D. The glass is as it were a pearly star
The purpose of the glass is to protect the lamp’s flame from the wind while transmitting its light with as little interference as possible. The flame could be blown out if the glass is broken, or its light obscured if the glass has become smoke-darkened with impurities. Since the glass stands at some distance from the flame, and performs its task best when least apparent as something other than the flame, despite its solidity, I believe the glass is best identified with religion (din). Religion is built on teachings, rules, and rituals that insulate us from the gusts of whims and passions, and is meant to be a transparent vehicle for the expression of the spirit. Too often, however, religion is taken to be an end in itself. That misdirection could be likened to a coating of soot on the inside of the glass, which could lead us to think that the light would be brighter without any glass at all, as so many believe nowadays.
At this point in the parable, we encounter an odd turn with the phrase as it were (ka anna ha). This is where the parable ‘takes off’ into another dimension of symbolism, where imagination is no longer bound by our conventional experience. The glass is transmuted into a star that glistens like a pearl, indicating not only brilliance but also worth. We are witnessing a changeover from what it is, i.e., a glass, to how it should be valued, i.e., like a pearl. The light has become not only a fact but also an ideal, and hence is placed, symbolically, in heaven. While religion as we know it may be corrupted by the smoke of ignorance, its source, which for those of faith can only be revelation, is out of our contaminating reach. This original quintessence of religion is, therefore, more than just a human product or a historical institution. It has a divine mandate and purpose, revealed to us in celestial scriptures and the lives of godly messengers.
E. ignited from a blessed olive tree, not of the east nor of the west.
Until this point, the currency of our parable has been light – physical, mental, and even cultural or social. The glowing glass of religion has, as it were, a heavenly home, represented by a star, another source of light. But when ignited is mentioned, we are reminded that stars, like lamps, must burn to shed their light.
Only GOD is pure Light, Who enlightens the universe without a material substrate or any combination of elements that constitute a reaction. Even revelation, on the other hand, is ‘about’ something other than itself, and is presented in a way that seems to respond to events. All the lights of this world feed, in an analogous process, off of materials that are depleted and die, and so, one might assume, are as ephemeral as the fire that produces them. Fire, by its very nature, not only embodies the principles of destruction and transience, but transmits that evanescence to whatever depends on it.
Everything is perishing except His Countenance. (Q28:88)
كُلُّ شَيْءٍ هَالِكٌ إِلاَّ وَجْهَهُ
In this parable, however, the fire that powers the star is itself dependent on a blessed olive tree. The blessedness of the tree indicates that it is in some way superior even to the star of revelation. Revelations, despite their celestial origins, refer to things on earth, and thus descend to humanity in timed sequence, one era after another. But the olive tree does not die down or fade away; rather it grows and produces fruit, which are the actions of the Garden. The core principle of the Garden is everlasting life – the Life of GOD. We might call it His Countenance. Or, we might say, in terms of Light, that underlying the intermittent light of revelation is the constant light of Truth, alive and growing beyond time.
To emphasize the vitality and validity of the olive tree, we are informed that it has no specific location and is also independent of time, neither rising nor setting, which is what east and west signify for us in this world. It too is a form of light, but one that is the antithesis of fire. The frequent references in the hadith literature to the limitless expanse and countless joys of Paradise are yet another way of expressing the contrast of this living Light with the lights produced by fire.
The GOD You Already Know 