““Sufism made use of the material provided by religious scholars that described knowledge as light. Going far beyond it, Sufi thinking was pervaded by the symbolism of light in its manifold manifestations. An apocryphal prayer has the Prophet exclaim: “God! Place above me a light and underneath me a light, before me a light and behind me a light. God! Place in my heart a light, in my eye a light, and in my ear a light, in my flesh a light and in my bone a light.” All true spiritual insight is characterized here as light, a light that is inescapable for the devoted seeker after knowledge. Numerous were the Sufis who were ready to “see by the light of God” and to describe the achievement of any given mystic state as owing to illumination, to various lights (in the plural) entering their hearts.””
