Allah has also declared in His Book that the earth will shine with the light of its Lord. If it shines with His light, how could He not be light? This light cannot be attributed to Him merely on the grounds of creation, ownership, and special selection—as in His words, “Allah’s she-camel,” and similar expressions—for several reasons.

First: Light is never attributed to Allah when it is an attribute of independently existing entities. The lamps in this world are not called “Allah’s light,” nor are the sun and moon. Rather, one says, as ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd said:

“With your Lord there is neither night nor day; the light of the heavens comes from the light of His Face.”

In the supplication transmitted from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—it says:

“I seek refuge in the light of Your Face, by which the darkness is illuminated and the affairs of this world and the Hereafter are set right.”

Second: Created lights, such as the sun and moon, illuminate the earth in this world, and there is no light that is not among Allah’s creations. Likewise, saying that He is the Illuminator of the heavens and the earth does not contradict His being light. Every illuminator is light, so the two descriptions are inseparable.

Moreover, Allah Most High likened His light in the believers’ hearts to the light in a lamp: it is light in itself and illuminates other things. If His light in people’s hearts is both light and illuminating, then He Himself is all the more entitled to these descriptions. It is known that everything that is light also illuminates.

As for the statement, “It means the One who illuminates the heavens with the stars”: if its proponent means that this is among the meanings of His being the Light of the heavens, and that he intends thereby that there is not, in His being the Light of