Imam Kazim (peace be upon him): Allah, Blessed and Exalted, created the light of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) from a light which He originated from the light of His grandeur and majesty. That is the light of His divinity (lahut), which He originated from "lah" — that is, from His divinity, from His existence from which He originated it — and with it He manifested Himself to Musa ibn Imran (peace be upon him) on Mount Sinai; but it did not remain settled, and Musa (peace be upon him) could not bear to look upon it and did not remain firm in his place, until he fell to the ground thunderstruck and unconscious. And that light was Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family). When Allah willed to create Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) from it, He divided that light into two portions. From the first portion He created Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), and from the other portion He created Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him), and He did not create from that light anyone other than the two of them. Allah created the two of them with His own hand [of power], and He breathed into them Himself, from Himself, for Himself, and He fashioned them in the form of themselves. He made them His trustees, witnesses over His creation, successors over His creatures, His eye over them and His tongue to them. He deposited His knowledge within them, taught them the "exposition (bayan)," made them aware of His unseen, and made one of them His self and the other His spirit — neither of them stands without his companion. Their outward is human and their inward is divine. They have appeared to creation in the form of natural human figures so that [creation] may bear to look upon them, and that is the word of Allah the Exalted: وَ لَلَبَسْنا عَلَیْهِمْ ما یَلْبِسُونَ [And We would certainly have made confused to them what they make confused]. The two of them are the station of the Lord of the Worlds and the veil of the Creator of all creatures. Through the two of them Allah began the creation of creatures, and through the two of them He brings the dominion and the decrees to their end.