Prophet Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) said that îmân was to believe in six certain facts. He declared that “First of all, to believe in Allâhu ta’âlâ,” And he went on to declare the rest of them:
The second of the six fundamentals of îmân is “to believe in His angels.” Angels are material but ethereal (latîf), more ethereal than the gaseous phase of matter. They are nûrânî (luminous, spiritual). They are alive. They have reason (’aql). Evils peculiar to human beings do not exist in angels. They can take any shape. As gases turn into liquid and solid and take any shape when becoming solid, so angels can form beautiful shapes. Angels are not souls that have parted from the bodies of great men. Christians presume that angels are such spirits. Unlike energy and power, they are not immaterial. Some ancient philosophers supposed so. All of them are called malâ’ika. ‘Malak’ (angel) means ‘envoy, messenger’ or ‘power.’ Angels were created before all other living creatures. Therefore, we were commanded to believe in them before believing in the holy books, which come before the belief in prophets; and in the Qur’ân al-karîm the names of these beliefs are given in this succession.
Belief in angels has to be as follows: angels are the creatures of Allâhu ta’âlâ. They are not His partners, nor are they His daughters as disbelievers and polytheists suppose. Allâhu ta’âlâ loves all angels. They obey His commands and never commit sins or disobey the commands. They are neither male nor female. They do not get married. They do not have children. They have life; that is, they are alive. Though, according to a narration traced back to Hadrat ’Abdullah ibn Mas’ûd (radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anh), some angels had children among which the Satan and genies were counted; its explanation is written in books in detail. When Allâhu ta’âlâ announced that He was going to create human beings, angels asked, “Oh Allah! Are You going to create those creatures who will corrupt the world and shed blood?” Such questions, called dhalla, from angels do not change the fact that they are innocent.
Of all creatures, angels are the most plentiful. No one but Allâhu ta’âlâ knows their number. There is no empty space in the skies where angels do not worship. Every place in the skies is occupied by angels in rukû’ (bowing during salât) or in sajda (prostrating). In the skies, on the earth, in grass, on stars, in every living and lifeless creature, in every rain-drop, plant leaf, atom, molecule, in every reaction, motion, in everything, angels have duties. They carry out Allâhu ta’âlâ’s commands everywhere. They are intermediaries between Allâhu ta’âlâ and creatures. Some of them are the commanders of other angels. Some of them brought messages to the prophets among human beings. Some angels bring good thoughts, called “ilhâm” (inspiration), to the human heart. Some others are unaware of all human beings and creatures and have lost consciousness upon feeling Allâhu ta’âlâ’s Beauty. Each of these angels stays in a certain place and cannot leave its place. Some angels have two wings and some four or more [1]. Angels belonging in Paradise stay in Paradise. Their superior is Ridwân. Angels of Hell, zabânîs, carry out in Hell what they are commanded. The fire of Hell does not harm them, as the sea is not harmful to fish. There are nineteen leading zabânîs. Their chief is Mâlik.
For each human being, there are four angels who record all the good and bad actions. Two of them come at night and the other two come during the day. They are called kirâman kâtibîn or angels of hafaza. It was also said that the angels of hafaza were different from the kirâman kâtibîn. The angel on one’s right side is superior to the one on the left and records the good deeds. The one on the left writes down the evil deeds. There are angels who will torture disbelievers and disobedient Muslims in their graves, and angels who will ask questions in graves. The questioning angels are called munkar and nakîr. Those who will question Muslims are also called mubashshir and bashîr.
Angels have superiority to one another. The most superior angels are the four archangels. The first of them is Jabrâ’îl (’alaihi ’s-salâm). His duty was to bring wahî to prophets, to inform them of the orders and prohibitions. The second one is Isrâfîl (’alaihi ’s-salâm), who will sound the last trump called ‘Sûr’ [2]. He will sound the Sûr twice. At the first sound every living being but Allâhu ta’âlâ will die. At the second sound all will be resuscitated. The third one is Mikâ’îl (’alaihi ’s-salâm). It is his duty to make up cheapness, expensiveness, scarcity, abundance [economic order, to bring comfort and ease] and to move every object. The fourth one is ’Azrâ’îl (’alaihi ’s-salâm), who takes the souls [jân, Persian for Arabic ‘rûh’] of human beings. After these four, there are four superior classes of angels: four angels of hamalat al-’Arsh, who will be eight on the Resurrection; angels in Divine Presence, called muqarrabûn; leaders of torturing angels, called karûbiyûn; and angels of Mercy, named rûhâniyûn. All these higher angels are also higher than all human beings except prophets (’alaihimu ’s-salawâtu wa ’t-taslîmât). The sulahâ’ and Awliyâ’ among Muslims are higher than common or lower angels. And common angels are superior to common, that is, disobedient, sinful Muslims. Disbelievers, however, are lower than all creatures.
At the first sound of the Sûr, all angels except hamalat al-’Arsh and the four archangels will be annihilated. Then hamalat al-’Arsh and then the four archangels will be annihilated. At the second sound all angels will come back to life. Hamalat al-’Arsh and the four angels will rise closely before the second sound of the Sûr. That is, these angels will be annihilated after all the living creatures, as they were created before all.
[1] As the wings of each kind of fowl, or those of an aeroplane, are of their own structure and are different from the wings of each other kind, so angels’wings have their own structure. When we hear the name of something which we have not seen or do not know, we presume that it is like the things we know, which is, naturally, wrong. We believe angels have wings, but we do not know how they are. Pictures of winged women in churches, publications or movies, which are regarded as angels, are all false. Muslims do not make such pictures. We should not regard these unrealistic pictures drawn by non-Muslims as true, and we should not believe our enemies.
[2] The words or phrase like, ‘Sûr’ should be kept in mind as per religious terminology, as we did in medical or in financial or in jurisprudence. In fact, the word ‘Sûr’ has been explained as a sound will be made by angle Isrâfîl (’alaihi ’s-salâm), who will sound the Sûr twice. At the first sound every living being but Allâhu ta’âlâ will die. At the second sound all will be resuscitated.
