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yurīdūna li-yuṭfiʾū nūra llāhi bi-ʾafwāhihim wa-llāhu mutimmu nūrihī wa-law kariha l-kāfirūna
They desire to put out the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will perfect His light though the faithless should be averse.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-Saff - Verses 8-9
The enemy is pre-occupied at all times with extinguishing the Divine Light of Guidance. Allah’s Religion is Light, namely it leads to knowledge, growth, treading the path toward Allah and Happiness. The stratagems and devices of the enemies aiming at confrontation with the Truth is fruitless and of no avail. Thus, in order to reflect that the enemies of the Truth may not efface Divine Religion, the blessed Verse 8 presents a similitude saying that they intend to put out the Divine Light with their mouths, but God Almighty perfects His Light despite the disbelievers dislike it.
Disbelievers in their attempts are resembled to those who intend to extinguish the shining sun by blowing with their mouths. They are like bats imagining that if they close their eyes and seek refuge in the shadows may confront with the Spring of Light. The history of Islam is a clear proof as to the veracity of such Great Qur’anic Prediction, since from its emergence onward, numerous plots and stratagems have been demised by the enemies.
Such stratagems include mockery, harming, and hurting through economic and social sanctions, waging wars in the battlefields, e.g. those of Uhud, Ahzab, and Badr; domestic plots by hypocrites; casting discord amongst the ranks of the Muslims; occupation of Jerusalem as the first place toward which Muslims stood in their prayers; division of vast Muslim lands into more than forty countries; making Muslims change their course; making the youth sever their ties from their ancient culture; dissemination of evil deeds and moral corruption; deviation from the pure Islamic doctrines by the youth, military, political, and political colonialism.
As God Almighty wills, the Divine Light has daily broadened its scope and the dissemination of the Islamic faith has been ever on the increase. Statistics suggest that despite the common endeavors made by Zionists, Crusaders, and materialists of the East, the Muslim population is on the increase the world over. The Qur’anic Verse is saying that they intend at all times to put out the Divine Light, but Divine Will is otherwise. It is the eternal miracle of the Holy Qur’an.
It is worthy of note that such theme is to found twice in the Holy Qur’an, though the clause
is reflected in two forms in the Arabic original: yuriduna an yutfi’u7 and yuriduna li-yutfi’u8. In his Mufradat, Raghib Isfahani says that the former and the latter connote extinguishing without or with preparation respectively; namely, whether or not they make preparations, they fail to put out the Divine Light. Therefore, the blessed Verse 9 lays further emphasis by saying that He is the One who has sent His Messenger with Guidance and the Religion of Truth in order to make the Islamic religion predominate all other religions, even though the polytheists disfavor it.
The expression
symbolizes the triumph of the Islamic faith, since such triumph is essentially based on Guidance and the Religion of Truth. The Islamic faith and the Holy Qur’an are the Divine Light and Light manifests itself everywhere and at all times and results in triumph; nonetheless, the polytheists' and the disbelievers' dislike may not impede the path in the least. It would be of interest to know that the blessed Verse 9 is reiterated thrice with minor alterations in the Holy Qur’an9, but it should be borne in mind that such reiteration and emphasis belongs to when the Islamic faith had not totally prevail the Arabian Peninsula let alone the other regions of the world.
The Holy Qur’an laid great emphasis on the question at the time and made such great prediction. Finally, the Islamic faith prevailed in terms of logic and practical advancement in contrast to other religions, made the enemies retreat from vast regions in the world substituted them and it is still spreading in the world. It is noteworthy that the final stage of such spread to us will be realized upon the arrival of Imam Mahdi (May our souls be sacrifices to him) since these Verse indicate that great arrival. Further discussions on the contextual meaning of the blessed Verse 9, superiority in terms of logic or might, and it relation to Imam Mahdi’s (as) arrival were mentioned above under 7:23.
It is narrated in consecutively transmitted traditions that the triumph of the Islamic faith over other Divine religions will realize upon Imam Mahdi’s (as) arrival.10 It is narrated on the authority of ‘Ali ibn Ibrahim Qumi that the religion of Muhammad (S) will be complete upon the arrival of the Riser from the Prophet’s (S) descendants such that God Almighty alone shall be worshipped. In this vein, it is narrated from the Noble Prophet (S) that as the earth will have been brimming over with injustice, justice will be administered the world over upon his arrival.
Footnotes