1. Air
2. Earth
3. Fire
4. Water
5. Ether
* Apart from ether, the above are listed in alphabetical order. This classification was not unique to the Islamic world. The existence of the Ether (or Aether) was if not disproved then abandoned after the Michelson-Morley Experiment of the 1880s. Having said that, it is still used in a figurative sense, eg a lost plane may be said to have vanished into the Ether.
These are also known as the elements of creation, and are not exclusively Islamic, for example, Hinduism has similar beliefs.
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