saying: ‘The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp.’ He also says: ‘Light upon light. Allah guides to His light whom He wills.’ [al-Nūr 35]

He says: ‘Their light will proceed before them and on their right. They will say, “Our Lord, perfect our light for us and forgive us. Surely You have power over all things.”’ (8) [al-Tahrīm 8]

And the Most High says: ‘On the Day you will see the believing men and believing women, their light proceeding before them.’ [al-Hadīd 12]”

Abū Bakr said: “I was told a long time ago that someone who claimed knowledge but did not understand this subject maintained that it was permissible to recite: ‘Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth.’ He would recite: ‘Allah illuminated the heavens and the earth.’ I sent a companion of mine to him and instructed him to say: ‘What objection do you have to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, having a name by which He also names some of His creatures? We have indeed found that Allah Most High has called some of His creatures by names that are His own.’

“I explained to him some of what I had dictated in this chapter, and told the messenger to say to him: ‘A report has been narrated from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, through a chain of transmission that no scholar of hadith would reject, establishing that Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth.’”

I say: In the report of Tāwūs from Ibn ‘Abbās, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to