It is commonly thought that the immaterial beings, whom we call angels, can assume any shape they like, but the Holy Qur’ān gives no countenance to this idea. On the contrary, it is repeatedly stated in answer to the demands of the Holy Prophet’s opponents, who desired to see an angel or to have an angel as a messenger, that angels could not be seen and that an angel would have been sent as a messenger had angels, and not human beings, lived on earth: “And nothing prevents people from believing when the guidance comes to them except that they say, Has Allāh raised up a mortal to be a messenger? Say, Had there been in the earth angels walking about secure, We would have sent down to them from the heaven an angel as a messenger” (17:94, 95). Twice it is related in the Holy Qur’ān that the angelic hosts sent to help the Muslims were not seen by human eye: “Then Allāh sent down His calm upon His Apostle and upon the believers, and sent hosts which you saw not” (9:26); “Call to mind the favour of Allāh to you when there came against you hosts, so We sent against them a strong wind and hosts that you saw not” (33:9). The Holy Qur’ān further states that the devils or jinn cannot be seen by human eye: “He sees you, he as well as his host, from whence you see them not” (7:27).
Two cases have, however, to be considered. In the first place, there is a story related about Abraham’s guests4 who first came to him and gave him the good news of a son, Isaac, and then went to Lot and bade him leave the city along with his followers, since punishment was about to overtake his people. It is generally supposed that these were angels, as angels alone are deputed to deliver messages to prophets, and the Bible says that they were angels. But the Holy Qur’ān speaks of them only as the guests of Abraham and as “Our messengers,” and nowhere says that they were angels. Had they been angels, they would have delivered the Divine message to Abraham and Lot in the manner in which the angels deliver such messages, which is by revealing the Divine message to the heart of the prophet: “He