Legal scholars worked out complete guidelines to relations...

Legal scholars worked out complete guidelines to relations between jinn and humans, and their existence is accepted by all Muslims. [^2] The situation of angels is more complex. The Quran suggests that they are utterly submissive to God's will, and possess no freedom of choice. (21:19, 20, 27, 46:6). Yet the Quran also tells of the rebellion of the angel Iblis (2:34, 15:31, etc.). These accounts are complicated by the fact that Iblis seems also to be characterized as a jinn in the Quran .

Despite controversies among commentators over the status of Iblis in relation to the impeccability of angels, belief in angels as impeccable servants of Allah is a fundamental belief for Muslims. The Quran names and defines the roles of many of the angels, and Islamic theological tradition, not to mention folklore, has a highly developed and complex angelology. Previous…