so he said: It is in Allah without a beginning, and in creation with a beginning, and it is vaster than space, and that is because it is a subtle illumination from the Great Light.

[61] And Al-Sadiq, His glory is mighty, was asked about the light by which the intellectual one intellects, and by the absence of which the ignorant one is ignorant: Is it by its own essence or by the essence of Allah? He said: It is not other than Allah such that the essence of Allah would be other than its essence, nor is it with Allah such that it would be by its own essence just as Allah is by His own essence; and if the subtle light, by which the intellectual one intellects and senses, were the sensor senses with it, and the still moves with it, and the moving rests with it, and the unknown is known with it, and power is possessed over the known with it, were other than Allah, there would be a god with Allah. Have you not heard Allah, Mighty and Majestic, saying:{Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp, the lamp is within glass, the glass as if it were a pearly [white] star lit from a blessed olive tree, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil would almost glow even if untouched by fire. Light upon light. Allah guides to His light whom He wills. And Allah