ABSTRACT
Discussions about the supernatural world will inevitably lead to some confusion: for, whilst most people have some idea of what constitutes material things, such as a chair or a table, the supernatural world is, by its very nature, essentially unknown and mysterious (gharCb). Some postmodernists may question the extent to which a group of individuals share similar ideas about the nature of material objects and concepts, but, by and large, most people would know what a table was when they encountered one, and would be able to agree with others to establish what qualities of ‘table-ness’ constitute a table. The same is not the case for angels. If Jalal al-Dcn al-Suyeuc’s al-LabA ”ik f C akhbAr al-malA ”ik shows anything, it highlights the extreme fluidity of beliefs and images about angels found in Islam. A similar situation is found in Judaism and Christianity, and is likely to be found in other religious traditions.
