The Quran insists that angels exist and that belief in them is essential. Yet few understand this concept and its significance. Although it is not possible to be completely certain, and much is speculation, the following is what I arrived at in the course of my researches and appears to be compatible with all verses in the Quran:-

Firstly, numerous verses in the Quran speak about apparently dead things as if they were alive and aware - e.g. 33:72 tells us that Allah offered the trust to the heavens and earth, but they refused to undertake it. This does seem to be merely a question of symbolism.

This indicates that nothing in the Universe is to be regarded as dead and insensitive, but that there are different degrees of life and sensitivity.

There are 7 levels of creatures through which Allah works:-

Each is made of its own substances, and the higher "eats" the lower, transforming its substance into its own.

Minerals may be regarded as organizations of relatively inert crystalline material. Plants may be regarded as organizations of active chemical molecules that are also responsible for emotions. Animals are a stage higher as they have locomotion owing to a complex nervous system consisting of inter-connected nerve cells. Man has some self-consciousness, and transforms his own animal matter into an inner life and outwardly as a culture. Jinn is a creature of fire (perhaps electronic and sub-atomic material or plasma like the sun radiates, which is also responsible for nervous and intellectual functions including fantasy and rationalizations.). Angels are creatures of light (perhaps electromagnetic energy). They are sexless creations and servants of Allah (43:19). Archangels such as Gabriel are made of Spirit (which appears to be some force beyond or underlying the electromagnetic, perhaps in a sub-quantum field. It is responsible also for consciousness. It carries the Word or Command of Allah, i.e. Information or Order). The angels, though intelligent, are not capable of independent action but have an organizing or enabling or recording function.

The order of creation appears to be the reverse of this series, and may be regarded as progressive congealing, condensation or organization. Spirit condenses into electromagnetic substance, which condenses into electronic matter and so on. This increasing organization implies an increasing number of restrictions culminating in the inertness of the minerals. Life and awareness are minimum at this level. "The Command comes down through the 7 heavens" (65:12, 19:64, 97:4). There is also an ascent (32:5, 70:3). This could be represented diagrammatically as a point, representing the Throne of Allah, around which there are seven concentric circles. Outside this we have the Outer Darkness. There is a motion of entities outwards and inwards. The descending or relatively active forces A, may act on the relatively passive factors P, below to produce an intermediate state M, which is, therefore, higher than P. A may then act on M to produce another intermediate state, and M may act on P to produce still another intermediate state. In this way the descending or creative forces produce ascent or evolution. In so far as the whole system remains in balance, there is equality between the descending and ascending forces. But the whole system may be regarded as pulsating so that it emerges from the central Absolute point and is then re-absorbed, and re-emerges again.

Man occupies the center of this series or ladder and contains all seven levels that may be active or dormant to various degrees. There is a conflict or tension within him between the lower and the higher triads. His center of being or "I" or soul may descend downwards or ascend upwards. That is he can go nearer to Allah or move further from Allah. The further away he moves from the Allah the more is he trapped and disabled within an increasing number of forces. He is then relatively speaking neither dead nor alive. The closer he moves to Allah, the freer he is.

The Universe is not, therefore, to be regarded as dead and mechanical. The forces behind it are intelligent and conscious to various degrees. We can define intelligence as sensitivity to the environment and adaptability to it, then intelligence is a Universal phenomenon. For instance, if you press an object, it yields a little and presses back. It has some elasticity that may be regarded as a primitive self-preservative instinct. Inertia, resistance to change, may also be regarded in the same light. Reproduction is found in crystals and the propagation of light, and no doubt biological reproduction is only a more complex instance of this. And so on.

Thus we see the Universe as layered into levels of increasing or diminishing vitality, each lower level being a sub-set of the higher. The dead mechanical view is only the lowest subset. What we see of Reality (The world-as-seen) depends on the level of consciousness of the observer. Obviously, minerals, plants and animals see a different world than that seen by human beings, and human beings differ among themselves in this respect.

Human beings are required to seek knowledge and the type of knowledge that is most important is that which will enable them to ascend the ladder. This does not diminish the importance of scientific research, but does imply that its vision and purpose should be expanded. The notion of angels implies that in so far as science confines itself to the physical world, there will always be things in human life that cannot be understood or controlled by science. This understanding can, however, be achieved through special spiritual techniques.

It is also implied that the Laws as described by science are not as rigid as are supposed, or were supposed. There is a flexibility or adaptability to them. This will be missed by scientific research owing to the fact that science controls the environment strictly so that every experiment must be done in exactly the same laboratory conditions. One variable must be studied in terms of another while other factors are excluded. Whereas this gives the necessary control upon which a technology can be built, there is no room here to show this inherent adaptability. Even so experiments do give slightly different results each time and this is usually put down to experimental error. An average result is then taken. It is not realised that it is, in fact, an average, which has a range. In real life, however, outside the laboratory, many factors interact and there are all kinds of feed back mechanisms and loops.