All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. To proceed:
Dihyah al-Kalbi, may Allah be pleased with him, was a human Companion and was not Jibril, peace be upon him. What the narrations mean is that Jibril sometimes appeared in the form of a man resembling Dihyah. They do not mean that he entered Dihyah’s body, transformed into Dihyah himself, or that Dihyah’s human life was actually the life of Jibril.
Dihyah ibn Khalifah al-Kalbi, may Allah be pleased with him, was a well-known Companion and was famous for his handsome appearance.
He participated in a number of events, and the Prophet ﷺ sent him with a letter to Heraclius. He lived after the Prophet ﷺ until the caliphate of Mu‘awiyah, may Allah be pleased with him.
Dihyah was therefore an independent human being with his own life and deeds. He was not an angel.
It is authentically established that Jibril, peace be upon him, came to the Prophet ﷺ in the form of a man resembling Dihyah.
In the hadith of Usamah ibn Zayd, may Allah be pleased with them both, Jibril came to the Prophet ﷺ while Umm Salamah was with him. When he left, the Prophet ﷺ asked her:
“Who was that?”
She replied: “That was Dihyah.”
Umm Salamah, may Allah be pleased with her, said that she continued to think it was Dihyah until she heard the Prophet ﷺ explain that the one who had come to him was Jibril.
[Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim]
It is also authentically reported that the Prophet ﷺ said when describing Jibril:
“The person I have seen who most closely resembles him is Dihyah.”
[Reported by Muslim]
The meaning is that Jibril appeared in a human form resembling Dihyah.
No.
Appearing in a certain form does not mean that an angel enters another person’s body or takes control of it.
Rather, Allah is able to cause an angel to appear to people in an independent human form.
At that moment, Jibril remains Jibril, peace be upon him, and Dihyah remains Dihyah, may Allah be pleased with him. Neither becomes the other.
Nothing necessarily had to happen to Dihyah at all.
Jibril did not need Dihyah’s actual body in order to appear in a form resembling him. Just as one person resembling another does not mean that one of them has disappeared or entered the other.
Therefore, Dihyah could have been in any other place while Jibril appeared before the Prophet ﷺ in a form resembling him.
The original form of the angels is not the form that humans ordinarily see.
Therefore, Jibril would sometimes appear in the form of a man so that humans could see him, hear his words, and interact with him.
This is established in the famous Hadith of Jibril, when he came to the Prophet ﷺ in the form of a man:
“With extremely white clothes and extremely black hair.”
He sat before the Prophet ﷺ and asked him about Islam, faith, and excellence in worship.
[Reported by Muslim]
In this event, he did not appear as Dihyah. Rather, Jibril appeared in the form of another man whom the Companions did not recognize.
This demonstrates that Jibril was not restricted to the appearance of Dihyah alone.
Yes.
Jibril, peace be upon him, has the original form in which Allah created him, and the Prophet ﷺ saw Jibril in that original form.
Allah Almighty says:
“And he certainly saw him on the clear horizon.”
[At-Takwir: 23]
And He says:
“And indeed he saw him another time, near the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary.”
[An-Najm: 13–14]
Aishah, may Allah be pleased with her, reported that the Prophet ﷺ said about Jibril:
“It was only Jibril. I did not see him in the form in which he was created except on these two occasions.”
[Reported by Muslim]
It is also authentically reported from Ibn Mas‘ud, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet ﷺ saw Jibril with six hundred wings.
No.
It is established in the Qur’an and Sunnah that angels may appear in human form.
Allah says about Jibril when he came to Maryam, peace be upon her:
“Then he appeared before her as a well-proportioned man.”
[Maryam: 17]
The angels also came to Ibrahim and Lut, peace be upon them, in the forms of men.
This is among the abilities Allah has granted to the angels and is not something unique to the form of Dihyah.
No.
The resemblance here concerns outward appearance, not true identity, characteristics, or life.
Jibril does not become a real human being merely because he appears in human form, nor does he need to eat, marry, and live like Dihyah.
Likewise, Dihyah does not become an angel merely because Jibril appeared in a form resembling him.
Dihyah al-Kalbi, may Allah be pleased with him, was a human Companion, while Jibril, peace be upon him, was an angel entirely distinct from him.
When scholars say that Jibril used to come in the form of Dihyah, they mean that he appeared in the form of a man resembling Dihyah, not that he entered his body or became Dihyah himself.
Therefore, there is no problem concerning Dihyah’s marriage, life, fighting, and death. These belonged to Dihyah’s human life and had no connection to the true nature of Jibril, peace be upon him.
Jibril was also not permanently bound to Dihyah’s appearance. He sometimes appeared in the form of a man, while also possessing his original angelic form in which Allah created him.
And Allah knows best.