The light of Allah is permanently guiding all of creation
24:35"God is the Light of the heavens and the earth".
The light spoken of is not the physical, created sensory light 6:1. Like the Sun, Allah's light shines continuously but can only benefit those that expose themselves to it
6:122"He who was lifeless, then We gave him life and provided him with a light by which he walks among the people".
Just as shutting the windows of a room one after another, gradually darkens the light of the sun inside of it, the disbelievers try dimming the light of Allah present within the believers' hearts. They do so with their mouth, corrupting the truth so that people's spirituality is progressively shut and the light of Allah within the hearts is slowly overtaken by darkness. But Allah instead perfects His light which is shining in the hearts, by sending more sources of light in the form of revelations 14:1,5,31:20,33:46 that clarify the matters which the disbelievers attempt to confuse 9:32-3,61:8-9. The believers' spirituality open up wide despite the efforts to shut them down, allowing the light of God to intensify within, and fully brighten their hearts. The light of Allah is thus something perceived with the senses of the spirit
"Shall we see our Lord on the Day of Resurrection?" The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Yes; do you have any difficulty in seeing the sun at midday when it is bright and there is no cloud in the sky?" They replied, "No." He said, "Do you have any difficulty in seeing the moon on a full moon night when it is bright and there is no cloud in the sky?" They replied, "No." The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "(Similarly) you will have no difficulty in seeing Allah on the Day of Resurrection as you have no difficulty in seeing either of them".
Seeing the Sun and the Moon does not entail grasping them wholly. The naked eye only gives a fraction of information about them. All we can perceive is their light. Seeing Allah in Islamic texts is not equal to physical perception. His presence is only accessible spiritually. The Quran describes Allah as simultaneously closer to one's jugular vein, anywhere one looks, and everywhere one goes in this very world 2:115,50:16,57:4,58:7 and yet cannot be perceived physically. The parallelism in the hadith seems to be in reference to the light of Allah, and the prophet explains elsewhere what does seeing Allah entails. When asked about his ascension to the heavens and into the presence of Allah
"Did you see your Lord? He said: He is light. How could I see Him?".
The inquirer wanted to know if the prophet could see Allah physically. Eyes can perceive sensory light, yet the prophet denied the ability to physically see Allah's light. This means Allah's light is of a different nature and is not something visible to the eyes. He saw instead the veil of light which came in between him and Allah, as the prophet says elsewhere
"His Veil is Light".
That is the meaning of his reply to the same inquirer whether he had seen Allah physically. The prophet did not answer with the affirmative, but rather stated
"I saw light".
The prophet could only physically see the light of the veil, not the light of Allah. This gives us also an explanation of the light of Allah that shall flood the earth on the Day of Judgement. At that time, all natural light will be destroyed 81:1-2,75:8,77:8. Only light from Allah will provide brightness, available to all, for the purpose of judgement
39:69"And the earth will shine with the light of its Lord, and the record [of deeds] will be placed, and the prophets and the witnesses will be brought, and it will be judged between them in truth, and they will not be wronged".
At some point during the resurrection, the world will be plunged in darkness. Only the righteous believers will be provided with a guiding light shining in front of them and to their right 57:12-14,66:8.
Early Muslims tried sometimes to overexalt the prophet in a way by claiming he had been favored with seeing Allah. When such people came to Aisha to inquire of the matter asking
"did Muhammad see his Lord? She replied: “My hair is standing on end at what you have asked” and she repeated it three times “Whosoever told you that has lied. Whoever told you that Muhammad saw his Lord has lied. Then she recited: “The eyes do not comprehend Him but He comprehends (all) vision. He is the Subtle, the Aware (6:103)".
Ibn Masud is known to have held the same opinion.
