God is the light of the heavens and the earth; his light is as a niche in which is a lamp, and the lamp in a glass; the glass is as it were a glittering star: it is lit from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the east nor of the west, the oil thereof would well-nigh shine though no fire touched it--light upon light--God guideth to His light whom He pleaseth. In the houses God hath suffered to be raised, for His name to be commemorated therein, men magnify Him at morn and eve: Men whom neither merchandise nor trafficking divert from remembering God and being instant in prayer and giving alms, fearing a day when hearts and eyes shall quiver; That God may recompense them for the best that they have wrought, and give them increase of His grace; for God maketh provision for whom He pleaseth without count. But those who disbelieve are like a vapour in a plain: the thirsty thinketh it water, till, when he cometh to it, he findeth nothing; but he findeth God with him; and He will settle his account, for God is quick at reckoning:-- Or like black night on a deep sea, which wave above wave doth cover, and cloud over wave, gloom upon gloom,--when one putteth out his hand he can scarcely see it; for to whom God giveth not light, he hath no light. Hast thou not seen that what is in the heavens and the earth magnifieth God, and the birds on the wing? each one knoweth its prayer and its praise, and God knoweth what they do: God’s is the empire of the heavens and the earth, and to Him must all things return! Hast thou not seen that God driveth the clouds, and then joineth them, and then heapeth them up, and thou mayest see the rain coming forth from their midst; and He sendeth down from the heaven mountain-clouds with hail therein, and He maketh it fall on whom He pleaseth, and He turneth it away from whom He pleaseth: the flashing of His lightning well nigh consumeth the eyes! xxiv. 35-43.