Habib (angel)

Ḥabīb is an angel, described as being created from fire and ice, mentioned in Muhammad's Night Journey narrative, codified by the 9th and 10th centuries CE. 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.

In many early accounts, the angel represents God's omnipresence and communal reconciliation. According to Islamic symbolism, just as God created the angel from fire and snow without melting the ice nor extinguishing the fire, God can create the impossible and unite the most estranged.

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. In a Persian version of the Miraj-literature, the leader of these angels is called Qābīl. The Jewish work Apocalypse of Moses features hosts of angels called ʾĪšīm, likely influenced by the later Islamic depiction.

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