Angels in Islam (mala'ika)

Angels in Islam are creatures of God, and belief in them is a pillar of faith for the Sunnis ¹.

The Tahawiyya states it plainly: "we believe in the angels and the prophets and the books sent down to the messengers, and we bear witness that they were upon manifest truth" ¹; Ibn Abi al-Izz's commentary elaborates what belief in them entails and their attributes ².

The Sheikh says angels record deeds and do not sleep, that each person has angels who guard him at night, and that devils would snatch him away without them (needs_source). ^{3 4} He says angels are assigned to tasks: Mikail to rain and Jibril to winds and revelation (needs_source). ⁵ He says Israfil is the angel of the trumpet, created before Adam, who blows twice (needs_source). ^{6 7} He says the Angel of Death takes souls one after another (needs_source). ⁸ He mentions Iblis, who asked to be reprieved until the Day of resurrection (the wording is not reproduced). ⁹ He says that angels carry the Throne, and that the angels of the frequented House enter it daily and do not return (needs_source). ¹⁰ He holds that a session of knowledge is better than the worship of angels, because the person there struggles against himself (his view). ^{11 12} He says that if the insight of the Companions were ours, angels would fill the gathering, and that an hour of lesson guides (his view). ¹³

The Sheikh proposes an idea he says occurred to him on the spot: to give the angel of evil deeds a day off, by avoiding on that day backbiting, tale-bearing, listening to evil and unlawful food ¹⁴. He compares this to an employee who takes a day or two of leave ¹⁴. He says that whoever keeps this up for two or three months would see that the angel is a pure being who has been wearied by him all his life, writing against him since the age of fifteen ¹⁵. He urges lengthening these days to two and then three, and putting to work the angel of good deeds, whom he says has been on leave for thirty years, by having him write down prayer, remembrance of God, good works, Qur'an reading and night prayer (needs_source) ¹⁶.

The Sheikh mentions that the ascent of the angels to the heaven takes place in a day measuring fifty thousand years, and says the Qur'an brings such matters close to understanding (needs_source) ¹⁸. He then returns to the verse he had stopped at, which speaks of the standing of the Ruh and the angels An-Naba 38 ¹⁸. He says the Ruh may be Jibril, notes that this is the view of most exegetes, and explains it by Jibril being the chief of the angels, whom God honoured with bringing down the revealed books (needs_source) ¹⁷.

The Sheikh holds that the believer swims against the current in this life, and that the angels take his soul so that it swims in the dominion of the heavens and the gates of heaven are opened for it, as he explained in last Monday's lesson ¹⁹. He asks what it is that the angels manage on God's behalf An-Nazi'at 5 ¹⁹. He says that when the functions of the angels in the Qur'an are gathered together they come to eighteen (needs_source) ²⁰. He names the first as the two angels who sit on the right and on the left, the angel of good deeds and the angel of evil deeds, who are with a person twenty-four hours a day Qaf 18 ²⁰. He says that on the Day of Judgment the angels tell their Lord they did not worship Him as He deserves (needs_source) ²¹. He relates that the Prophet ﷺ's mule once bolted with him, the Companions said its temper had turned bad, and the Prophet denied it ²¹. He reports from the Prophet that the mule bolted because it hears in the graves what takes place of punishment (needs_source) ²². He then cites the hadith "the heaven groans" and attributes it to Muslim (needs_source) ²². He explains the groaning as the creak of timber in a ceiling under a heavy load ²³. He cites from the hadith that the heaven groans, that there is no space of four fingers in it without the forehead of an angel in prostration glorifying God, and that when they are gathered before their Lord on the Day of Judgment they say they did not worship Him as He deserves (needs_source) ²³. He says the Companions responded with hearing and obedience, unlike the Children of Israel ²⁴. Among the functions of the angels he lists the roaming angels on earth who look for gatherings of remembrance, and says that were the veil lifted we would see angels covering the heavens ²⁴.