13 Preface وَإِذَا الجَنَّةُ أُزلِفَتYusuf AliAnd when the Garden1 is brought near;—2(12) The last of the Metaphors, the Garden of Bliss—the Light of God’s Face (92:20)—will come in sight,—not yet attained, but visible, or “brought near”. For the scales have fallen from the eyes, and the soul knows itself.In Eastern literature, especially in religious allegory, there are usually more meanings than one, enfolded in each other. They must be understood, of the reader wishes to get the full sense of the passage. This applies specially to the Qur-ān. The parallel meaning, favoured by the Ṣūfīs, take the first six physical facts (verse 1.6) also as allegorical. (1) As the sun is the centre of the solar system, so our lower self is the centre of our ordinary motives and desires: the light of that self must be darkened to make room for the Reality. (2) The minor light of the stars us our ordinary human wisdom: this must be dropped before we get spiritual vision. (3) Our worldly ambitions are the mountains, which must vanish similarly. (4) Greed and love of gain are the camels big with young; that must be left untended. (5) Our passions are the wild animals that must be tamed. (6) The oceans of divine grace must boil over and cover our whole being. All this must occur at any point of time, even to an individual in this life when God’s Glory shines on him. Another interpretation would be to apply it to the Lesser Judgment, when the soul passes out of this physical body, see 75:22; 78:40; 79:14; and respectively n. (first n. to 78:40).