Gradation of Light and Existence

Ahmad ibn Idris has narrated from Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al
Jabbar from Safwan ibn Yahya from ‘Asim ibn Humayd who said the following:
“Once I discussed with (Imam) abu ‘Abd Allah(as) about what he says on witnessing Allah’s Self. The Imam said, ‘The light of the sun has a ratio equal to one seventieth of the light of the Kursi (the Throne). The same is the ratio of the light of Kursi to al-‘Arsh, the light of which is of the same ratio to that of al-Hijab the light of which is of the same ratio to the light of al-Satr (barrier). If they (people) who say that eye-witnessing Allah is (possible) tell the truth allow them fill their eyes with the light of the sun without a curtain in between." [Al-Kafi,Kitab-ul-Tawhid,hadith#260]
According to Shaykh Shahabuddin Suhrawardi's Philosophy of illumination [حكمت الاشراق] the Necessary Being [واجب بالذات] is the Light of all lights [نور الانوار], which means that The One is the brightest of all lights and in fact every other light [نور] derives its luminosity from the Light of all lights such that the more proximate an essence is, in the arc of ascent [ صعودى], to the Light of all lights the brighter it is and the greater is the intensity [شدت] of its light and the more remote an essence is, in the arc of descent [نزولى], from the Light of all lights the lesser its brightness and the weaker [ضعيف] its luminosity.Therefore light is a single reality that varies in terms of its intensity and weakness, where it happens to be the most intense in The One but as essences move farther away from The One their brightness and luminosity diminishes proportionate to their remoteness from the Light of all lights. Similarly as essences move closer to The One, their light becomes more intense and brighter proportionate to their proximity to the Light of all lights.

For Mulla Sadra light is synonymous with existence [وجود] and existence is equivalent to reality [حقيقت], but this reality or existence is analogous [تشكيك] resulting in existential-gradation [تشكيك وجودى], so while existence is a single reality [حقيقت واحدة], but this reality varies in terms of intensity [شدت] & weakness [ضعف], actuality [فعليت] & potentiality [قوت], perfection [كمال] and privation [نقص], such that existence is most intense in The One or Pure-Existence and the nearer an essence is, in the arc of ascent to Pure-Existence the more intense, actual and perfect is its existence, and the more remote an essence is from Pure-Existence the more diminutive, potential and imperfect it happens to be. Hence the material-world which is the lowest level of existence is the weakest in terms of its light or existence. Therefore in proximity to the Divine lies perfection, goodness and actuality of existence and in remoteness from the Divine, existence suffers from privation, potentiality and darkness.

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