The mushabbah is what the speaker wishes to describe; the mushabbah bihi is the clearer or more familiar model used to present that feature.
In “knowledge is like light,” knowledge is the explained subject and light is the model. Reversing the statement to “light is like knowledge” reverses what needs clarification and ordinarily changes the rhetorical focus.
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Ilm al-Bayan and Simile: Definition, Elements, Terms and Particles
The mushabbah is what the speaker wishes to describe; the mushabbah bihi is the clearer or more familiar model used to present that feature.
In “knowledge is like light,” knowledge is the explained subject and light is the model. Reversing the statement to “light is like knowledge” reverses what needs clarification and ordinarily changes the rhetorical focus.