What is the meaning of “the veils of light” in al-Munajat al-Shaʿbaniyya?

In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful

And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

Al-Munajat al-Shaʿbaniyya is narrated from the Commander of the Faithful (a), and it has been reported that the Ahl al-Bayt (a) all used to address Allah the Exalted in intimate prayer with it.

There are several views on interpreting the phrase “the veils of light” that occurs in al-Munajat al-Shaʿbaniyya, and they differ very widely from one another. We will present these views and then offer our own approach.

1- The first: that the veils of light are all existents, because, according to what is claimed, all existents other than Allah Almighty are existence and quiddity; existence is light and light is existence, so every existence is among the luminous veils, whereas quiddity—which, according to them, is neither existent nor non-existent—is among the dark veils. Thus the removal of the veils, which are all existents, is in reality an ascent to reach annihilation (fanaʾ) in the Real (al-Haqq), in accordance with the foundations of the people of ʿirfan (mystical gnosis). This is a view that is clearly false, because Allah the Exalted is such that “Nothing is like Him” (Qurʾan 42:11), and the notion of annihilation rests on a sameness of kind between creation and the Creator and on the unity of existence, even if by way of the notion of grades, and this contradicts “Allah is devoid of His creation, and His creation is devoid of Him,” as is stated in the narrations.

2- The second: that the veils of light are the non-material veils as opposed to the material ones. This does not seem correct, because the dark veils are non-material veils in the first place.

3- The third: that the veils of light are everything that is light, for it is a veil, such as knowledge and other things; so after one passes beyond the veils of darkness, one moves on to the veils of light. But how does one pass beyond the veil of knowledge, piety and the like? It was said that being occupied with light away from the Light of lights, who is Allah, is in itself a veil. Some said that everything other than Allah is a veil, as is the import of the first view; and therefore some of them said that what is meant by the veils of light in the supplication is every light other than the Ahl al-Bayt (a), for they are the light that cannot be passed beyond. It seems that this is a general supposition that does not rest on clear foundations as regards the intended meaning specifically, because this understanding would fall into the problems of regarding the Ahl al-Bayt (a) as a veil that prevents reaching Allah the Exalted, or the problem of restricting the phrase to what is other than the Ahl al-Bayt (a), which is a specification without a specifying factor.

4- The fourth: that “the veils of light” is to be taken in the objective sense, that is, they are the veils that veil the light, and they are all the veils that veil the creature from its Creator, such as injustice, ignorance, following desires and the like. This is a simple and possible interpretation.

5- The fifth: that the veils of light stand in contrast to the dark veils whose source is desires; the veils of light are those connected with acts of worship, which are light, so their veils are such things as self-admiration, ostentation and the like, which invalidate acts of worship or affect them. This view resembles the fourth, but with its restriction to the veils of the light of acts of worship.

6- The sixth: the veils of light are the veils that are in the seventh heaven or above it, at which Gabriel stopped when he was accompanying our Prophet Muhammad (s) on the journey of the Miʿraj (Ascension), so none but the Prophet is able to enter into it. This view is deemed likely, but the question remains: why did the Munajat come with the request to Allah the Exalted to illuminate the eyes so that they pierce the veils of light, as long as the evidence is established that none reaches [them] except the Master of the Messengers (s)?

It appears to this limited view that arriving at what is meant by “the veils of light” is not possible except through the import of the sacred revelation, for the meanings that the people of ʿirfan and the people of philosophy have offered are nothing but imaginings resting on human theories that have been the subject of intense controversy among the Shiʿi jurists since ancient times.

So we have no option but to try to reach a specific intended meaning from the sources of revelation, given that this belongs to the unseen (al-ghayb), or to attempt a semantic approach through the data of revelation, Book and Sunna.

The concept of “the veil” in the noble narrations has multiple horizons, but what appears in al-Munajat al-Shaʿbaniyya is that the veils mentioned are those connected with the hearts: “and illuminate the eyes of our hearts with the radiance of their gazing upon You.” The one who supplicates asks Allah the Exalted to illuminate the sight of his heart, and the heart becomes illuminated by the radiance of the heart's gazing upon Allah the Exalted. Then he says: “until the eyes of the hearts pierce the veils of light,” that is, at that point the illuminated eyes pierce the veils of light, and then “and reach the source of grandeur…”.

Before attempting to bring out the meaning, we must place the firmly established principles (muhkamat) of the religion before us, and so rule out any understanding of the veil in a material or directional manner as human beings understand it, because the One to whom it relates, even if in some respect, is Allah, who is exalted above limit and direction.

This leads us to look for the non-material veils that lie outside the measures of matter. It has been reported in the noble narrations that in the world of the heavens there are numerous veils, among them what has been called “the veils of light,” as has been reported from the Commander of the Faithful (a):

In al-Tawhid of al-Saduq: The Commander of the Faithful (a) was asked about the veils, and he said: The first of the veils are seven; the thickness of each veil is a journey of five hundred years… until he said: Among them is darkness, among them is light, among them is fire, among them is smoke, among them is cloud, among them is lightning, among them is rain, among them is thunder, among them is brightness, among them is sand, among them is mountain, among them is swirling dust, among them is water, and among them are rivers; and they are diverse veils, the thickness of each veil being a journey of seventy thousand years…

And what brings the meaning of the veils of light mentioned in the Munajat closer—because they share the meaning of nearness to Allah, since the Munajat afterwards mentions “and reach the source of grandeur, and our spirits become attached to the glory of Your holiness”—what brings that closer is the narration of the Miʿraj, in which it is reported that when the Prophet (s) advanced with Gabriel, Gabriel then stopped and the Prophet (s) advanced to where the veils are that none pierces except the Prophet (s), and they are glittering veils, until he arrived (in a non-material sense) at “the light of grandeur,” and then Allah the Exalted addressed him.

The narration is as follows:

In al-Kafi, from al-Sadiq (a), about the Miʿraj of the Prophet (s)… He said: Between them was a veil, glittering and quivering—and as far as I know he said: of chrysolite (zabarjad). Then he looked, through the like of the eye of a needle, at whatever Allah willed of the light of grandeur. Then Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, said: O Muhammad. He said: Here I am, my Lord. He said: Who is there for your community after you? He said: Allah knows best. He said: ʿAli ibn Abi Talib, the Commander of the Faithful, the master of the Muslims, and the leader of the radiant-faced and bright-limbed (al-ghurr al-muhajjalin). He said: Then Abu ʿAbdillah (a) said to Abu Basir: O Abu Muhammad, by Allah, the wilayah of ʿAli (a) did not come from the earth; rather, it came from heaven, by direct address.

So if we consider it likely that the meaning of the veils of light is those luminous veils—which are an account of non-material veils in the form of an event that suggests materiality—then this means that they signify what we might call the non-material distances that the worshipper traverses to reach a state of divine nearness; indeed, it is a very special nearness. This leads us to ask about the human being's qualification to attain the piercing of those veils?

The people of ʿirfan noticed this meaning and made it a support for the mystical unveiling (kashf) and witnessing (shuhud) that they believe in, namely the possibility of a human being becoming perfect such that he passes beyond all the veils, including the prophets and the Imams, so as to reach what they call annihilation in Allah—“Immaculate is He and exalted above what they allege [concerning Him]” (Qurʾan 6:100). However, we must understand this within the firmly established principles of the religion and its parameters, as we stated earlier.

The narrations have indicated that these veils cannot be pierced except by the Prophet Muhammad (s) and his pure Ahl al-Bayt (a). This is an important parameter in the process of understanding. If we set out to understand in this direction, then we can interpret that piercing of the realm of the veils of light as a piercing by the Prophet (s) and his Ahl al-Bayt (a). How?

Let us come to the contextual explanation. The Munajat says: “My God, grant me complete detachment unto You”. This is a supplication from the servant that Allah grant him complete detachment unto Allah the Exalted, that is, that all his deeds and litanies become a single litany and his state be in the service of Allah perpetually, as in Duʿaʾ Kumayl—that is, in the risali sense of detachment, not the mystical Sufi sense, which means by detachment specifically seclusion in worship and remembrances (adhkar) without carrying out the divine roles and responsibilities in society, raising awareness and so on.

After asking for that detachment, he says “and illuminate the eyes of our hearts with the radiance of their gazing upon You,” so he asks for the illumination of the hearts with the radiance of gazing upon Allah. This is a reflection of that complete detachment, and it is the increase in guidance of which Allah the Exalted said about the People of the Cave: “They were indeed youths who had faith in their Lord, and We had enhanced them in guidance” (Qurʾan 18:13). This state of perfection and growth towards perfection, by the grace of Allah the Exalted, leads him to “until the eyes of the hearts pierce the veils of light and reach the source of grandeur, and our spirits become attached to the glory of Your holiness.” That arrival is not accomplished by the human being by himself, because it is impossible according to the noble narrations; rather, it is accomplished through the Prophet (s) and his Ahl al-Bayt (a), by taking them as guardians, holding fast to them and seeking intercession (tawassul) through them. So the eyes of the hearts that pierce the veils are not the eyes of our hearts in the phrase that preceded it, since it says “the hearts pierce,” and perhaps the definite article indicates a referent already known (al-ʿahdiyya al-ʿilmiyya); or it may be said that it is attributed to the worshipper inasmuch as he pierced those veils by means of the Ahl al-Bayt (a), so it is attributed to the one who asks even though the real agents are the Household of Infallibility, just as some of the acts of the friends of Allah have been attributed to Allah the Exalted. And Allah is the Guardian of knowledge.

In any case, this is an approach towards the correct understanding. It can be understood as the veils that veil the light, in which case it would not require the toil of setting research and reflection aright, although what we have mentioned we regard as more likely.

And Allah knows best the hidden aspects of matters.