Angels Browser

Belief in the angels is a pillar of faith in Sunni creed {cite:aqida-tahawiyya §72}. The Encyclopaedia of Islam explains the word as the plural of an old Semitic term meaning messenger and reports the Qur'anic stress on the angels' complete obedience. It sets out Sunni discussions of their creation from light, their impeccability, Iblis, Harut and Marut, the questioning by Munkar and Nakir and their rank against humans, then the Imami and Isma'ili teachings on angels and the Imams.

In the lexicon a malak is a subtle luminous body, and the angels are its plural, dwelling in the heavens. Belief in them is a pillar of the creed, and denying their existence is unbelief by the agreement of the Muslims. They were created of light, neither eat, drink nor sleep, and can take human forms by God's permission. They worship God in full obedience and are charged with tasks over every kind of creature; their chiefs are Jibril, Mikail and Israfil. The jurists differ on whether they excel the rest of mankind, and agree that whoever curses or mocks the angels, or denies them, is an unbeliever to be killed, while they differ on whether he is to be asked to repent. {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.14974} {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.14975} {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.14976} {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.14977} {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.14978}

A statement of Sunni doctrine on the angels' creation: a hidden creation whose precise origin is not known, reported in some traditions as created of light; the Qur'an describes them as God's messengers [[passage/quran-35-1|Fatir 1]] who never disobey [[passage/quran-66-6|al-Tahrim 6]], glorify night and day without flagging [[passage/quran-21-20|al-Anbiya' 20]], and each has a known station [[passage/quran-37-164|al-Saffat 164]].

A hadith establishes that God and His angels send salawat on the Prophet, and that whoever sends salawat on him has ten recorded for him — among the clearest statements of the angels' honour for the Prophet.

The angels are servants of God made of light who carry out His commands. They include Jibril, charged with revelation; Mika'il, charged with provision; Israfil, charged with the trumpet; the Angel of Death; and the guardians of the Fire and of Paradise.

The angel entrusted with revelation; in the famous hadith he asked the Prophet about islam, iman, ihsan and the Hour and its signs {cite:sahih-muslim 8}; he brought the revelation in the cave of Hira {cite:sahih-al-bukhari 3}, ascended with him on the Mi'raj night to the Lote Tree {cite:sahih-muslim 162}, and met him each Ramadan to review the Qur'an {cite:sahih-muslim 2308}.

The angel named in the Qur'an alongside Jibril; the commentators say he descends with mercy, rain and vegetation {cite:tafsir-ibn-kathir}.

Two angels said to have descended to Babylon to test its people with magic, taught what they were tempted by — as in the story of the wife of the Egyptian — per the single Qur'anic verse on them [[passage/quran-2-102|al-Baqarah 102]].

Israfil is the angel charged with blowing the trumpet. In Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's lessons the two blasts separate worldly life from resurrection, and he notes that some reported details have a weak chain of transmission, though other reports support them . {cite:assabile-omar-abdelkafy tafsir-al-quran-al-qareem/ep03 00:28:30}

The angel the Qur'an names expressly in [[passage/quran-32-11|al-Sajdah 11]] — 'the angel of death who is entrusted with you' — and hadith indicates he is the angel charged with taking souls, appearing in the Isra' narration of the Two Sahihs.

An angel whom hadith collections name as the keeper of Hell — Malik — while the Qur'an speaks of Hell's keeper without naming him; commentators variously identify him with this Malik.

Two angels said to question the dead in the grave after burial, established by hadith narrated across the Four Sunans and Musnad Ahmad; their names are given in the Prophet's hadith of the grave.

An angel named in hadith as the keeper of Paradise whom its people circle, and from whose name the idea of divine pleasure derives; scholars differ on the strength of the reports.

Angels the Qur'an describes as noble recording scribes [[passage/quran-82-11|al-Infitar 11]], with a guardian over every soul [[passage/quran-86-4|al-Tariq 4]]; hadith supports that every person has two scribes recording his deeds at his right and left.

An angel charged with fashioning the fetus in its mother's womb, described in the hadith of the nutfa in the Two Sahihs: after forty days God sends an angel who shapes him and creates his hearing, sight, skin, flesh and bones, then says 'wretched or happy' and writes down his deeds.

Names given in hadith to the two angels who record a servant's deeds, said to be among the angels charged with writing; the Qur'an affirms a guardian over every soul [[passage/quran-86-4|al-Tariq 4]] and noble recording scribes [[passage/quran-82-11|al-Infitar 11]].

Rida says the verifiers held that the angels did not fight at Badr; that the command given to them was to cast the message into the hearts of the believers by inspiration. He quotes Ibn Kathir's transmission of al-Rabi' ibn Anas about marks on the slain angels, and holds that the reports of angelic fighting are weak and that al-Tabari did not accept them.

Angels the Qur'an describes as those who carry the Throne and those around it glorify their Lord [[passage/quran-40-7|Ghafir 7]], named in al-Haqqah [[passage/quran-69-17|69:17]]; reports differ on their number, the common view being eight.

The inhabitants of the angels' highest council, whom the Qur'an mentions in the account of their deliberation over creating Adam and their dialogue with Iblis; commentators interpret them as the nearest angels.

Angels who descend to steady and aid the believers in battles, mentioned by the Qur'an at Badr [[passage/quran-8-12|al-Anfal 12]], at Hunayn [[passage/quran-9-26|al-Tawbah 26]] and in the promise of three thousand angels sent down [[passage/quran-3-124|Al 'Imran 124]]; reports in the Sunan describe them fighting and debating.

Angels who gave Ibrahim glad tidings of the birth of Ishaq and then of Ya'qub, and the ones who visited him as guests in his story; the guest story is told in Hud [[passage/quran-11-71|11:71]], al-Hijr [[passage/quran-15-51|15:51]] and al-Dhariyat [[passage/quran-51-24|51:24]].

Angels who descend with the Spirit on Laylat al-Qadr by their Lord's leave, with peace on every matter, as in [[passage/quran-97-4|al-Qadr 4]]; it is among the greatest instances of angels descending upon the earth's people.

Two angels descended on a man who had killed a hundred souls; one asked the other whether to leave him since he had repented, and the other said he would not leave him for the hundred souls — in one narration God revealed the matter to the Prophet; the story is in Sahih al-Bukhari.

Angels who called out to Zakariya in the prayer niche with the glad tidings of Yahya, whom God had promised him; the story is told in Al 'Imran [[passage/quran-3-39|3:39]], Maryam [[passage/quran-19-17|19:17]] and al-Anbiya' [[passage/quran-21-90|21:90]].

The angel who appeared to Maryam as a well-formed man and gave her tidings of a righteous son — identified as Jibril in the best-known reports; the story is told in Al 'Imran [[passage/quran-3-42|3:42]] and Maryam [[passage/quran-19-16|19:16]].

Sha'rawi holds that the prostration to Adam was obedience to God's command and not worship of Adam; that worship is obedience to commands and avoidance of prohibitions; that those who prostrated were the ones with a task toward the human; and that Iblis answered the command with a refusal, which was disbelief {cite:tafsir-sharawi-khawatir-scan p.254} {cite:tafsir-sharawi-khawatir-scan p.256} {cite:tafsir-sharawi-khawatir-scan p.257}.

On the Friday of 17 Ramadan in the second year of the Hijra the two armies met at Badr; the Prophet prayed to his Lord at the height of the fighting, the angels came down, God routed the Meccan army, and their chiefs fell after duels whose first were between Hamza, Ali and Ubayda and Utba, Shayba and al-Walid; Iblis fled in the form of Suraqa.

A battle in a valley near Mecca against the tribes of Hawazin and Thaqif, shortly after the conquest of Mecca. The Muslims were ambushed in the valley's gorges and fell back at first; the Prophet stood firm and they rallied, as the sira tradition records. The Encyclopaedia of Islam puts the Muslim force at twelve thousand and the Muslim dead at about twelve, and notes that the accounts of the battle differ by school.

The descent of Jibril upon the Prophet in the cave of Hira with the opening verses of surat al-Alaq, on the night of Monday 21 Ramadan in the book's preferred reckoning, corresponding to 10 August 610 CE, when the Prophet was forty lunar years, six months and twelve days old. The Encyclopaedia of Islam summarises the Muslim accounts of this first revelation and of the experience of wahy, and sets beside them the academic view that the traditional stories of a first revelation are doubtful.

The miraculous nocturnal journey of Prophet Muhammad from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, and his ascent through the seven heavens, where the five daily prayers were ordained. ونص رحلة المعراج كاملاً عند البخاري في حديث مالك بن صعصعة {cite:sahih-al-bukhari 3207}. The Encyclopaedia of Islam reports the orthodox view that it was in body and awake, sets out three classical readings of the first verse of Surat al-Isra', and presents the academic account of how the story developed, the Sufi and philosophical readings, and the Mi'raj literature.

After the pause in revelation the Prophet heard a voice from heaven and saw the angel who had come to him at Hira seated on a throne between heaven and earth; he returned home asking to be wrapped, and God sent down the opening of surat al-Muddaththir with the command to rise and warn, after which revelation came thick and fast; the author reads in its commands the substance of the call.

The tradition, narrated by Muslim via Anas, that Jibril opened the boy Muhammad's breast while he played with the lads in Banu Sa'd, removed 'Satan's share' and washed his heart with Zamzam water — after which Halima returned him to his mother. ويروي البخاري الشق الثاني ليلة الإسراء بلسان مالك بن صعصعة: «فشُقّ من النحر إلى مراقّ البطن ثم غُسل البطن بماء زمزم ثم مُلئ حكمة وإيماناً» {cite:sahih-al-bukhari 3207}.

The Messenger of God looked over the martyrs and said: 'I am witness over these.' He ordered that anyone who had carried a slain man back to Medina return him, and that they be buried where they fell, in their clothes, the iron and leather removed, unwashed; two or three were laid in one grave, the one who had taken most of the Qur'an placed first. Abdullah ibn Amr ibn Haram and Amr ibn al-Jamuh were buried together for the love between them. They looked for Hanzala and found him dripping water; the Prophet said the angels were washing him, and he was called the angels' washed. Among the martyrs they found Mus'ab ibn Umayr, for whom no shroud was found but a striped cloak {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.281}.

The earthly leg of the Isra: the Prophet's night journey on the Buraq from al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca to al-Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, as al-Raheeq narrates it. The text gives no halting places between them. The ascent through the heavens is not a geographic route and is not listed here.