[al-malāʾika (the angels)], so they omit the hamza from it and vocalize the lām, which would have been vowelless had the noun been hamzated. They vocalize it specifically with a fatḥa because they transfer the vowel of the hamza that was in it—upon its elision—to the vowelless letter before it. Then, when they form the plural of its singular, they restore the plural to its origin and insert a hamza, saying: malāʾika.

The Arabs often do something similar in their speech, omitting the hamza from a word that is inherently hamzated, so their speech proceeds without the hamza in one state and with the hamza in another. This is like their saying: "I saw (raʾaytu) so-and-so," where their speech proceeds with the hamza in raʾaytu, but then they say: narā, tarā, and yarā ("we see, you see, he sees"), so their speech proceeds in yafʿalu and its counterparts by omitting the hamza, until pronouncing the hamza in them became anomalous, despite the hamza being original to it. Likewise, in malak (angel) and malāʾika (angels), their speech proceeded by omitting the hamza from their singular and retaining the hamza in their plural. At times, the singular occurs with a hamza, as the poet said:

For you are not a human being, but an angel (malʾak) descending from the atmosphere of heaven, pouring down. (1)

It may also be said for their singular: maʾlak, which would then be like their saying jabadha and jadhaba, and shaʾmal and shamʾal, and similar transposed words. However, what would be necessary if their singular were called maʾlak is that when pluralized, it would be pluralized as maʾālik. I do not recall hearing their plural transmitted as such, but they sometimes pluralize it as malāʾik and malāʾikah, just as ashʿath is pluralized as ashāʿith and ashāʿithah, and mismaʿ as masāmiʿ and masāmiʿah. Umayya ibn Abī al-Ṣalt said regarding their plural in this manner:

And among them are some of the servants of God, angels (malāʾik), made submissive, though they are mighty. (2)

And the origin of malʾak is message, as ʿAdī ibn Zayd al-ʿIbādī said: