their speech, just as many people see the jinn and hear their speech.

As for the claim made by some philosophers that these things seen and heard exist only within the perceiver’s own soul, not in the external world, its falsity has been established by abundant evidence. This has been discussed at length elsewhere.

Anyone with some experience of the jinn—whether through direct encounters with them involving himself or others, or through mass-transmitted reports from other people—knows enough to attain complete certainty that they exist in the external world, quite apart from the mass-transmitted accounts concerning them from the prophets.

Likewise, the descriptions of the angels transmitted through numerous channels from the prophets establish certain knowledge that they exist in the external world. These include the account of Abraham’s honoured guests: their coming to Abraham; his bringing them a fattened calf to eat; their giving Sarah glad tidings of Isaac and Jacob; then their going to Lot, speaking to him, and destroying the towns of Lot’s people. Allah has related this account in several passages.

Likewise, there is the account of Mary and Allah’s sending Gabriel to her in human form, whereupon he breathed the spirit into her. There is also the account of Gabriel coming to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Sometimes in the form of a Bedouin.”