over whether this is authentically established from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, he would have no proof. Yet this does occur in authentic hadiths, such as the report in the two Sahīh collections from Ibn ʿAbbās that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to say:

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

The hadith continues. In Sahīh Muslim, Abū Dharr said:

“I asked the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ‘Have you seen your Lord?’ He replied, ‘Light—how could I see Him?’ Or he said, ‘I saw light.’”

Thus, what occurs in the Quran and authentic hadith is “Light” in a construct phrase, as in His words:

“Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth,”

or “the Light of the heavens and the earth” and all who are in them.

As for his statement, “Since light is an inhering quality,” we say: Created light is perceptible to the senses and needs no explanation of its nature. It is, however, of two kinds: concrete entities and accidents.

“Concrete entities” include the very body of fire wherever it may be—the light of a lamp, of the lamp enclosed in glass, and the like. This is the light Allah used in His parable. Another example is the moon, for Allah called it a light, saying:

“He made the sun a radiance and the moon a light.”

There is no doubt that fire is a subtle, transparent body.

“Accidents” include the rays of the sun, moon, and fire that fall upon polished bodies and other surfaces. When a lamp is in a room, it illuminates the room’s various sides. That light and those rays falling upon the walls, ceiling, and floor constitute an accident: a quality inhering in a body.

It may be said that the attribute inhering in fire, the moon, and the like is not light, in which case the term would apply at one time to the substance and at another to an attribute. Hence daylight is called light, as He says