They are so named. The word melek (angel) in the lexicon means strength and power. When these spirits are reinforced with divine lights (nūr), and when divine possibilities empower them and transmit their lights to them, they are called melikler (malakūtic beings). They are divided into the categories of lofty-spiritual (ʿulwī-rūḥī), lowly-natural-elemental (suflī-ṭabīʿī-unsurī), and imaginal-luminous (mithālī-nūrānī). There are those who are bewildered (muhayyam), and those who arise from deeds, words, and breaths. The manifestation (ẓuhūr) of the Real (al-Ḥaqq) in the spiritual world is not like His manifestation in the physical world. In the first, it is simple, luminous, pure, physical, and unified (waḥdānī). In the second, it is composite, dark, and receptive (infiʿālī). (Inshāʾ 7, 36)
Melāʾike (angels) are intellects created from the amāʾ (primordial cloud). The first thing created at this level is the divine pen (qalam-i ilāhī). Allah chose the pen, brought it forward, and in the assembly convened to create the entire cosmos, assigned it a duty, charged it with overseeing their interests, and made this a form of worship that He proposed as a means of drawing near to Allah. The pen is concerned only with this task. Allah created it as a simple (uncompounded, homogeneous) being so that it would not be heedless, would not sleep, and would not forget. Among created beings, the pen is the one that best comprehends and preserves the various sciences that Allah has taught. The pen has written all sciences, unchanged and protected from distortion, in the Preserved Tablet (Lawḥ-i Maḥfūẓ). Among the things it has written in the Preserved Tablet is the knowledge of alteration (tabdīl)—that is, the knowledge of change and transformation into another form. This knowledge exists in the form of Allah's knowledge and does not accept change. When Allah assigned the pen its task, He made it a governor (mudabbir) and expositor (tafsīlī) without the need for deliberation or reflection.