And Allah, exalted is He, cannot be darkness or be characterized by darkness, just as He cannot be dead or be characterized by death. This objector has used the word “opposite” equivocally, without distinguishing between an opposite whose existence would be incompatible with the existence of the Truth, His attributes, and His actions; something among His creatures characterized by the opposite of His attributes; and something that opposes His commands and prohibitions. The first kind of opposite is impossible, whereas the other two occur frequently. Neither, however, is called an “opposite of Allah,” for possessing an attribute opposite to His attributes does not mean standing in opposition to Him.

Those who said, “Light is the opposite of darkness,” meant that the two cannot coexist in one and the same entity. They did not say that one thing cannot be characterized as light while another is characterized as darkness. Let anyone possessed of reason reflect on this denial of Allah’s attributes and this confusion.

As for his statement:

“If He were light, it would not be permissible to ascribe light to Himself in His words, ‘The likeness of His light,’”

there are two ways to answer this.

(First) We say: The texts of Allah’s Book and the Sunnah of His Messenger have named Allah the Light of the heavens and the earth. They have stated that Allah is light, and have also stated that He veils Himself with light. These, then, are three lights mentioned in the texts. The first has already been discussed.

(As for the second), it occurs in His words:

“And the earth will shine with the light of its Lord,”

and in His words:

“The likeness of His light,”

and in the report narrated by Muslim in his Sahīh from ‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Amr, who related a statement by