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God’s light in the Holy Quran and the festival of Diwali

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 31 October 2025

“Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth. A likeness of His light is as a pillar on which is a lamp — the lamp is in a glass, the glass is as it were a bright­ly shining star — lit from a blessed olive-tree, neither eastern nor western, whose oil gives light, even though fire does not touch it — light upon light. Allah guides to His light whom He pleases. And Allah sets forth para­bles for mankind, and Allah is Knower of all things.” — ch. 24, Al-Nūr, v. 35

اَللّٰہُ  نُوۡرُ السَّمٰوٰتِ وَ الۡاَرۡضِ ؕ مَثَلُ نُوۡرِہٖ کَمِشۡکٰوۃٍ  فِیۡہَا مِصۡبَاحٌ ؕ اَلۡمِصۡبَاحُ فِیۡ زُجَاجَۃٍ ؕ اَلزُّجَاجَۃُ کَاَنَّہَا کَوۡکَبٌ دُرِّیٌّ یُّوۡقَدُ مِنۡ شَجَرَۃٍ مُّبٰرَکَۃٍ  زَیۡتُوۡنَۃٍ  لَّا شَرۡقِیَّۃٍ  وَّ لَا غَرۡبِیَّۃٍ ۙ یَّکَادُ زَیۡتُہَا یُضِیۡٓءُ وَ لَوۡ لَمۡ تَمۡسَسۡہُ نَارٌ ؕ نُوۡرٌ عَلٰی نُوۡرٍ ؕ یَہۡدِی اللّٰہُ  لِنُوۡرِہٖ مَنۡ یَّشَآءُ ؕ وَ یَضۡرِبُ اللّٰہُ الۡاَمۡثَالَ لِلنَّاسِ ؕ وَ اللّٰہُ  بِکُلِّ شَیۡءٍ عَلِیۡمٌ ﴿ۙ۳۵﴾   

Last week the Hindu festival of Diwali was celebrated. This word Diwali means “a row of lights” and it is celebrated by lighting small lamps. It is said to symbolise the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, and good over evil. Accord­ing to the Oxford Dictionary of World Religions:

“Diwali is celebrated by all Hindus, but is the most important festival for merchants, bankers and businessmen, because the main religious event is the worship of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth in Hindu mytho­logy.”

The website of the Brahmin Society of North London says on this subject:

“The houses and its surrounds are illuminated with oil lamps so that Lakshmi can see her way clearly. On this day of Lakshmi-Pujan, Indian merchants and bankers open their new account books… and after ending the financial year offer worship to Lakshmi.”

The Encyclopaedia Britannica says:

“Among Hindus the most widespread custom is the lighting of small earthenware lamps filled with oil on the night of the new moon to invite the presence of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth.” A question we may ask is: What connection can there be between these two ideas: light and wealth?

This verse of the Quran I recited, v. 35 of ch. 24, which is very well-known, is only about light, the light of God which brings guidance. The verses after this are as follows:

“(that light is) in houses which Allah has permitted to be exalted and His name to be remembered within them. Therein do glorify Him, in the mornings and the evenings, men whom neither merchandise nor selling diverts from the remembrance of Allah and the keeping up of prayer and the giving of the due charity — they fear a day in which the hearts and the eyes will turn about, that Allah may give them the best reward for what they did, and give them more out of His grace. And Allah provides without measure for whom He pleases.”  (24:36–38).

The key features in the festival of Diwali are found in the first verse I recited and these next three verses. These are:

1.                light;

2.                people’s houses in which that light is found;

3.                the exaltation of those houses, and here we remember that as part of Diwali homes are decorated;

4.                people earning wealth by trading; and

5.                accounting of wealth. If you couldn’t see this fifth one, then note that these verses end with the promise that “Allah provides without measure for whom He pleases”, and the word for “measure” here is ḥisāb, which means “accounting”.

The Holy Prophet Muhammad had no knowledge at all of the Hindu religion. He could not have composed these verses from his own mind referring exactly to the features of Diwali. Someone might say that this is just a coincidence. If these verses had mentioned only one feature associated with Diwali, it could be considered as a coincidence. But they are mentioning five key features, and the probability that it is merely a coincidence, and it is not referring to Diwali, becomes extremely small and remote.

Verse 35 begins with the words “Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth.” Since light is a creation of Allah, He cannot be light. It is because these words seem to go against the basic teaching of the Quran that nothing in the world can be God, that Muslim scholars and interpreters of the Quran take these to mean that Allah illumi­nates the whole world, One Who lights up everything. But we may note here that according to the Hindu religion Krishna is the source of all light that comes from luminous objects. Even the sun, they say, is not the source of its own light, but is passing on to us light which comes from Krishna. This statement in the Quran is like a statement we might expect from the Hindu religion, as that religion teaches that things in this world are a manifestation of God, not separate from God. The Quran may have adopted this style to make the point that these verses are commenting on a Hindu festival. There are many points to be made about these verses and what they convey to us, but I will confine myself to those which show that these verses are a commentary on the festival of Diwali.

The first verse, v. 35, says that the light of Allah is sent by Him for the guidance of people. It is not that people need to light lamps to show Him the way into their houses. Of course, the lighting of lamps by people could just be symbolic to indicate that they are willing to receive God’s light in their houses. The verse informs us that the lamp of Allah’s light is placed high and is also protected, in a glass, so to speak. It cannot be extinguished by anyone, yet being in a glass it is fully transparent to everyone. That light is, in fact, the revelation of Allah preserved in the Quran.

The verse adds that the lamp which gives out the light of Allah is “lit from a blessed olive-tree, neither eastern nor western”. Before Islam, prophets arose in different lands with their books. Their followers came to believe that there was something special and sacred about their lands that God had chosen them to receive so much guidance and wisdom, which could not be matched anywhere else in the world. The Quran says here that the fuel for the light of Allah comes from a tree which is neither of the east nor of the west. Its teachings do not arise from any particular country, of east or west. Some people claim that the religions which originated in India and further east are much more subtle and philosophical, more in touch with the inner human, than the religions which arose in countries to their west, for example, Arabia or Palestine. The Quran says here that the light of God is not confined to the east, nor indeed to the west.

The next verse, v. 36, mentions houses into which God and His light enter — “houses which Allah has permitted to be exalted and His name to be remembered within them”. How God enters into a house is through its dwellers’ remembrance of Him. It is such houses that in God’s sight are raised high and lofty, and not buildings which are decorated with lights and look beautiful and attractive, and people admire them. More than just remembering His name, these occupants are such people:

“whom neither merchandise nor selling diverts from the remembrance of Allah and the keeping up of prayer and the giving of the due charity.”

Here we have a mention of earning wealth, an activity which is marked and remembered at Diwali. The light of God, says the Quran, enters those houses whose residents do not put earning wealth above their duty to God and their duty to fellow human beings. The desire to acquire wealth is legitimate, understandable, unobjectionable, and in fact necessary. But the same God, whether it is God as represented in Islam or of Hindu conception, Who legiti­mizes wealth, and ordains it for us — something which is remembered at Diwali — also teaches us to view its acquisition in the right perspective and with a sense of proportion. It cannot become the object of life, to the neglect of the remembrance of God (which means remember­ing His teachings of honesty, truth, and fair dealing), and the neglect of our spiritual duties (such as prayer) and our duties of doing good to other human beings (charity). Regarding this last point, there is a concept in Western capitalism known as social responsibility in business. It teaches that a business does not exist merely to make a profit but it also has responsibilities to society which it must fulfil. This concept is indicated here in the Quran.

These verses end by saying:

“And Allah provides without measure for whom He pleases.”

 According to an issue of Forbes Business Magazine dated 17 October 2017:

“…several key Diwali traditions are centred around money — it is considered a particularly auspicious time to acquire new assets and make new investments.”

When people invest money, they hope for a good return. The Quran here promises, in regard to trading and selling, that Allah gives a return without measure, bi-ghairi ḥisāb. Now any financial return can always be expressed as a number or percentage. The entire wealth of the whole world can be quantified as so many trillions of Pounds or Dollars. But there is another wealth that people can earn which cannot be measured by any form of accounting, and that is spiritual wealth. And the way to earn that is by remembering that there is an account of your deeds which has a balance on its invisible sheet, and that is more important than the balance of monetary profit and loss recorded in a business ledger. In these verses, the people who do not let the earning of wealth stand in the way of remembering God and of giving their monetary due to the society and community are described as those who:

“fear a day in which the hearts and the eyes will turn about”.

One meaning of this is that they realise that if they ignore their real duties in this life then in the next life they will be terrified when facing Allah’s punishment. But it can happen in this life as well. There have been many revolutions in history when the ordinary people of a country rose up against those who had been exploiting them financially, while themselves living unconcerned in luxury, and the people butchered their masters and the wealth owners in very brutal ways. In festivals and celebrations, if people are asking God to bestow wealth upon them, they must also remember the consequences if they neglect their duties to God and human beings. God is not a money bag or money tree, to be called upon only when you want to increase your wealth.

In the end, we congratulate Hindus everywhere on the Diwali festival and hope that they will appreciate the wise teachings of the Quran from they will benefit while they are following their own ancient traditions, no doubt originally revealed by God ­—  Ameen.

Website: www.aaiil.uk