My Lord is sufficient for me; May Allah’s glory be exalted
My heart is void of anything besides Allah.
May the salutations of God be upon the light (nur) of Muhammad.
There is no reality other than Allah.
For many mystics, such as the Andalusian judge and scholar Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, light (nur) is the first creation of Allah, and all manifestation was gradually brought out from it. He elaborated on the concept that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ existed before creation which is termed the doctrine of An-Nūr al-Muḥammadī, or the Muhammadan Light. The world is a manifestation of the light, which was incarnated in Adam, the prophets, and the Aqṭāb. Ibn al-Arabi wrote, "The creation began with nūr Muhammad. The lord brought the nūr from his own heart." The Persian poet and Sufi theoretician Fariduddin Attar wrote, "The origin of the soul is the absolute light, nothing else. That means it was the light of Muhammad, nothing else."
The great poet Sinai has said:
Muhammad was the first to present himself at the Divine Court and he pre-existed the rest of the created world. When Adam was created by God from clay and water, a light was placed in his heart and this light was Muhammad. The whole universe, once created, bowed down before him in the same way that the Angels would bow down before Adam. He is the object of desire and love of everyone and everything from the stone to the Holy Spirit, and he brings harmony to the world, so that living next to him is like living in Paradise. The Ascension of the Prophet (Miʿrāj) is subsequently reread in a specific light: not only does the Prophet travels towards God, but he also brings with him the whole world, and so elevates it above its initial condition.
