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The intellect is like the eye.

Revelation is like the sunlight.

Just as the eye cannot see without light, reason cannot perceive reality without divine illumination.

This analogy, articulated most explicitly in Mishkāt al-Anwār (al-Ghazālī 1964, 58–59), has been echoed across centuries. It offers not only a metaphor but a full epistemological framework rooted in the Qur’ān’s discourse on nūr (light), hudā (guidance), and furqān (criterion).

The Nature of Intellect (Aql) in Islamic Thought

 The intellect (العقل) is described as “النور الذي يدرك به الإنسان حقائق الأشياء” –

“The light by which a person perceives the realities of things.” This foundational definition shows that intellect itself is conceptualized as a form of light – but this is natural, human light.

The intellect is considered “أشرف المعاني قدرا، وأعظم الحواس نفعا، فبه يتميز الإنسان عن البهيمة، ويعرف به حقائق المعلومات، ويهتدي به إلى المصالح ويتقي به ما يضره” –

“The most noble of faculties in status and the most beneficial of senses, for by it humans are distinguished from animals, and through it one knows the realities of knowledge, is guided to benefits, and protects oneself from harm.”

The Limitations of Natural Intellect

While the intellect is humanity’s highest natural faculty, Islamic teaching recognizes its inherent limitations when operating independently of divine guidance. The natural intellect can:

– Distinguish between apparent good and evil

– Process information and make logical deductions

– Guide toward worldly benefits and away from harm

However, it cannot:

– Penetrate the unseen (ghayb)

– Distinguish with certainty between ultimate truth and falsehood in spiritual matters

– Achieve perfect moral discernment without divine assistance

One of the central concerns in the Islamic intellectual tradition is the relationship between human reason (ʿaql) and divine revelation (waḥy). Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) famously articulated a metaphor that captures this relationship:

Qur’ānic Foundations: Intellect, Light, and Furqān

The Qur’ān frequently appeals to human reason: “Will you not reason?” (a fa-lā taʿqilūn). Yet it never depicts intellect as autonomous. Instead, intellect is portrayed as a faculty that only functions when guided by revelation.

The imagery of light dominates Qur’ānic epistemology: “Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth” (Qur’an 24:35). Without divine light, human faculties are described as lost in ẓulumāt (layers of darkness).

The concept of Furqān brings these themes together. In Qur’an 8:29, Allah promises: “If you fear Allah, He will grant you a Furqān”. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī interprets this as “a nūr which Allah casts into the heart of the believer, so that he sees truth as truth and follows it, and falsehood as falsehood and avoids it. And this is the perfection of the intellect when joined with light” (al-Rāzī 1981, 15:218).

Thus, Furqān is the union of intellect and divine illumination, which produces discernment.

The Physical Eye vs. The Spiritual Eye

 The sources define sight (البصر) as “القوة التي أودعها الله في العين، فتدرك بها الأضواء والألوان والأشكال” –

“The power that Allah has placed in the eye, by which it perceives lights, colors, and shapes.”

However, sight is also used metaphorically:

“ويطلق مجازا على: الإدراك للمعنويات، كما يطلق على العين نفسها؛ لأنها محل الإبصار” –

“It is used metaphorically for: the perception of spiritual realities, just as it refers to the eye itself, because it is the place of sight.”

Al-Ghazālī’s Metaphor: The Eye and the Light

Al-Ghazālī situates reason within the larger cosmology of divine light. In Mishkāt al-Anwār, he explains that:

Intellect is like the eye: a faculty designed for perception.

Revelation is like the sun: the source of illumination without which perception is impossible.

Together they produce vision: the grasp of reality as it truly is (al-Ghazālī 1964, 58–59).

He makes a similar point in Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, comparing the human intellect to a lamp whose illumination depends upon divine light (al-Ghazālī n.d., 1:103).

 The sources reference “مشكاة الأنوار” (Mishkat al-Anwar – The Niche of Lights) multiple times, indicating that this was a significant work dealing with the metaphysics of light and spiritual perception.

Al-Ghazali’s general framework can be understood through his broader epistemological approach:

The Hierarchy of Knowledge

Al-Ghazali typically describes multiple levels of perception:

1. Sensory Knowledge – through the physical eyes

2. Rational Knowledge – through the intellect

3. Spiritual Knowledge – through the heart’s eye (basirah)

4. Divine Knowledge – through direct revelation (wahy) and inspiration (ilham)

The metaphor likely works as follows:

Physical Eye + Physical Light = Physical Vision

Spiritual Eye (Heart) + Divine Light (Nur) = Spiritual Vision (Furqan)

The Divine Criterion

As established in previous discussions, Furqan represents the divine ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood. In Al-Ghazali’s framework, this would be:

The Eye: The spiritual faculty of perception (the heart’s eye)

The Light: Divine illumination (nur) granted through taqwa

The Vision: The ability to perceive spiritual realities (Furqan)

The Practical Application: Conditions for Spiritual Vision

Based on the established Islamic framework:

1. Purification of the Heart- removing spiritual obstacles

2. Taqwa (God-consciousness) – the prerequisite for receiving Furqan

3. Dhikr and Contemplation – polishing the mirror of the heart

4. Following Prophetic Guidance – aligning with revealed knowledge, Qur’an ad Sunnah

The Result Enhanced Perception

The person who achieves this spiritual vision can:

– Distinguish truth from falsehood intuitively

– Perceive hidden spiritual realities

– Understand the inner meanings of revelation

– Experience direct spiritual knowledge beyond rational deduction

His metaphor of eye and light represents this synthesis – showing how divine knowledge comes not through reason alone, but through the purified heart illuminated by divine light.

The Ontology of Perception: Eye, Light, and Heart

The Qur’ān relocates perception from the eye to the heart: “It is not the eyes that are blind, but the hearts in the chests” (Qur’an 22:46). For al-Ghazālī, the heart is the mirror that reflects divine light. If clouded by sin, even the brightest light cannot illuminate it.

Thus, perception is a triad:

ʿAql (eye) – the faculty of reason

Waḥy (light) – divine revelation

Qalb (mirror) – locus of true vision

Al-Ghazālī’s metaphor of the eye and the light encapsulates a Qur’ānic epistemology of perception. Intellect is a faculty that only functions under divine illumination. Furqān represents this perfected intellect: a light-infused capacity of discernment given to the muttaqī.

Imām al-Rāzī, Ibn Kathīr, al-Qurṭubī, and Islamic Scholars all articulate this vision in different registers: Furqān is not mere rational capacity but divine criterion, nūr in the heart, luminous intellect. The perfection of intellect, then, is not brilliance in reasoning but the submission of intellect to nūr, yielding clarity, guidance, and insight.

References:

[1] Encyclopedia of Quranic Interpretation, Volume 1, Page 362:

Arabic: ولي قضاء الجماعة بها، كما ولي خطابة جامعها الأعظم – جامع الزيتونة – بعد شيخه ابن عرفة، وهو ممن يظن به حفظ المذهب بلا مطالعة.أخذ عنه جماعة غالبهم من تلاميذ ابن عرفة.

[2] Encyclopedia of Quranic Interpretation, Volume 1, Page 362:

Arabic: [شجرة النور الزكية ص ٢٤٣ ونيل الابتهاج ص ١٩٣]الغزالي(٤٥٠ – ٥٠٥ هـ)هو محمد بن محمد بن محمد أبو حامد الغزالي بتشديد الزاي.نسبته إلى الغزال(بالتشديد)على طريقة أهل خوارزم وجرجان: ينسبون إلى العطار عطاري، وإلى القصار قصاري، وكان أبوه غزالا، أو هو بتخفيف الزاي نسبة إلى(غزاله)قرية من قرى طوس.فقيه شافعي أصولي، متكلم، متصوف.رحل إلى بغداد، فالحجاز، فالشام، فمصر وعاد إلى طوس.من مصنفاته: «البسيط»؛ و«الوسيط»؛ و«الوجيز»؛ و«الخلاصة» وكلها في الفقه؛ و«تهافت الفلاسفة»؛ و«إحياء علوم الدين» .

[3] Encyclopedia of Quranic Interpretation, Volume 8, Page 97:

Arabic: (٥)الفتاوى الهندية١ / ٢٠٣، ورد المحتار على الدر المختار وحاشية ابن عابدين٢ / ٩٨، ١٠١ ط دار إحياء التراث العربي، والمجموع شرح المهذب ٦ / ٣١٨، وقليوبي وعميرة ٢ / ٥٧.بصر

التعريف:

١ – البصر: هو القوة التي أودعها الله في العين، فتدرك بها الأضواء والألوان والأشكال.يقال: أبصرته برؤية العين إبصارا، وبصرت بالشيء بالضم(والكسر لغة)بصرا بفتحتين: رأيته.

[4] Encyclopedia of Quranic Interpretation, Volume 8, Page 97:

Arabic: (١)ويطلق مجازا على: الإدراك للمعنويات، كما يطلق على العين نفسها؛ لأنها محل الإبصار.

[5] Encyclopedia of Islamic Jurisprudence:

Arabic: ([1177]) كشف الأسرار 4 / 1478، والتوضيح والتلويح 2 / 394، وتيسير التحرير 2

/ 290، ومشكاة الأنوار 2 / 109.

al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid. Mishkāt al-Anwār. Ed. Abū al-ʿAlāʾ Afīfī. Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Ḥadīthah, 1964.

[6] al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid. Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, n.d.

[7] al-Qurṭubī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad. al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān. Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyyah, 1967.

[8 ]al-Rāzī, Fakhr al-Dīn. Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb (al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr). Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1981.

[9] al-Sarrāj, Abū Naṣr. al-Lumaʿ. Ed. R. Nicholson. Leiden: Brill, 1914.

[10] Ibn ʿArabī, Muḥyī al-Dīn. Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam. Ed. Afīfī. Cairo: Dār al-Kutub, 1946.

[11] Ibn Kathīr, Ismāʿīl. Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, n.d.

[12] Ibn Taymiyyah, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm. Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa’l-Naql. Ed. Muḥammad Rashād Sālim. Riyadh: Jāmiʿah Imām Muḥammad, 1979.

[13] al-Ṭabarī, Muḥammad ibn Jarīr. Jāmiʿ al-Bayān ʿan Taʾwīl al-Qurʾān. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 2000.

[14] Shāh Walī Allāh al-Dihlawī. Ḥujjat Allāh al-Bālighah. Cairo: al-Maktabah al-Salafiyyah, 1967.