(Light upon light)

A Prayer for Guidance

For my children and their children, and for my siblings and their children and grand children

“Allahu nur us samah wati wal ardh”
(Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth.)
“Our Lord,
You are Light.
Your face is Light.
Your hijaab is Light.
Your throne is Light.
You are the source of all Light.
Like a candle that lights a million others
And never loses its own brilliance,
You Light up the heavens and the earth.
Without Your Light we are doomed to hopeless darkness
The darkness of blind ignorance (jahl)
The darkness through which we flounder,
like lost souls,
grasping at the impermanence of this world.
Shine Your Light above me, around me
Like the sun at noontide over a column
Dispersing the shadows of ignorance that wait to claim me.

Our Lord!
I am Your vessel.
Fill me with Your blessed nur.
And just as a vessel must pour only what it contains,
Just as a cup gives form only to the water in it,
Let me pour Your Light through everything I do.
My hands to be guided to do Your will,
My intellect to perceive the difference between “ilm” and “ jahl”,
My tongue stayed from lies and backbiting and slander,
Alight only with Your truth,
My feet guided by Your Light
To the “siraat-ul-mustakeen”
The path of the believer,
My eyes to perceive that it is Your Light
Which creates the beauty of of this world.
Set my heart aglow
So I can reflect Your love,
Your knowledge,
Your kindness,
Your generosity,
Your mercy.
Let Your light be my Imaan.

Our Lord,
When I have absorbed your Light, I cannot change.
Just as bread cannot go back to being grain.
Neither can silk go back to being a cocoon.

Our Lord,
Be my everlasting source of light.”
Ameen

Note: The word “hijaab” refers to anything that covers or hides or veils.
It is the Quranic term that refers to a curtain that protects one from view.
The Arabic word for a woman’s head covering is “khimar”.