Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah.
Ordinary people do not see angels in their original forms, but they can see them when they take human form, as established in the Qur’an and Sunnah. As for the Prophet ﷺ, he passed away, and there is no established evidence that anyone can see him after his death while awake with their physical eyes in this worldly life, although seeing him in a dream is possible and authentically established. Therefore, it is not obligatory to believe someone who claims to have seen the Prophet ﷺ while awake, nor is it permissible to assert with certainty that a person someone saw was one of the angels.
Allah created the angels from light, as established in Sahih Muslim, and they belong to the unseen world.
According to the fatwa, no one from this Ummah has been established to have seen angels in their original forms except the Prophet ﷺ. He saw Jibril (peace be upon him) in the form in which Allah created him on two occasions.
However, if an angel takes the form of a human being, a person can see him. One of the most famous examples is the Hadith of Jibril, when he came to the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions in the form of a man. The Prophet ﷺ then said:
“Indeed, it was Jibril; he came to you to teach you your religion.”
Narrated by Muslim.
Allah تعالى says:
﴿And if We had made him an angel, We would have made him appear as a man, and We would have confused for them what they already confuse.﴾
[Al-An‘am: 9]
Seeing someone in human form does not mean that we can be certain that he was an angel.
Knowing that a person who has taken human form is actually an angel requires evidence. During the time of the Prophets, revelation could disclose the reality of some such events. But after the cessation of revelation, it is not correct for a person to see someone and then assert with certainty that he was Jibril or another angel without evidence.
Therefore, a claim that Jibril or other angels appeared and supported a particular event does not become a religious reality merely because some people claim it.
The Prophet ﷺ died as human beings die, and his Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, buried him. It has not been established that the Companions saw him after his death while awake and spoke with him.
If seeing him ﷺ while awake after his death in this sense were possible, the Companions would have been the people most entitled to experience it, especially given the major events that occurred after his death.
Allah تعالى says:
﴿Indeed, you will die, and indeed, they will die.﴾
[Az-Zumar: 30]
It is authentically reported from him ﷺ:
“Whoever sees me in a dream will see me while awake.”
The majority of commentators on the Hadith did not understand this to mean that someone who saw him in a dream could, after his death, see him physically present in this worldly life.
An-Nawawi mentioned several interpretations, including that what is meant is seeing the Prophet ﷺ in the Hereafter, or that the Hadith referred to someone who saw him in a dream during his lifetime and was then enabled to migrate and see him in reality.
Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar also considered it problematic to interpret the Hadith as meaning seeing the Prophet ﷺ with one's physical eyes after his death, because if that were correct, it would imply that companionship continued after his death, which the Companions did not say.
It is not obligatory to believe a person merely because he says that he saw Jibril or the Prophet ﷺ while awake. Likewise, not believing such a claim is not sinful suspicion, because the matter concerns the unseen and requires evidence.
What a person sees may be a dream, an imagination, an illusion, or a mistaken interpretation of what he witnessed. Therefore, it is not permissible to build a religious belief or legal ruling upon such personal experiences.
Angels may take human form, in which case people can see them. However, after the cessation of revelation, it is not permissible to assert without evidence that a particular person seen was Jibril or another angel.
As for the Prophet ﷺ, he passed away, and there is no established evidence that people see him after his death while awake with their physical eyes in this worldly life. As for seeing him in a dream, this is authentically established, but it does not mean that he has returned to the life of this world or that the person who sees him can receive new rulings or legislation from him.
And Allah knows best.