An Introduction to the Relationship between the Divine Revelation and Illumination with a Focus on the Quran and Islamic Narrations

Mystic illumination is a topic area whose relationship with the Divine Revelation needs to be discussed. This paper aims to study this relationship by, first, referring to dictionaries and lexicons, the Quran verses and sayings of mystics. It finds out by way of comparing effects of the two matters that mystic illumination stands on a far lower level than Revelation, which is a comprehensive and much deeper kind of understanding. That is why no true mystic has ever claimed having Divine Revelations from God, which is, in the words of Ibn Arabi, a property far out of mystics’ hands. This paper then looks at the differences between knowledge gained through mysticism and through the Divine Revelation. Finally, it explores the Quran verses which indicate Divinity of the Revelation of the Quran under a number of topics including the receptive role of the Prophet in the Revelation, use of ‘qul’ [‘say!’] in the Quran, and the role of Jibrā’īl [Angel Gabriel] in the Devine Revelation, among others.