NŪR MUḤAMMAD ("light of Muḥammad") or Nūr Muḥammadi ("Muḥammadan light") is a term central to later Ṣūfī and Shīʿī speculation. Although the Qurʾān repeatedly states that Muḥammad is only human, a messenger entrusted with the guidance of the people (see surahs 6:50, 25:8, 25:22), later currents in Islam transformed him increasingly into a spiritual, luminous being. The historical Muḥammad was thus metamorphosed into a transcendent light, like the sun, around which everything created revolves. This idea has colored later mystical Islam on both the elite and folk levels.

The basis for such speculations, however, was found in the Qurʾān, where Muḥammad is called "a shining lamp" (sirāj munīr, 33:45) and where it is said, "There came to you from God a light and a clear...