light and life, just as He grants death and darkness to whoever turns away from His Book.
Ibn ʿAbbās and all the commentators say: “He was a disbeliever, astray, and We guided him.”
His words, “and We appointed for him a light by which he walks among the people” (6:122), include several meanings:
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He walks among people with light while they are in darkness. His situation and theirs is like a group on whom night has fallen, so they lose their way and cannot find the path, whereas another man carries a lamp, walks the road, sees it clearly, and notices whatever dangers lie upon it.
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He moves among them with his light, and they borrow from that light because they need it.
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On the Day of Resurrection he will cross the Bridge with his light while the idolaters and hypocrites remain behind in the darkness of their shirk and hypocrisy.
As for His words, “And know that Allah stands between a person and his heart” (8:24):
The well-known interpretation is that He prevents the believer from falling into disbelief and the disbeliever from embracing faith; He likewise stands between the obedient servant and sin, and between the sinner and obedience. This is the position of Ibn ʿAbbās and the majority of exegetes.
A second interpretation is that He, exalted is He, is intimately close to the heart—nothing whatsoever is hidden from Him—so He is between the person and his own heart. Al-Wāḥidī reported this view from Qatādah. This seems more in line with the context, for a true response originates in the heart; bodily compliance without the heart is of no benefit. Allah, exalted is He, is between the servant and his heart and therefore knows whether the heart has responded to Him or has concealed the opposite.
According to the first interpretation, the relevance here is that if you become sluggish in responding