I say: His being manifest is not an attribute of action.

Al-Iqlīshī said: “Calling Allah—glorified and exalted be He—by this name is sound on both scriptural and rational grounds. As for scripture, He—glorified and exalted be He—says:

‘Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp.’ [al-Nūr 35]

If someone objects, arguing that what is meant is the Illuminator of the heavens and the earth, or the Guide of the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth, and refuses to call Allah Light, we answer him with the hadith recorded by Muslim in his Sahīh from Abū Dharr, who asked the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ‘Have you seen your Lord?’ He replied, ‘Light—how could I see Him?’ We also cite the hadith of Ibn 'Abbās recorded in al-Tirmidhī’s collection, in which he said, ‘Muhammad saw his Lord.’ He was asked, ‘Does He not say, “No vision can encompass Him, but He encompasses all vision”?’ He replied, ‘Woe to you! That is when He manifests Himself in His light—His own light.’ These two hadiths explicitly designate Allah Most High as Light.”

He said: “As for reason, the term ‘light’ applies both to that which is manifest in itself alone and to that which is manifest in itself and makes other things manifest, as in the case of a glowing ember, for it