and as a human being, even though neither these names nor their meanings properly apply to Him according to linguistic usage—yet since that is impermissible, neither is naming Him merely by way of assigning a title.”

He said: “Al-Husayn al-Najjār maintained that He is the Light of the heavens and the earth in the sense that He guides the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth.”

I say: The view that He is Light in the literal sense is that of the early Ash'arī imams.

I say: As for the statements of the author of al-Ta'sīs, he followed Abū al-Ma'ālī al-Juwaynī in them. The latter altered al-Ash'arī’s doctrine on many fundamental principles and inclined towards the position of the Mu'tazilites. He frequently studied the books of Abū Hāshim ibn al-Jubbā'ī, but had little knowledge of the meanings of the Quran and Sunnah and the statements of