in some part of the earth or somewhere between heaven and earth; these fires are far from being the light of the heavens and the earth. Likewise, neither sunlight nor moonlight is the light of the heavens and the earth, even though the sun and moon exist in some of the heavens and illuminate part of the earth. For we know that sunlight, which is greater than moonlight, is not the light of all the heavens and the earth.

Since these things are not the light of the heavens and the earth, and Allah has declared that He is the Light of the heavens and the earth, the apparent meaning of His words is not that Allah is these lights. To brand the apparent meaning of Allah’s words as falsehood, impossibility, disbelief, and misguidance on this basis is to engage in calumny and distort words from their proper places.

Had the wording been, “Allah is the light that you see in the heavens and the earth,” or “Allah is the light that is in the heavens and the earth,” his argument would have had some basis. Instead, He said that He is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The one who distorts this verse supposed that “the Light of the heavens and the earth” denotes these visible, created lights—the light of the sun, the moon, and fire—and thus believed that this falsehood was the apparent meaning of the Quran.

Second, it is established in Sahīh al-Bukhārī and Sahīh Muslim, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, that when the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) rose during the night, he would say:

“O Allah, to You belongs all praise. You are the Light of the heavens and the earth and all who are in them. To You belongs all praise. You are the Lord of the heavens and the earth and all who are in them. To You belongs all praise. You are the Sustainer of the heavens