February - Attribute of the Month
it's time!! happy feb <3
I’m so excited to officially start these! I spun the wheel after asking Allah for an attribute for this month and went with the intention for a specific theme for February and an attribute to remember. I got An-Nur, The Light, The Illuminator.
Getting this name was a coincidence because funnily enough, I spun the wheel on 1st Feb and that morning, I was reading the Qur’an and the last verse I read was:
‘Allah is the friend of those who believe: He brings them out of every kind of darkness into light. And those who disbelieve, their friends are the transgressors who bring them out of light and into every kind of darkness. These are the inmates of the Fire; therein shall they abide’ (2:258).
Later on that day, I got An-Nur! This beautiful name also reminded me of one of my favourite verses in the Qur’an, which is from Surah An-Nur itself, which says:
‘Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The similitude of His light is as a lustrous niche, wherein is a lamp. The lamp is 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, whose oil would well-nigh glow forth even though fire touched it not. Light upon light! Allah guides to His light whomsoever He will. And Allah sets forth parables to men, and Allah knows all things full well’ (24:36).
This is a beautiful metaphor for a light that I imagine to be so bright and completely blinding, yet so warm. A light you’d always be able to see even when it’s dark which guides you. It reminds me of when I used to play Minecraft growing up and I always used to get the bonus chests in the beginning of the game, which had torches around it. I always used to take two torches and leave two behind and build my house nearby so that if I ever get lost and can’t find my way back to my house in the nighttime, the bright light from the torches next to the bonus chest would guide me back to my house. Because even in the dark, the light from the torches would be so bright that I could see it from afar and run in its direction before a skeleton or creeper gets me.
When I think of An-Nur then, it reminds me of guidance. I was thinking this yesterday morning when I went swimming— at the bottom of the swimming pool are straight black lines that you can look at and follow so that you can stay in your lane and swim straight and not bump into anybody else. But the only way you can see these lines are from the spotlights inside the pool and also from the lights in the room itself. Otherwise, water is usually dark without any light shining on it and the black lines wouldn’t be seen at all— they would just blur with the darkness and the rest of the water. You probably wouldn’t even know that there even are black lines there in the first place if there wasn’t any light. But once you shine lights there, you realise the whole floor isn’t black— there’s, instead, a path to follow.
I think of Allah سُبْحَٰنَهُۥ وَتَعَٰلَىٰ’s guidance like this— His Light shows us the straight path, the right path, which would otherwise be hard to see and follow without Him. With His Light, the straight path doesn’t blur with the darkness and you can see it and follow along. However, I cannot swim without goggles and it generally is hard to open your eyes under the water because of the chlorine. My eyes burn. And my vision gets blurry. It’s hard to see the black path. So it’s much, much, easier to swim away from the black path or even fall off of it completely. Maybe you’ll end up just following the person swimming in front of you since you can’t see but what if they’re not following the path either…? Allah says in the verse above ‘Allah guides to His light whomsoever He will’. The goggles are a gift from Allah that allows certain people, righteous people, believers, whoever He wants, to see his light, to see his guidance, to see the straight path of life. It’s hard to open your eyes in a world full of hardship, temptation, struggle. But An-Nur, The Light, The Illuminator has blessed us with His Guidance through His guiding light, his warm light. Giving us special goggles to make out the right path through His Light and blessing. Alhamdulillah :)
That’s what I think of when I reflect on An-Nur, The Light. Now it’s your turn! Here are some prompts to get you thinking. Do take some time to think and reflect on His name and try and remember throughout this month that the theme is Light! Maybe, with this intention that February is about Light, you might even start to notice simple things like the sun shining and realise that it’s a Mercy from Allah that He’s given us the sun to illuminate things. Or you’ll think that if the sun is that powerful then imagine how powerful Allah’s light is. But enough of my reflections, here you are:
Prompts/Reflections:
what does Allah being An-Nur, the Light make you think of? have there been any instances in your life where you know you were guided by Allah and He helped you with His Light?
is there any way you can personally live by this attribute every day of this month? maybe you will thank Him every day for guiding you when you could be in darkness. or maybe you will try and do a good deed every day so that He can put some noor in your face. maybe you will invoke Him with this name during your prayers.
chapter 24 of the Qur’an is called ‘An-Nur’. but the subject matter for almost all of this surah is about the rulings on sex and chastity — Allah talks about the punishment for adulterers and fornicators, this is the surah where the verse instructing both men and women to lower their gaze is from, it’s where Allah tells us to guard our private parts, wear the hijab, He tells us who our mahrams are, He talks about marriage and keeping ourselves chaste, He talks about puberty. it’s a chapter based one of the most important rulings in Islam. why do you think Allah has named a surah of this topic after his attribute, the Light, rather than anything else, any other title? how do you think Allah being The Illuminator links to this topic?
Take some time to say, or even remember, this du’a:
(66:9) رَبَّنَاۤ اَتۡمِمۡ لَنَا نُوۡرَنَا وَاغۡفِرۡ لَنَا ۚ اِنَّکَ عَلٰی کُلِّ شَیۡءٍ قَدِیۡرٌ
‘Our Lord, perfect our light for us and forgive us; surely Thou hast power over all things.’
In your next prayer, invoke Him with this name and say: ‘O Allah, you are An-Nur and you have the most beautiful names. Please bestow upon me your light and never let me lose sight of your guidance with it’.
Jazakallah for reading!
— SabrGirl ♡