Imam Ali (as) on God being the Source of Life & Light

Ameer ul Momineen (as) in reply to a question asked by Jathliq [Catholicos] the Archbishop of the Armenian Church, is reported to have stated:
”و ھو حيات کل شئی و نور کل شئی“
translation: “He is the life of everything and the light of everything” [Al-Kafi, kitab-ul-tawhid,hadith#335]
In Sadrian Metaphysics light [نور] is synonymous with existence [وجود] therefore to say that God is the light of everything [نور کل شئی] translates into God being the existence of everything [وجود کل شئی], which means that everything that exists and possesses being derives its existence from the divine and God being the First-Cause [علت اول] does not derive His reality [حقيقۃ] or existence from another. The Reality of everything is its existence; it is existence which grants subsistence [ثبوت] to all things and due to which all things become realized [متحقق], and this existence which is predicated to all existent essences [ماھيات] emanates [صدور] upon them from the Reality of Existence [حقيقۃ الوجود].
In Sohrawardi’s illuminationist Philosophy [حكمت الاشراق] God is the Light of all lights because every other light derives its luminosity from the Light of all lights, and since Mullah Sadra identifies light with existence, and also states that existence is synonymous with reality therefore the phrase ‘Light of all lights’ would mean that God is Pure-Existence from which every other thing that exists, derives its reality and existence, as is also stated by the Imam (as) in these words “وَبِنُورِ وَجْهِكَ الَّذِي أَضَاءَ لَهُ كُلُّ شَيٍْء يَا نُورُ يَا قُدُّوسُ”, translation: “And by the light of Your face, through which all things are illumined! O Light! O All-holy!” [Dua-e-Kumail].
According to the philosophers the essence of light is defined as something that is self-manifesting and that manifests others, similarly existence is self-subsisting and that which renders all other things subsistent, as is stated in the Quran “اللَّهُ نورُ السَّماواتِ وَالأَرضِ”, translation: “Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth”[Nur#35] ; by substituting ‘existence’ in place of ‘light’ we get “Allah is the existence of the heavens and the earth”.

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