Honored Angels in Islam
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيم
Praise
be to God the Creator of the world, the One Who exists without
beginning, without end, without location, without a "how" and Who does
not depend on time. Nothing resembles Him in anyway and He hears and
sees everything without organs. Whatever you imagine, God is different
from that. May the elevation in degree and preservation of his community
of what he fears for it, be granted to our master Muhammad Al-‘Amin,
the Honest One, who called for following Islam, the religion of truth,
the religion of all the Prophets: of the First, Adam, to the last
Muhammad.
Among
the most important matters of the belief (Iman) is to believe in the
angels, i.e., to believe, although we don’t usually see them, that
angels exist and they are one of the kinds of creations Allah created.
Allah created the angels from light. They are neither males nor females.
They all worship Allah and obey His orders ; they do not sin. They are
all Muslim.
As
narrated by Imam Muslim in the famous Hadith known as Hadith Jibril,
the Prophet, sallAllahu ^alayhi wa sallam, when asked by Angel Jibril to
inform him about the belief, said al-Iman (the belief) is:
« أَنْ تُؤْمِنَ باللهِ وَمَلائِكَتِهِ وَكُتِبِهِ ورُسُلِهِ والْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ وتُؤْمِنَ بالْقَدَرِ خَيْرِهِ وَشَرِّهِ »
(‘an tu’mina bi l-Lâhi wa malâ’ikatihi wa kutubihi wa ruçulihi wa l-yawmi l-‘âkhiri wa tu’mina bi l-qadari khayrihi wa charrih)
which means: « To
believe in Allah, His Angels, His Revealed Books, His Messengers, the
Day of Judgment, and to believe in destiny, both good and evil, (that is
that both are decreed by Allah). »
In
the response of Prophet Muhammad to Angel Jibril, notice how he ordered
those most important matters of the belief. He said the belief is
(first) to believe in Allah, because this is the basis of the belief. To
believe in Allah includes believing that Allah exists and that His
existence is without time and without a place, unlike the existence of
the created things. The belief in Allah includes believing that He is
eternal ; there never was a time Allah did not exist and then He came
into existence. He is everlasting ; there never will be a time when He
will cease to exist. Rather, Allah is the Creator of everything. He
created everything by his Power, Knowledge, and Will. He does not need
any of His creations, nor does He resemble any of His creations. Allah
is attributed with Sight and Hearing ; He sees and hears all things
without an eye, ear, or any other instrument. Allah is not a body and
does not have parts. He is One, there is no god except Allah. He has no
partner, no division, no sub-division.
The
proper belief in Allah includes believing in all these issues. The one
who believes in Allah, believes that Allah is the Creator of everything,
the True Owner of everything, and that He deserves to be worshipped,
and that He deserves to be obeyed. The one who believes that Allah
deserves to be worshipped and obeyed needs to know how to worship and
obey Him. Allah, by His great generosity and mercy, sent His Revelation
to the people, so they would know how to worship and obey Him. The one
who believes in Allah, believes in His Revelation.
After
mentioning the belief in Allah, the Prophet mentioned the belief in the
angels, the Books, and the Messengers of Allah, because this is how
Allah’s orders reached us. The ones who convey the orders of Allah are
the angels. What they came with are the revealed Books. These Books were
revealed to the Messengers of Allah, who were ordered to convey them to
the people.
Angels
are wondrous creations of Allah and have a very high status among His
creations. Allah created all the angels from light, all at once. Imam
Muslim narrated the Prophet said:
«
خلَقَ اللهُ الملائكةَ من نورٍ وخلقَ الجان من مارِجٍ من نار (أي من
لـهيبِ النارِ الصافي) وخلقَ ءادَمَ مما وصفَ لكم (أي من ماءٍ وتراب) »
(khuliqati l-malâ’ikatu min nûrin wa khuliqa l-jânnu min mârijin min nârin wa khuliqa ‘Adamu mimmâ wuSifa lakum)
which means: « Allah created the angels from light, created the jinn from the pure flame of fire, and Adam from that which was described to you (i.e.,
the clay.). » This is a saHiH Hadith and proof Iblis was not an angel
who blasphemed, thus becoming the devil – as some people claim. Iblis is
a jinn and is the father of all the jinn-kind, as Adam is a human and
is the father of all the human kind.
Allah
created the angels as they are now. They do not grow or develop or age.
In their original shape, they are gentle bodies ; gentle bodies meaning
they can’t be grasped or held by the hand. Although they are gentle
bodies, they do not have internal cavities – unlike humans and jinn –
and they do not eat or drink. This is why when Prophet Ibrahim gave food
to the angels who were visiting him (in the shape of men), they did not
eat. The angels have different body parts: feet, shoulders, ears,
hands, and wings. Some angels have two (2) wings, some have three (3),
others have four (4). Some, like Angel Jibril, have up to six hundred
(600) wings. If just one of his wings was spread open, it would cover
what is between east and west.
Allah
gave the angels the power to change their shapes, and it is permissible
that they would take the shape of a man, however, without the male
genital organ. Often Angel Jibril would appear to the Prophet in the
shape of a man to teach him the Revelation. Angels do not take the form
of the woman. The one who believes that the angels are female is
blasphemous, as Allah said in Surat An-Najm, Ayah 27:
﴿ إنَّ الَّذينَ لا يؤمنونَ بالآخرةِ لَيُسَمُّونَ الملائكةَ تسميةَ الأنثى ﴾
which means: « Those
who do not believe in the Hereafter are those who name the angels with
feminine names, (i.e., believe that they are female). »
Some
of the angels are very big. It was narrated that the Prophet told us
about one of the angels who carries the ^Arsh. He said that the distance
between that angel’s ear lobe and his shoulder is equal to the distance
that a fast flying bird would cover flying for 700 years. There are
other angels whose feet are in the seventh earth and upper body above
the seventh sky.
Allah
created obedience inherent in the angels. They do not disobey Allah.
All of them are obedient slaves to Allah, as Allah described them in
Surat At-Tahrim, Ayah 6:
﴿ لَّا يَعْصُونَ اللَّـهَ مَا أَمَرَهُمْ وَيَفْعَلُونَ مَا يُؤْمَرُونَ ﴾
which means: « They do not disobey Allah in what He orders them (to do), and they do exactly what they were ordered. »
Angels, like humans, have a will, but angels choose only to be obedient
to Allah. They do not sin. They perform only that which Allah ordered
them to do.
What
was falsely claimed about the two angels, Harut and Marut, committing
sins is untrue. Some claimed that they were seduced by a woman named
z-Zuhrah, and as a result, drank alcohol and committed adultery. It is
also claimed they killed a soul unrightfully and prostrated to an idol.
These claims are pure fabrication, none were confirmed by the Prophet.
Such claims contradict the Qur’an, the Rules of the Religion, and the
Sunnah of the Prophet. What is mentioned in the Religion about Harut and
Marut is they came down in Babylon (in Iraq) to teach the people the
matters of sorcery. This was not, however, to enable the people to
practice sorcery, rather it was to enable the people to differentiate
between sorcery and the true miracle.
Angels
are the most numerous kind of creation of Allah. There are more angels
than the other creations of Allah, including the humans, the jinn and
even the trees. At-Tirmidhiyy related the Hadith of the Messenger of
Allah in which he said:
« ما في السموات موضع أربع أصابع إلاَّ وفيه ملَكٌ قائمٌ أو راكعٌ أو ساجدٌ »
which means: « There
is no space equivalent to (the width of) four fingers in the sky except
one would find an angel mentioning (worshipping) Allah, either
standing, bowing or prostrating. » and they perform the five mandatory prayers. They stay as such until the Day of Judgment worshipping Allah.
Allah
endowed the angels with the strength to perform the obedience without
getting tired, and without being in need of food, drink, sleep, or rest.
They do not eat or drink or sleep. They perform only that which Allah
ordered them to perform. Every angel has an assignment. Angel Jibril is
the Messenger of Allah to his prophets. Angel Israfil is the angel
assigned to blow the horn on the Day of Judgment. ^Asra’il is the Angel
of death, whose assignment is to capture the soul of the person when it
leaves his body at death. Ridwan is the angel in charge of Paradise,
Malik the angel in charge of Hellfire.
There
are angels in charge of the clouds, the winds, and the plants. With
each human there are eight (8) angels whose assignment is to protect
that person from the harm of the jinn. It was narrated that if it were
not for these angels, the jinn would play with the person like the
person plays with a ball.
The
zabaniyah are angels in charge of torturing the blasphemers in
Hellfire. There are other angels who roam around, writing down the
leaves that drop off the trees. Some angels are in charge of delivering
the salutations to the Messenger of Allah in his grave of the one not
present at the grave of the Prophet who says salams to him. There is an
angel in charge of the womb of the woman. He writes matters on the
forehead of the fetus when the fetus is 120 days old and his soul joins
his body. There are the angels who carry the ^Arsh. Rata’il is the angel
in charge of relieving the sadness of the believers ; Mika’il is the
angel in charge of the rain. Angel Isma^il is in charge of 12,000 angels
in one sky who are his direct assistants. There are the angels who
write down the deeds of the person-each one has two with him, one who
writes the good deeds, and the other who writes the mubah and the bad
deeds. There are the angels, Munkar and Nakir, who question the person
in the grave, and many, many more.
Allah endowed the angels with great strength. Allah said about Angel Jibril:
﴿ ذِي قُوَّةٍ عِندَ ذِي الْعَرْشِ مَكِينٍ ﴾
which means: « He is very strong. »
[Surat At-Takwîr, ‘âyah 20]. Among the examples of his strength is how
he destroyed the cities of the people of Prophet Lut. With just the edge
of one of his 600 hundred wings, Angel Jibril pulled out of the ground
the (4 or 5) cities of Prophet Lut’s people, and raised them near to the
first sky, until the angels inhabiting that sky could hear the barking
of the dogs and the crowing of the roosters. Then he turned those cities
upside down and sent them down to the earth. Allah ordered Angel Jibril
to destroy those cities of the people of Prophet Lut to punish them
because they belied Prophet Lut and harmed him.
Among
all the angels, Angel Jibril is the one with the most merit and highest
status. He is the Messenger of Allah to the messengers of Allah,
meaning mostly it was Jibril who would bring the Revelation to the
prophets. Angel Jibril would come to Prophet MuHammad and convey the
Revelation to him, and the Prophet would hear his words and memorize
them immediately. Angel Jibril used to come to the Prophet not in his
own shape ; usually he would take the shape of a man. However, when
Angel Jibril brought the Revelation of prophethood to Prophet Muhammad
in Cave Hira’, he retained his original shape. When Prophet Muhammad saw
Jibril this first time in his original shape, he fainted.
He
fainted, not out of fear of what he was seeing, (because Jibril did not
at all resemble what one usually sees, i.e., humans, animals, the sun,
the moon, etc.) and not out of fear that Jibril would harm him. Rather,
he felt that he was seeing a very strange and a very great thing, and
was so affected by the aura of what he was seeing that he fainted.
During the night of al-Mi^raj, the Prophet once again saw Angel Jibril
in his original shape. However, this time the Prophet did not faint at
the sight of Jibril, because before that the angels had washed his heart
to make it stronger and ready to see the wondrous things in the upper
world during the ascension. Allah gave Prophet Muhammad a great
strength, enabling him to bear many unfamiliar sights and unusual
matters that night.
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