Transliteration:( Fa-aaminoo billaahi wa rasoolihee wannooril lazeee anzalnaa; wallaahu bima ta'maloona khabeer )
"Therefore believe in Allah and His Messenger, and the Light which We have sent down. And Allah is aware of what you do."
The verse places belief in the Prophet ﷺ before the Qur’an — a subtle but powerful point.
That's why one declares the Kalimah, not the Qur'an, upon entering Islam.
The Prophet ﷺ is himself a light, just as the Qur’an is a light.
The Qur’an explains the law — but the Prophet ﷺ explains the Qur’an.
As Allah says: “There has come to you from Allah a light and a Book, luminous.” (S5:V15)
The Qur’an was revealed from the Divine Tablet to the lowest heaven on Laylatul Qadr,
Then gradually revealed to the Prophet ﷺ over 23 years.
This explains the dual expressions — “We sent it down” and “We have sent down” — both are true.
The tafsir of Surah At-Taghabun verse 8 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Taghabun ayat 7 which provides the complete commentary from verse 7 through 11.
(64:8) So believe in Allah and in His Messenger and in the Light that We have sent down.[18] Allah is fully aware of what you do.
18. That is, when this is the truth and the whole human history testifies that the real cause of the destruction of the nations has been their disbelieving the Messengers and their denial of the Hereafter, then they should not insist on meeting the same doom by following their example, but should believe in the guidance presented by Allah and His Messenger and the Quran. Here, as the context itself shows, by the light that We have sent down, means the Quran. Just as light itself is clearly seen and reveals everything that was hidden in darkness around it, so is the Quran a light whose being based on the truth is self-evident; in its light man can solve and understand every problem that he cannot solve and understand exclusively by means of his own knowledge and intellect. Anyone who has the light can clearly see the straight path of truth out of the countless, crooked paths of thought and action, and can follow the straight path throughout life in such a way that at every step he can know where the crooked bypaths are misleading and where the pitfalls of destruction are situated on the way, and what is the path of safety and security among them.
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