What Is Truth? How Light Changes Your Perspective | Qur’anic Psychology Through a Story with Spiritual Wisdom
What is truth?
This is a question whose answer a person wants to know in almost every matter, so that they can recognize reality.
And when a person recognizes reality, they can apply their strategy, effort, and practical action in a much better way.
To understand this, let us imagine a story.
Suppose there are five thousand white cups lying in complete darkness. There is darkness everywhere.
A person is walking through that darkness, and as soon as he starts hitting the cups, many sounds begin to emerge.
Perhaps many of the cups break, and the person's feet also become injured.
In such a situation, he will certainly become afraid and run backward.
Now suppose there is a very distant light approaching.
Because of that light, the faint shapes of the cups begin to become visible. The light is also moving.
The five thousand cups lying in front of the person will not all become clearly visible at once. Because the light is weak, he will only be able to see the cups that are immediately in front of him.
And because the light itself is moving, the shadows created by the cups will also move.
As far as the person's vision reaches, he will see cups everywhere.
Because of this, fear will develop inside him.
He may begin to think:
“There is an army of cups coming toward me to kill me!”
So what will he do?
Obviously, he will either run away to save himself or try to do something to eliminate what he believes is threatening him.
Now suppose that, to protect his injured feet, he covers them for his own safety. And to eliminate the army of cups, he picks up a stick.
Now he moves forward to destroy them.
But have you ever thought about how he was able to do all of this?
It was because of the light.
The light revealed something.
It revealed that these were cups.
There were indeed many of them, but they were small and could be damaged.
That was the truth—but only as much of the truth as the light had allowed him to see.
The person did not have complete knowledge of the reality.
Now, within that same limited light, he begins breaking all the cups.
And he continues breaking them until the cups beneath his feet have been reduced to tiny pieces.
Then suddenly, the light becomes complete—just as it is during the daytime.
And now he sees something in the distance:
A very beautiful cup.
All the other cups have already been broken.
And at that moment, he realizes that because of his limited knowledge and impatience, he has caused his own loss.
Those beautiful cups were actually a gift.
He could have sold them and earned a great deal of money.
But because he acted according to what he could see in the darkness, rather than waiting for the complete reality to become visible, he destroyed what could have become a source of great benefit.
This is where the deeper lesson begins.
The Qur'an repeatedly connects light with revelation, clarity, and the unveiling of reality.
Allah says in Surah Ad-Duha:
(Qur'an 93:1–2)
وَالضُّحَىٰ وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَىٰ
“By the morning brightness, and by the night when it grows still.”
The morning brightness represents the arrival of light after darkness.
Why does Allah draw our attention to this transition?
Because light reveals what darkness conceals.
When the light increases, confusion begins to disappear.
What was unclear becomes clearer.
What appeared frightening may no longer be frightening.
What seemed dangerous may reveal itself to be harmless.
And what appeared worthless may reveal its true value.
This is one of the deeper realities of truth: when light increases, confusion decreases, and reality begins to reveal itself.
Until that light becomes complete, we need Sabr — patience. We cannot destroy everything simply because we do not yet understand it. Sometimes what appears to be an enemy is only a shadow created by limited knowledge.
Fear can become one of Shaytan’s weapons in darkness, pushing us to react before we understand reality. In our fear and impatience, we may destroy something that was actually meant to be a gift.
The “army” was never an army. They were only cups.
The real tragedy was that the person acted before he had enough light to recognize their true reality.
This is the reality of truth: sometimes you are not seeing the wrong reality—you are simply seeing an incomplete one.
So, when the whole picture has not yet been revealed, hold onto patience, hope, and trust in Allah. Sometimes you simply need to wait for more light.
If you want to know the reality of Can You Control Your Thoughts?
Read this article.
👉 CAN YOU CONTROL YOUR THOUGHTS? | ISLAMIC SPIRITUALITY
.png)
