al-Taghābun 64:8

Fa-āminū bi'llāhi wa rasūlihi wa'l-nūri'lladhī anzalnā, wa'llāhu bimā taʿmalūna khabīr

"So believe in God, in His Messenger and in the light We sent down. And God is aware of what you do."

This verse ties the picture built up over eight verses to a command: fa-āminū. The fāʾ at the head conveys succession and consequence — "since it is so".

And the sūra gives this command once. What follows will always be other verbs: guard yourselves, hear, obey, spend, lend. That is, the command to believe is a door; the room behind it is furnished with deeds.

Here the Qurʾān speaks of itself as light. And the choice of the word needs dwelling on, because there were alternatives: kitāb, dhikr, furqān, hudā, āyāt.

Root: ن و ر. Nūr is light itself. In Arabic two words are used for light, and the following distinction is widely made among the lexicographers:

This distinction is widely transmitted among the lexicographers; but I cannot claim that it works this sharply in every use in the Qurʾān — because the Qurʾān uses the word nūr of God as well (al-Nūr 24/35). I record the distinction not as a fixed rule but as a widespread definition.

Three observations on what the word "light" does in this verse:

One. Light is not seen; it makes seeing possible. When light enters a room your eye does not see the light, it sees the objects lit by the light. To name revelation nūr is to count it not an object looked at but an instrument by which one looks.

Two. Light distinguishes — and this joins with the other words of the sūra. In the sixth verse there was bayyināt; in al-Bayyina it was shown that at the centre of that root stands distinguishing. Light does exactly this: it separates what it illuminates from its surroundings. The two words say the same work with two different images.

Three. Light does not compel. Light is not a coercion; it has no effect on one who shuts his eyes. This is another expression of the point recorded in al-Bayyina — "a prophet is not a force that compels people but a proof submitted to the court." And the twelfth verse of the sūra will say this openly: "Our Messenger's duty is only clear conveying."

What the light points to is disputed. In the classical commentaries two main views are transmitted:

The first view seems more suited to the text: the verb anzalnā and the third place in the sentence point to a text that was sent down. I state this as a preference; it is not binding.

The second verse ended with baṣīr (the one who sees), the fourth with ʿalīm (the one who knows), this verse ends with خَبِير (the one who is aware).

Root: خ ب ر. And this root is directly related to the analysis of nabaʾ in the fifth verse of the sūra. As was recorded in al-Nabaʾ, in Arabic there are two words for a report: khabar and nabaʾ; and khabar is the general one, nabaʾ the weighty one.

خَبِير is the faʿīl pattern of this root and means "possessor of report" — but in Arabic it has a special further sense: one who knows the inner face, the hidden side of a thing. Khubr is to know a thing by trying it and by entering into it. The work of the farmer who ploughs the soil and sees what is under it is called khabr from the same root; the lexicographers record this link.

So the three verse-endings give three different forms of knowing:

And this triad will be gathered into a single construct in the last verse of the sūra: ʿālimu'l-ghaybi wa'l-shahāda.