Malik, Keeper of the Fire

Malik is the name that came in hadith for the angel who is the keeper of Hell, as narrated by al-Tirmidhi, Musnad Ahmad and others. The Qur'an mentions the keepers of Hell without naming them in one explicit place: Az-Zumar 71, and Ibn Kathir joins between what is narrated in hadith and the Qur'an's leaving unnamed, making the keeper of the Fire Malik ¹.

• Az-Zumar 71: "and those who disbelieved are driven to Hell in groups... and He says to them, 'O keepers of it, did your messengers not come to you...'" — and in it "keepers of it" (khazana-ha) is a plural and not a singular, and on this Ibn Kathir said that the keeper of the Fire is Malik in hadith ¹.
• As-Sajda 11: "Say: the angel of death who is entrusted with you will take you, then to your Lord you will return" — the mention here is of the Angel of Death, not of the keeper of the Fire, but it establishes that for every matter of the Hereafter there is one entrusted ².
• Al-Muddaththir 48, Al-Waqi'a 52, and Al-Waqi'a 53 in the context of the recompense of the disbelievers — and in them are scenes of punishment without the naming of a keeper ².

• Al-Tirmidhi narrated: "The keeper of the Fire is Malik... he has nineteen angels... whenever He wants to stretch His hand toward the Fire, He restrains it so that they do not taste of it anything until God commands" — and in a narration he claims that if he were given dominion he would not disobey God, and God answered him that if he were given prophethood he would not have grown in righteousness ³.
• Ahmad narrated in his Musnad in another wording concerning Malik ⁴.
• In al-Tirmidhi's narration the keeper has attendants and eyes upon Hell, and he claims that if he were given dominion he would not disobey God ³.
• It occurs in al-Bukhari's hadith on the description of the Day of Judgment "and Hell is driven forward..." and in it that its keeper claims that if he were given dominion he would not disobey — in a raised narration that a group of scholars weakened ⁵.

• Ibn Kathir: joined between what is narrated in hadith and "keepers of it" (khazana-ha) in Az-Zumar 71, and said that the keeper of the Fire is Malik ¹.
• Al-Qurtubi in his Mufhim addresses the name "Malik" and says it is a name of kingship and dominion, and mentions that some said he is a king entrusted with Hell ⁶.
• In the books of transmitted tafsir it is mentioned that "Malik" is a name said to be a proper name for the keeper of the Fire, and it was said to be a title indicating kingship and disposal ^{7 8}.

• The majority of exegetes and hadith scholars held that he is an angel of the angels, because the name in the hadith came in the context of the angels entrusted, and because the Qur'an made for the punishment one entrusted from the angels, as in the story of Harut and Marut ^{1 6}.
• And some later theologians held that he is of the jinn or of the devils so that he would not be known as an angel, and the principle in tafsir is that he is an angel entrusted with the punishment ¹.

• The name "Malik" in the language is an active participle of "malaka", meaning to possess and to dispose, and in Arabic it is applied to one who possesses something ⁶.
• What is narrated about the eyes of Hell and the nineteen angels over it is from al-Tirmidhi's narrations, and some of them have a questioned chain among the hadith scholars ⁹.
• His counterpart on the other side is Ridwan, the keeper of Paradise, on Ridwan's page.