Some of those who say God is a body, attributed to Allāh that He is a light, we seek refuge with Allāh from that. That is blasphemy. It is impossible for Allāh to be a light because Allāh is clear from resembling the creations. Allāh revealed in the verse that absolutely nothing resembles Him.
Ibnus-sayyid البطليوسي (521 H) a major Andalusian scholar, said about clearing Allāh from attributes of imperfection: “And among what those who say God is a body are mistaken about, also, is their interpretation of the verse that says Allāh is the guide of the heavens and the earth because they imagined that their lord is an illumination. God is greatly glorified from what the ignorant ones say about Him. The true meaning is that Allāh is the one who guides the inhabitants of the sky i.e. among the angels and Allāh is the one who guides the inhabitants of the earth i.e. among the believer humans and jinn. The arabs name anything that clarifies ambiguity, removes confusion, and clarifies the truth as “light”. Allāh revealed in the verse that He revealed the Qur’ān and referred to it as a clear light and from this aspect Allāh named His prophet an illuminating lantern. Al-^Abbas the son of ^Abdul-muttalib said in praising the Prophet peace be upon him and when you appeared the earth was illuminated and your light lit the horizons and in this context the speech of the arabs flowed.
The explanation of the 35th verse of Surah An-nour
الله نور السموات والأرض
Is that Allāh is the one who guides the inhabitants of the sky and the earth to the light of Islam. Narrated by Al-Bayhaqiyy from ^Abdullāh the son of ^Abbās may Allāh raise their ranks. This means that Allāh guides the muslim humans and jinn on earth and he is the one who guided the angels that occupy the skies. Therefore, Allāh is not a light rather He is the one who created light. Allāh revealed in the verse that means “And Allāh created the darkness and the light,” that is, Allāh created the darkness and light, therefore how could it be possible for God to be light like His creation?! God is greatly exalted from being attributed with that.
Some scholars said: “The verse means that Allāh is the one who creates the light in the heavens and the earth.”
The Imām Ar-rāziyy may Allāh have mercy upon him said the verse means that Allāh is the owner of the created light and the one who does with it whatever He wills and He guides with the light of Islam whomever He wills. The light is the guidance. The conclusion is that what is meant by the verse is Allāh is the one who guides the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth and it is the saying of Ibn ^Abbās and the majority may Allāh raise their ranks.
And the second saying is that Allāh is the one who manages the heavens and the earth with complete wisdom and magnificent evidence and so He attributed to himself that, just as linguistically it is said about the scholar who is a ruler that he is the guider of the land because if it was the case that he manages them in a good way then he is like the guide that can be followed to know the right path. Jareer said and you are a guide to us and a great mercy and a protection… and that is the opinion of Al-Asamm and Az-zajjāj.
The third saying is that Allāh is the one who arranged the heavens and the earth in a perfect way because noor might be expressed to mean order, it is said i don’t see any nour in this matter, meaning order.
The fourth saying means the one who created the light in the heavens and earth and then they mentioned three different aspects for this saying. One of them is that He made the angels the light of the heavens and the Prophets the light of the earth. The second of them is that He made them illuminated with the sun, moon, and stars. The third of them is that He made the sun, moon, and stars a decoration for the sky and He made the Prophets and the scholars the light of the earth and this is narrated from the route of Abū Ibn Ka^b and Al-Hasan and Abūl ^Aaliyah. The closest saying is the fourth one because the end of the verse means Allāh guides to Islam whomever He wills, and this proves that what is meant by the “nour” is the light of guidance to the knowledge and its implementation.
Therefore it is clear from what we have mentioned among the speech of the people of knowledge that the companions and those that came after them never said that the term nour with the meaning of light is not an attribute of Allāh and that the one who says it is an attribute of God is someone who resembles God to the creations and we seek refuge with God from that blasphemy. This misguidance of theirs contradicts what is famously narrated from the route of Ibn ^Abbās about that. Therefore, the claim of those who falsely state they follow the pious salaf is refuted.
