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Surah 6. Al-An'am, Ayah 122

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أَوَمَن كَانَ مَيْتًا فَأَحْيَيْنَـٰهُ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُۥ نُورًا يَمْشِى بِهِۦ فِى ٱلنَّاسِ كَمَن مَّثَلُهُۥ فِى ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ لَيْسَ بِخَارِجٍ مِّنْهَا ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ زُيِّنَ لِلْكَـٰفِرِينَ مَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ
Awa man k a na maytan faa h yayn a hu wajaAAaln a lahu nooran yamshee bihi fee a l nn a si kaman mathaluhu fee a l thth ulum a ti laysa bikh a rijin minh a ka tha lika zuyyina lilk a fireena m a k a noo yaAAmaloon a
IS THEN HE who was dead [in spirit] and whom We thereupon gave life, and for whom We set up a light whereby he might see his way among men108 - [is then he] like one [who is lost] in darkness deep, out of which he cannot emerge? [But] thus it is: goodly seem all their own doings to those who deny the truth.
  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "whereby he walks among men". All the commentators agree in that the expression "he who was dead" is metaphorical, and that it refers to people who become spiritually alive through faith and are thereupon able to pursue their way through life unerringly.

Can a person who was dead (ignorant), and whom We raised to life and gave the Light to walk with among people, be like the one who is in the depths of darkness from which he can never come out? Since they treat both of them alike, the actions of the unbelievers are made lucrative to them,
  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik
Can those who had been dead, to whom We gave life and a light with which they can walk among people, be compared to those in complete darkness from which they can never emerge?1 That is how the misdeeds of the disbelievers have been made appealing to them.
  - Mustafa Khattab

 The Quran often compares disbelief to death and blindness whereas belief is compared to life and the ability to see.

Is he who was dead and We have raised him unto life, and set for him a light wherein he walketh among men, as him whose similitude is in utter darkness whence he cannot emerge? Thus is their conduct made fair-seeming for the disbelievers.
  - Marmaduke Pickthall
Can he who was dead to whom We gave life and a Light whereby he can walk amongst men be like him who is in the depths of darkness from which he can never come out? Thus to those without faith their own deeds seem pleasing. 945
  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Here is an allegory of the good man with his divine mission and the evil man with his mission of evil. The former, before he got his spiritual life, was like one dead. It was God's grace that gave him spiritual life, with a Light by which he could walk and guide his own footsteps as well as the footsteps of those who are willing to follow God's light. The opposite type is that which hates God's light, which lives in the depths of darkness, and which plots and burrows against all that is good. But the plots of evil recoil on itself, although it thinks that they will hurt the good. Can these two types be for a moment compared with each other? Perhaps the lead in every centre of population is taken by the men of evil. But the good men should not be discouraged. They should work in righteousness and fulfil their mission.

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