and philosophers, along with every other rational thinker, concede this point. Yet many philosophers imagine that the angels whom the prophets beheld, and the words they heard, belonged to the same class of purely imaginative visions; they likewise presume that whatever is seen of the jinn must fall into this category. Such people are ignorant and in error—just as they erred when they claimed that extraordinary occurrences are caused by psychic, natural, or astral forces, and that the only distinction between a prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—and a sorcerer lies in the former’s righteous intent and the latter’s corrupt intent, while both, in their view, produce marvels through psychic or astral powers. This denial is groundless, as we have explained at length elsewhere and have exposed the ignorance and misguidance of these claimants.
Those who have witnessed these phenomena firsthand, and whose conviction is further secured by numerous sound, recurrent reports, know that such philosophers are ignorant and misguided. They know that angels do indeed appear in human form, just as they appeared to Abraham