Ḥabīb is an angel, described as being created from fire and ice,[1] mentioned in Muhammad's Night Journey narrative, codified by the 9th and 10th centuries CE.[2]: 251 Although the angel features most prominently in later accounts of Muhammad's Night Journey, an angel created from fire and ice is already attested by Muqātil ibn Sulaymān and might belong to the first century of Islamic history.[2]: 252
In many early accounts, the angel represents God's omnipresence and communal reconciliation.[1] According to Islamic symbolism, just as God created the angel from fire and snow with melting the ice nor extinguishing the fire, God can create the impossible and unite the most estranged.[3]
At the time of Nishāpūr al-Qushayrī (d. 465/1072), there is an entire group of angels composed of half fire and half snow who request God for reconciliation of the believers.[2]: 257 In a Persian version of the Miraj-literature, the leader of these angels is called Qābīl.[2]: 258 The Jewish work Apocalypse of Moses features hosts of angels called ʾĪšīm, liekly influenced by the later Islamic depiction.[2]: 266–263
References
edit- ^ a b Gruber, Christiane (2010). The Ilkhanid Book of Ascension: A Persian-Sunni Devotional Tale. I.B.Tauris. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-857-71809-9.
- ^ a b c d e Colby, F. S. (December 2019). "Uniting Fire and Snow: Representations and Interpretations of the Wondrous Angel 'Ḥabīb'in Medieval Versions of Muḥammad's Ascension". The Intermediate Worlds of Angels. Ergon-Verlag.
- ^ Colby, Frederick S. (2008). Narrating Muhammad's Night Journey: Tracing the Development of the Ibn 'Abbas Ascension Discourse. State University of New York Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-7914-7518-8.
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