Explanation of the Hadeeth: 'His veil is light.'
12-5-2014 | IslamWeb
Question:
How should we understand the hadith that talks about Allah removing His veil? Does Allah's veil refer to His attribute of Noor (Light)? That if he had not Willed not to burn the people of Paradise, would have burned them. Or does the veil refers to creatures whom are veiled from Allah? If so then is this veil just a concept or does it exists outside the mind? Jazakallahu khayran.
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
. He said: “The Prophet stood among us and told us five things. He said: “Verily, Allaah, the Exalted and Mighty, does not sleep and it does not befit Him to sleep. He lowers the scale and lifts it. The deeds of the night are taken up to Him before the deeds of the day, and the deeds of the day [are taken up to Him] before the deeds of the night. His veil is the light - in the narration of Abu Bakr (instead of the word" light") it is fire. If he reveals it, the splendor of His Countenance would burn His creation as far as His sight reaches.”
It is a real veil, as evidenced by another Hadeeth report in Muslim as narrated by Abu Tharr : "I asked the Prophet : 'Did you see your Lord?' He replied: 'Light, how could I see Him?'” Al-Nawawi 
said in his commentary on Saheeh Muslim: “Imaam Abu Abdullaah Al-Maaziri said: “The pronoun in "see Him" refers to Allaah, and the meaning is that: the light prevented me from vision as it is usual that the sight is prevented from seeing because the light blinds it, and the light prevents the seer from realizing what he is looking at.”
Besides, Ibn Al-Qayyim said in Mukhtasar As-Sawaa’iq: “There are texts that call the Lord 'light', and that He has light that is attributed to Him, and that He is the light of the heavens and the earth, and that His Veil is light. These are four types:
- The first light that is said about Allaah is general, that He is the guiding light;
- The second is attributed to Him in the same manner that His Life, His Hearing, His Sight, His Might, and His Knowledge are attributed to Him, and sometimes it is attributed to His Countenance, and sometimes to His Entity (Thaat). The former is the attribution of light to His Countenance, such as saying: "I seek refuge in the light of Your Countenance" and saying: "The Light of the heavens and the earth is from the Light of His Countenance". The latter is the attribution of it to His Entity, like His saying (what means) {And the earth will shine with the light of its Lord.} [Quran 39:69] and the saying of Ibn Abbaas : "That is His Light which, if He Manifests Himself with it ......", and the saying of the Prophet in the Hadeeth narrated by ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr: “Allaah created His creation in darkness and then he shed from His Light on them….”
- The third type is His light as attributed to the heavens and the earth, such as the saying of Allaah (which means): {Allaah is the Light of the heavens and the earth.} [Quran 24:35]
- The fourth type is like his saying: “His Veil is light”. Therefore this light that is attributed to Allaah means one of the above four meanings.
As regards the light with which Allaah veiled Himself, it is called light and fire, as mentioned in the authentic Hadeeth narrated by Abu Moosa Al-Ash'ari: "His Veil is light or fire"; this fire is the light, which is the one in which Allaah spoke to Moosa (Moses), which is a pure fire that shines but does not burn. There are three categories: (a) shining without burning, like the light of the Moon, and (b) burning without shining, which is the fire of Hell; it is a black fire which burns and does not shine, and (c) shining and burning which is this illuminating fire [the fire of this worldly life] as well the light of the sun which shines and burns; these are the lights that are witnessed and created.
The veil of the Lord, The Almighty, is light and it is fire. All these kinds are realities according to their types: The light of His Countenance is a reality and not a metaphor, since the light of His creatures, like the sun and the moon, is real, so what about His Light to Whom the created lights are attributed, which are less than a weak lantern compared to the disk of the sun, so how could His light not be real?” [End of Ibn Al-Qayyim quote]
Furthermore, you should know that the fact that the revealing of the veil results in the burning of everything that is reached by His Sight of His creation is related to this worldly life, and it has nothing to do with the Hereafter and Paradise. In the Hereafter, Allaah would enable His creation to see Him and He will bless them with the power that would make them stand seeing Him. Ibn Hajar said while clarifying the possibility of vision in the Hereafter: “Because the sight of the believers in the Hereafter is eternal, it is not impossible for what is eternal – which is the eyes of the believers – to see the One Who is eternal, Who is Allaah, contrary to the eyes of this worldly life which are mortal, so what is eternal cannot be seen with what is mortal.” [End of quote]
For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 83717 and 87833.
Allaah Knows best.