At a glance
The story
From the hadith of Abdullah ibn Masud in the Forty of al-Nawawi with Ibn Rajab's commentary: each of you is gathered in his mother's womb forty days as a drop, then becomes a clot like that, then a chewed lump like that; then Allah sends the angel who blows the spirit into him and commands four things: that his provision, his term, his deed, and whether he is wretched or blessed be written 1 Forty 4.
The meaning
In this hadith the angel is the one who blows the spirit into the fetus by Allah's command, and the decree — provision, deed, term, and blessedness or wretchedness — is written at the moment of the blowing 1.
Notes
From the qadar hadiths in Ibn Rajab's commentary on the Forty; the Jinn & Devils Browser shows it in the angels section 1.
Connections
People and things also explored
Muslim 2643 — How the human is formed in the womb· Abdullah ibn Mas'ud· Were it not for your sins the angels would visit you in your houses· Qadar (divine decree)· Muslim 2646 — The wretched one is wretched in the womb· Sharh Kitab al-Fawa'id (lecture series)· Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Karim (lecture series)· Arba'un 4 — the creation gathered in the womb
Sources
- Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam — Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “The angel who blows the spirit into the fetus”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/angel-blows-spirit-into-fetus/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-11.
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