17 Preface مَثَلُهُم كَمَثَلِ الَّذِي استَوقَدَ نارًا فَلَمّا أَضاءَت ما حَولَهُ ذَهَبَ اللَّهُ بِنورِهِم وَتَرَكَهُم في ظُلُماتٍ لا يُبصِرونَAli Quli QaraiTheir parable is that of one who lighted a torch, and when it had lit up all around him, Allah took away their light, and left them sightless in a manifold darkness.1 The one who lights the torch in the parable is the Prophet (ṣ), who illuminated the spiritual horizons of the Arabia of those days with the message of Islam. But the hypocrites, with their inward blindness, did not benefit from its light and continued to remain in the darkness of their faithlessness.