A summary of the concepts held by the Ahl al-Sunnah.
Light and enlightenment.
True light.
It is that which is a gift from Allah, the Almighty and Majestic.
The Creator of light.
Bestows it upon the righteous among His servants.
Allah guides to His light whom He wills.
And by His light, glorified be He, which He casts into the heart of His believing servant.
The servant is brought out from the dark paths of falsehood.
To the bright and straight path of truth.
“Allah is the Protecting Guardian of those who believe. He bringeth them out of darkness into light. As for those who disbelieve, their patrons are false deities. They bring them out of light into darkness. Such are rightful owners of the Fire. They will abide therein.” (2:257)
How vast is the difference between one whom Allah, the Almighty and Majestic, has blessed with a light by which he walks among the people.
And one who is drowning in the depths of the darkness of ignorance and disbelief.
Stumbling through his life without guidance from Allah.
“Or as darkness on a vast, abysmal sea. There covereth him a wave, above which is a wave, above which is a cloud. Layer upon layer of darkness. When he holdeth out his hand he scarce can see it. And he for whom Allah hath not appointed light, for him there is no light.” (24:40)
For whoever Allah has not blessed with faith, guidance, and knowledge of His Book.
Is deprived of true light.
Regardless of how many high degrees or worldly positions he may hold.
And regardless of how many hundreds of books and treatises he may have read.
He lives in darkness, layer upon layer.
By understanding light through the scale of the Qur'an.
It becomes easy for us to understand enlightenment through the scale of the Book and the Sunnah.
Not by the scale of the Age of Ignorance, used by those who call themselves today.
Enlightenment thinkers and modernists.
Indeed, the most deserving of people of the description of enlightenment.
Is he who reveres the texts of the Book and the Sunnah.
Understanding them according to the understanding of the salaf of the Ummah.
Referring in his standards, judgments, and stances to the light of Allah.
Represented in the Book and the Sunnah.
Striving for every enlightenment that opens for the intellect, within the limits of its capacity.
Broad horizons and vast spaces.
That do not deviate from the guidance of the infallible revelation.
Which protects it from misguidance, moral looseness, and inverted understandings.
The bearer of the banner of enlightenment.
This is true enlightenment.
Not the enlightenment of the people of innovation and deviant notions.
Who describe their abandonment of the texts of the two revelations and their alteration.
As enlightenment and the renewal of the foundations and constants of the religion.
Claiming that they are observing the variables of the age and its people.