—that is the verse.

Ibn Masʿūd said, “Some people’s light will be like a mountain, while the least of them will have light only the size of his thumb; at one moment it is extinguished, at another it flares up.”

In another report from him: “They are given light in proportion to their deeds. One is granted light like a date-palm, another like a man standing, while the least of them has light on his thumb that goes out at times and burns bright at others.” (1)

Qatādah said, “We have been told that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘Among the believers there are those whose light will shine from Madinah to ʿAdan and Ṣanʿā’, and others less than that, until some believers will have light that reaches no further than the place beneath their own feet.’ ” (2)

It is clear that the light which moves before them is a self-subsisting reality, not merely an accidental quality inhering in their persons. Any light that illumines must be an entity in its own right, whose radiance then spreads.

For this reason some have said, “What is weighed on the Scale are luminous essences—that is, the good deeds—and dark essences—that is, the evil deeds.”

A third view holds that Allah places in each of