Human or Angel? Discussions on the Superiority between the Two Species

One of the debates in Kalam is the issue of superiority between the human beings and angels. Although this issue is not a matter of Islamic creed, it has been discussed due to the fact that Kalam discussions kept interest in various aspects of ontological and epistemological topics, covering thereby a wide range of issues that extends beyond the subject of the debate. Exploring the argumentative lines of the discussions on the subject, this study offers an evaluative survey of the views advanced by the theologians of the both parties of the debate on the nature of existence and the hierarchy of being, the role of reason they assign in determining the matters of creed, the extent to which they attach importance to purely rational and philosophical knowledge, and finally the way they view the signification of the religious texts.