page given is where the lesson opens — start there and read on.
The verse used, not interpreted
Here the verse warrants a claim argued from other authorities. It is not the object of commentary.
Kāshif al-ilbās ʿan fayḍat al-khatm Abī l-ʿAbbās
كاشف الإلباس عن فيضة الختم أبي العباسproof-text○ reported
Recorded, not yet transcribed. Cited in support of the hierarchy of the saints. Observed by sampling the Fons Vitae translation, not by a census of the Arabic — no verse-index of the Arabic Kāshif exists. Wright's 2010 analysis counts 271 citations from 112 scholarly authorities but does not treat the Qurʾānic citations as a category.
Entries are grouped by what Shaykh Ibrāhīm is doing with the verse, then ordered oldest first inside each group, so the same words can be seen carrying different work across a career. Every entry names the witness it comes from and how well attested the attribution is. Loci that are known but not yet available are listed rather than hidden.