and the latter light, while we also speak of the sun’s radiance and the moon’s light. Thus, the term encompasses both a body and an accident. It follows that the term ‘light’, as applied to the Creator and to created beings, may refer to the bearer of the attribute, subsisting in its own right; to the attribute inhering in it; or to the light that reaches something else from it, such as reflected rays.

His words, Exalted is He,

“Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The likeness of His light” [al-Nūr 35]

embrace all three categories: He states that He is Light, that He has light, and that it is like a niche containing a lamp. It is well known that the lamp within the niche has a light inhering in it and a light