[43:60] Can Angels Reproduce? Could Earth Have Held Another Kind of Creation?

A Reflection in 19 Sections on Quran 43:60

Author: Berk KÖKSAL

Date: October 14, 2026

Location: Mersin

Verse

43:60

وَلَوْ نَشَآءُ لَجَعَلْنَا مِنكُم مَّلَٰٓئِكَةً فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ يَخْلُفُونَ

If we willed, we could have made you angels who colonize and reproduce on earth.

Eğer irade etseydik, sizi yeryüzünde koloni kuran ve çoğalan melekler yapabilirdik.

Source: kuranteyit.com

Introduction

Peace. Peace be upon you.

When I first sat with 43:60, its words held my attention: angels, earth, colonization, reproduction. An expression this concrete about beings we do not ordinarily see can easily tempt the imagination into elaborate pictures. Yet being moved by a verse is not the same as gaining certainty about everything it leaves unexplained.

My question is not only how angels might reproduce. Why does GOD evoke the possibility of another kind of earthly life in a passage concerned with a blessed servant? In my earlier reflection on the High Society, I considered creation and the dispute surrounding it. Here I want to contemplate the ethical force of a conditional sentence, keeping testimony, knowledge, truthfulness, and submission in view.

Summary:

1. The Possibility Opened by a Conditional Sentence

43:60 — If we willed, we could have made you angels who colonize and reproduce on earth.

2. The Previous Verse: The Meaning of Servanthood

43:59 — He was no more than a servant whom we blessed, and we sent him as an example for the Children of Israel.

3. What Can Colony Mean Here?

43:60 — If we willed, we could have made you angels who colonize and reproduce on earth.

2:30 — Recall that your Lord said to the angels, “I am placing a representative (a temporary god) on Earth.” They said, “Will You place therein one who will spread evil therein and shed blood, while we sing Your praises, glorify You, and uphold Your absolute authority?” He said, “I know what you do not know.”

4. Reproduction: Between Knowledge and Assumption

43:60 — If we willed, we could have made you angels who colonize and reproduce on earth.

35:1 — Praise be to GOD, Initiator of the heavens and the earth, and appointer of the angels to be messengers with wings—two, three, and four (wings). He increases the creation as He wills. GOD is Omnipotent.

5. Increasing Creation and the Wings

35:1 — Praise be to GOD, Initiator of the heavens and the earth, and appointer of the angels to be messengers with wings—two, three, and four (wings). He increases the creation as He wills. GOD is Omnipotent.

6. Do Angels Establish an Independent Order?

21:27 — They never speak on their own, and they strictly follow His commands.

16:50 — They reverence their Lord, high above them, and they do what they are commanded to do.

7. Tasks: Each Has an Assigned Role

37:164 — Each one of us has a specific job.

37:165 — We are the arrangers.

37:166 — We have duly glorified (our Lord)

8. Numbers Known and Unknown

74:31 — We appointed angels to be guardians of Hell, and we assigned their number (19) (1) to disturb the disbelievers, (2) to convince the Christians and Jews (that this is a divine scripture), (3) to strengthen the faith of the faithful, (4) to remove all traces of doubt from the hearts of Christians, Jews, as well as the believers, and (5) to expose those who harbor doubt in their hearts, and the disbelievers; they will say, “What did GOD mean by this allegory?” GOD thus sends astray whomever He wills, and guides whomever He wills. None knows the soldiers of your Lord except He. This is a reminder for the people.

9. Adam and the Angels: The Source of Knowledge

2:30 — Recall that your Lord said to the angels, “I am placing a representative (a temporary god) on Earth.” They said, “Will You place therein one who will spread evil therein and shed blood, while we sing Your praises, glorify You, and uphold Your absolute authority?” He said, “I know what you do not know.”

2:31 — He taught Adam all the names* then presented them to the angels, saying, “Give me the names of these, if you are right.”

2:32 — They said, “Be You glorified, we have no knowledge, except that which You have taught us. You are the Omniscient, Most Wise.”

10. Prostration, Pride, and a False Comparison

2:34 — When we said to the angels, “Fall prostrate before Adam,” they fell prostrate, except Satan; he refused, was too arrogant, and a disbeliever.

7:12 — He said, “What prevented you from prostrating when I ordered you?” He said, “I am better than he; You created me from fire, and created him from mud.”

11. Angels Can Be Messengers

22:75 — GOD chooses from among the angels messengers, as well as from among the people. GOD is Hearer, Seer.

16:2 — He sends down the angels with the revelations, carrying His commands, to whomever He chooses from among His servants: “You shall preach that there is no other god beside Me; You shall reverence Me.”

12. The Possibility of Human Appearance

6:9 — Had we sent an angel, we would have sent him in the form of a man, and we would have kept them just as confused as they are confused now.

19:17 — While a barrier separated her from them, we sent to her our Spirit. He went to her in the form of a human being.

13. Angelic Duties Alongside Human Life

82:10 — Oblivious to the fact that there are (invisible) keepers around you.

82:11 — They are honest recorders.

82:12 — They record everything you do.

14. Glorification Without Weariness

21:19 — To Him belongs everyone in the heavens and the earth, and those at Him are never too arrogant to worship Him, nor do they ever waver.

21:20 — They glorify night and day, without ever tiring.

15. Support for Believers and Prayer for Forgiveness

41:30 — Those who proclaim: “Our Lord is GOD,” then lead a righteous life, the angels descend upon them: “You shall have no fear, nor shall you grieve. Rejoice in the good news that Paradise has been reserved for you.

42:5 — The heavens above them almost shatter, out of reverence for Him, and the angels praise and glorify their Lord, and they ask forgiveness for those on earth. Absolutely, GOD is the Forgiver, Most Merciful.

16. Bearing Witness and Possessing Knowledge

3:18 — GOD bears witness that there is no god except He, and so do the angels and those who possess knowledge. Truthfully and equitably, He is the absolute god; there is no god but He, the Almighty, Most Wise.

17. The Limits of Intercession and Religious Authority

53:26 — Not even the angels in heaven possess authority to intercede. The only ones permitted by GOD are those who act in accordance with His will and His approval.

3:80 — Nor would he command you to idolize the angels and the prophets as lords. Would he exhort you to disbelieve after becoming submitters?

18. The Lesson of Right Speech

78:38 — The day will come when the Spirit and the angels will stand in a row. None will speak except those permitted by the Most Gracious, and they will utter only what is right.

21:27 — They never speak on their own, and they strictly follow His commands.

19. Silence Where I Do Not Know, Action Where I Do

43:60 — If we willed, we could have made you angels who colonize and reproduce on earth.

16:49 — To GOD prostrates everything in the heavens and everything on earth —every creature—and so do the angels; without the least arrogance.*

16:50 — They reverence their Lord, high above them, and they do what they are commanded to do.

1. The Possibility Opened by a Conditional Sentence

Verse

43:60 — If we willed, we could have made you angels who colonize and reproduce on earth.

Reflection on the Verse

The first question that comes to me is how angels could reproduce. Yet the opening condition matters more: ‘If we willed.’ This verse presents divine possibility, not an observed account of an angelic population on earth. Confusing what could have been with what has occurred would take me beyond the text before I have begun. Even so, the possibility is enough to question my assumptions about humanity’s place here.

Verse references: 43:60.

2. The Previous Verse: The Meaning of Servanthood

Verse

43:59 — He was no more than a servant whom we blessed, and we sent him as an example for the Children of Israel.

Reflection on the Verse

Verse 43:60 is not isolated. The preceding verse speaks of Jesus as a blessed servant and an example. That sequence warns me against turning categories of creation into a contest of rank. Being human, angel, or messenger is one matter; acknowledging servanthood before GOD is another. This context changes the direction of my curiosity.

Verse references: 43:59.

3. What Can Colony Mean Here?

Verse

43:60 — If we willed, we could have made you angels who colonize and reproduce on earth.

2:30 — Recall that your Lord said to the angels, “I am placing a representative (a temporary god) on Earth.” They said, “Will You place therein one who will spread evil therein and shed blood, while we sing Your praises, glorify You, and uphold Your absolute authority?” He said, “I know what you do not know.”

Reflection on the Verse

I can read ‘colonize’ as a possibility of habitation and continuity on earth, but the verse mentions no houses, cities, or angelic governments. Verse 2:30 likewise speaks of placing a representative on earth. Together they challenge my assumption that this world could only ever host humanity in its present form. They do not authorize me to invent the architecture of another civilization.

Verse references: 43:60, 2:30.

4. Reproduction: Between Knowledge and Assumption

Verse

43:60 — If we willed, we could have made you angels who colonize and reproduce on earth.

35:1 — Praise be to GOD, Initiator of the heavens and the earth, and appointer of the angels to be messengers with wings—two, three, and four (wings). He increases the creation as He wills. GOD is Omnipotent.

Reflection on the Verse

Rashad Khalifa’s Authorized English Translation uses ‘reproduce’; the Turkish translation of the Authorized English Translation renders it as ‘çoğalan’. Yet 43:60 supplies no mechanism. Verse 35:1 speaks of GOD increasing creation as He wills. That does not prove biological inheritance, reproduction through mating, or any specific process. The question deserves attention; the gap does not deserve an invented story.

Verse references: 43:60, 35:1.

5. Increasing Creation and the Wings

Verse

35:1 — Praise be to GOD, Initiator of the heavens and the earth, and appointer of the angels to be messengers with wings—two, three, and four (wings). He increases the creation as He wills. GOD is Omnipotent.

Reflection on the Verse

The mention of wings resists reducing angels to a mere abstraction. But it also gives me no permission to reconstruct their anatomy as though they were an earthly species. The verse’s decisive statement is that GOD increases creation as He wills. It tells me whose power governs creation, not the technical details of every created form.

Verse references: 35:1.

6. Do Angels Establish an Independent Order?

Verse

21:27 — They never speak on their own, and they strictly follow His commands.

16:50 — They reverence their Lord, high above them, and they do what they are commanded to do.

Reflection on the Verse

It is tempting to picture an independent angelic sovereignty when imagining a community on earth. Yet these verses speak of commands and obedience. Carrying out tasks is not the same as possessing authority independent of GOD. Whatever possibility 43:60 opens, these statements restrain my picture of it.

Verse references: 21:27, 16:50.

7. Tasks: Each Has an Assigned Role

Verse

37:164 — Each one of us has a specific job.

37:165 — We are the arrangers.

37:166 — We have duly glorified (our Lord)

Reflection on the Verse

What strikes me is not scale but responsibility. Arrangement, glorification, and the statement of a specific task suggest ordered service rather than an undifferentiated crowd. Still, a particular job says nothing about angelic families, economies, or birth rates. Organization of duties is not a description of reproduction.

Verse references: 37:164, 37:165, 37:166.

8. Numbers Known and Unknown

Verse

74:31 — We appointed angels to be guardians of Hell, and we assigned their number (19) (1) to disturb the disbelievers, (2) to convince the Christians and Jews (that this is a divine scripture), (3) to strengthen the faith of the faithful, (4) to remove all traces of doubt from the hearts of Christians, Jews, as well as the believers, and (5) to expose those who harbor doubt in their hearts, and the disbelievers; they will say, “What did GOD mean by this allegory?” GOD thus sends astray whomever He wills, and guides whomever He wills. None knows the soldiers of your Lord except He. This is a reminder for the people.

Reflection on the Verse

A number is given for a specific assignment, and then the text warns that only GOD knows all His soldiers. Knowing one number is not knowing the whole. Calculating how many angels might reproduce from 43:60 would pretend to possess information never supplied. Admitting the limit is not defeat; it is intellectual honesty.

Verse references: 74:31.

9. Adam and the Angels: The Source of Knowledge

Verse

2:30 — Recall that your Lord said to the angels, “I am placing a representative (a temporary god) on Earth.” They said, “Will You place therein one who will spread evil therein and shed blood, while we sing Your praises, glorify You, and uphold Your absolute authority?” He said, “I know what you do not know.”

2:31 — He taught Adam all the names* then presented them to the angels, saying, “Give me the names of these, if you are right.”

2:32 — They said, “Be You glorified, we have no knowledge, except that which You have taught us. You are the Omniscient, Most Wise.”

Reflection on the Verse

Adam is taught names, and the angels acknowledge the limits of what they know. That scene offers a discipline of inquiry. If the angels openly declare their dependence upon GOD for knowledge, how could I speak confidently about the hidden mechanics of their lives? Perhaps studying 43:60 begins with recognizing my own ignorance.

Verse references: 2:30, 2:31, 2:32.

10. Prostration, Pride, and a False Comparison

Verse

2:34 — When we said to the angels, “Fall prostrate before Adam,” they fell prostrate, except Satan; he refused, was too arrogant, and a disbeliever.

7:12 — He said, “What prevented you from prostrating when I ordered you?” He said, “I am better than he; You created me from fire, and created him from mud.”

Reflection on the Verse

This scene shows the danger of claiming superiority from the material of one’s creation. I should resist producing definitive rankings between humans and angels on my own authority. Verse 43:60 invites reflection upon the breadth of GOD’s will, not contempt for humanity or idolization of angels.

Verse references: 2:34, 7:12.

11. Angels Can Be Messengers

Verse

22:75 — GOD chooses from among the angels messengers, as well as from among the people. GOD is Hearer, Seer.

16:2 — He sends down the angels with the revelations, carrying His commands, to whomever He chooses from among His servants: “You shall preach that there is no other god beside Me; You shall reverence Me.”

Reflection on the Verse

Angels are described as messengers bearing commands and revelation. This connects their service to human life on earth. Yet messengership is not colonization, and conveying commands is not reproduction. I cannot force one verse’s description of duty into an answer to another verse’s unanswered question about biology.

Verse references: 22:75, 16:2.

12. The Possibility of Human Appearance

Verse

6:9 — Had we sent an angel, we would have sent him in the form of a man, and we would have kept them just as confused as they are confused now.

19:17 — While a barrier separated her from them, we sent to her our Spirit. He went to her in the form of a human being.

Reflection on the Verse

Appearing in human form is not the same as being human. These verses caution against quick judgments about appearance. Thinking about angelic presence on earth does not require me to assume ordinary human anatomy. Nor does a reference to appearance license certainty about the unseen structure of their bodies.

Verse references: 6:9, 19:17.

13. Angelic Duties Alongside Human Life

Verse

82:10 — Oblivious to the fact that there are (invisible) keepers around you.

82:11 — They are honest recorders.

82:12 — They record everything you do.

Reflection on the Verse

The mention of trustworthy recorders gives my curiosity an ethical weight. ‘How would angels reproduce?’ is fascinating; ‘How am I living?’ is immediately accountable. Accepting their recording role does not require any belief about their households or reproduction.

Verse references: 82:10, 82:11, 82:12.

14. Glorification Without Weariness

Verse

21:19 — To Him belongs everyone in the heavens and the earth, and those at Him are never too arrogant to worship Him, nor do they ever waver.

21:20 — They glorify night and day, without ever tiring.

Reflection on the Verse

I see a rhythm of worship, praise, and continuity. Continuity of glorification must not be confused with population growth. Yet the passage turns me toward my own distracted and weary life: have I pushed remembrance of GOD to its margins? Sometimes reflection on angels becomes reflection on my own servanthood.

Verse references: 21:19, 21:20.

15. Support for Believers and Prayer for Forgiveness

Verse

41:30 — Those who proclaim: “Our Lord is GOD,” then lead a righteous life, the angels descend upon them: “You shall have no fear, nor shall you grieve. Rejoice in the good news that Paradise has been reserved for you.

42:5 — The heavens above them almost shatter, out of reverence for Him, and the angels praise and glorify their Lord, and they ask forgiveness for those on earth. Absolutely, GOD is the Forgiver, Most Merciful.

Reflection on the Verse

Angels appear not only with power and command but also with reassurance and prayer for forgiveness. I do not want to lose that gentleness when discussing their relationship with earth. Such support does not make them independent controllers of human fate. It remains within devotion to GOD.

Verse references: 41:30, 42:5.

16. Bearing Witness and Possessing Knowledge

Verse

3:18 — GOD bears witness that there is no god except He, and so do the angels and those who possess knowledge. Truthfully and equitably, He is the absolute god; there is no god but He, the Almighty, Most Wise.

Reflection on the Verse

The angels appear among those bearing witness. For me, testimony demands more than repeating a correct sentence; it also requires distinguishing knowledge from assumption. To put witnesses to GOD’s oneness in GOD’s place would be a contradiction. I want monotheism to remain the center of this inquiry.

Verse references: 3:18.

17. The Limits of Intercession and Religious Authority

Verse

53:26 — Not even the angels in heaven possess authority to intercede. The only ones permitted by GOD are those who act in accordance with His will and His approval.

3:80 — Nor would he command you to idolize the angels and the prophets as lords. Would he exhort you to disbelieve after becoming submitters?

Reflection on the Verse

Awe at angels does not license turning them into mediating lords. Power, honor, and assigned duty are not unlimited authority. I especially want to avoid turning uncertainty about possible reproduction into a new story of religious power. These verses preserve the boundary between service and lordship.

Verse references: 53:26, 3:80.

18. The Lesson of Right Speech

Verse

78:38 — The day will come when the Spirit and the angels will stand in a row. None will speak except those permitted by the Most Gracious, and they will utter only what is right.

21:27 — They never speak on their own, and they strictly follow His commands.

Reflection on the Verse

Not speaking independently, and speaking rightly when permitted, establishes a sobering boundary. A single intriguing word can tempt me to produce dozens of confident claims. Reflection on 43:60 should discipline my speech: call possibility a possibility, and an explicit statement an explicit statement.

Verse references: 78:38, 21:27.

19. Silence Where I Do Not Know, Action Where I Do

Verse

43:60 — If we willed, we could have made you angels who colonize and reproduce on earth.

16:49 — To GOD prostrates everything in the heavens and everything on earth —every creature—and so do the angels; without the least arrogance.*

16:50 — They reverence their Lord, high above them, and they do what they are commanded to do.

Reflection on the Verse

I return to the opening question. GOD could have willed a different form of earthly life. That is a vast thought. But these verses do not tell me how angels might mate, be born, or multiply. They do speak clearly about worship, humility, and obedience. The fruitful outcome is not to silence curiosity, but to distinguish curiosity from responsibility.

Verse references: 43:60, 16:49, 16:50.

On the Arabic Roots

It is worth returning to the Arabic rather than treating an English phrase as a complete biological description. نَشَاءُ (nashāʾu) concerns willing; جَعَلْنَا (jaʿalnā) concerns making or appointing; مَلَائِكَة (malāʾikah) denotes angels; الْأَرْض (al-arḍ) is the earth. The crucial word is يَخْلُفُونَ (yakhlufūn), associated with خ ل ف, a root with senses of coming after, succession, and replacement. Rashad Khalifa’s Authorized English Translation renders the verse with ‘colonize and reproduce.’ The root’s broader semantic field does not itself describe a biological mechanism. Linguistic inquiry should help me notice the limits of my claim, not create new certainty.

Other Claims

Other translations and commentarial approaches render the ending of 43:60 in terms of angels succeeding one another or replacing humans on earth. Some understand the passage chiefly as a statement of GOD’s power to replace humanity, rather than a claim about angelic reproduction. Rashad Khalifa’s Authorized English Translation instead says ‘colonize and reproduce.’ These are consequential differences, but none establishes a specific biology. Other inherited views assert that angels do not reproduce at all; I cannot turn those views into a definitive negation of a conditional possibility either. Such differences belong to the history of interpretation, not the evidentiary foundation of the reflections above.

Conclusion

Verse 43:60 does not tell me by what means angels would reproduce. It does tell me something no less profound: the form of earthly life familiar to us does not restrict GOD’s power. ‘If we willed’ prevents me from treating my own existence as an entitlement.

Reading the passages together, I encounter angels who carry commands, witness, glorify, pray, and acknowledge that their knowledge is received. I cannot build an unseen family structure or reproductive science from those descriptions. More importantly, I do not want to lose sight of my responsibility: to remain truthful about what I know, candid about what I do not, and devoted to GOD alone.

The question I take home is personal. How much have I added while claiming to explain a possibility? Respect for a verse may begin exactly where I refuse to make it say what it has not said.

Note

2:32 — They said, “Be You glorified, we have no knowledge, except that which You have taught us. You are the Omniscient, Most Wise.”

GOD knows best.

Source: kuranteyit.com