Just as the lights of the heavens are manifest and visible only in the worldly realm, so too the value of the lights of the qalb (the heart) and the sirr (the innermost secret) becomes known and apparent only in the realm of the hereafter, which is called the unseen malakūt (spiritual world).
Poetic Translation
The worth of the lights of hearts and secrets
Is known exclusively in the hereafter
Just as the lights of the sky
Are seen exclusively in this world
Those born blind see nothing as it is
Niyazi, ask about the face of the Beloved from those who are “possessors of sight”
Explanation
The lights of the qalb (the heart) and the sirr (the innermost secret), whose true value and superiority can only be known in the abode of the hereafter, are explained through ladunnī ʿilm (divinely bestowed knowledge) and divine maʿrifa (experiential knowledge of God). They are likened to the lights (luminosities) of celestial bodies, which are visible only in this world. That is, the worth and merit of the ladunnī ʿilm and rabbānī tajallī (divine manifestations) that illuminate the qalb and sirr from the sky of tawhid (the oneness of God) and maʿrifa, become known only in the realm of the hereafter, and all their lights are fully manifest there. Just as the lights of the celestial bodies, which illuminate the surfaces of things under this blue dome, are manifest and apparent only in the world—the realm of sensation and witnessing.
Therefore, whoever has iman (faith) in the unseen and the hereafter, and purifies his nafs (the lower self) and qalb, and acquires the aforementioned lights while still in this world, will, by virtue of their illumination, be saved from the darkness of the grave, the terror of the resurrection, the fear of the ṣirāṭ (bridge), and the fire of regret. He will be gladdened and his eyes will be delighted by the glad tidings of the verse: “On the Day you see the believing men and believing women, their light proceeding before them and on their right...” (al-Hadid 57:12). Just as those who cannot benefit from the lights of the heavens in this world are only the blind who are deprived of the blessing of sight, so too those who cannot partake of the lights of the qalb and sirr in the hereafter are those who, as stated in the noble verse, “But it is the hearts within the breasts that grow blind” (al-Hajj 22:46), are deprived of the eye of insight that beholds the face of reality.
The first verse proclaims that, in the great court of the resurrection, the light of manifestation and gnosis will be seen before the people of iman as they proceed to Paradise. The second verse informs us that true blindness is the deprivation of the qalb from the lights of divine maʿrifa.