Bearers of the Throne or also known as ḥamlat al-arsh (Arabic: حملة العرش, romanized: Ḥamālat al - Arsh),[1][2] are a group of angels in Islam.[3]
The Quran mentions them in Quran 40:7 and Quran 69:17. They are mentioned in the al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya, a book of prayers attributed to Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin.[4]
In Islamic traditions, The eight Hamalat al-Arsh are group of angels who bearing the Throne of God.[5] Ibn Abbas has said that when the Day of resurrection come, the numbers of the Bearers of the throne will be added from four to eight angels.[6] The similar narrations also came from various modern contemporary scholars such as Abdul-Rahman al-Sa'di, Wahbah al-Zuhayli, and Umar Sulaiman Al-Ashqar, about Quran chapter Al-Haqqa verse 69:17[7]
they are often portrayed in zoomorphic forms. According to al-Suyuti, the bearer of thrones numbered four angels, which each of them has different body shape resembling different creatures: a vulture, a bull, a lion and a human, with four wings.[8]
Al-Suyuti also quoted Wahb ibn Munabbih, and Al-Bayhaqi in book of al Asma' wa al Sifat, that each of those different anthropomorphic angels has four faces of a human, bull, vulture, and lion.[8] Other hadiths describes them with six wings and four faces.[9] Meanwhile, according to a hadith transmitted from At-Targhib wat-Tarhib authored by ʻAbd al-ʻAẓīm ibn ʻAbd al-Qawī al-Mundhirī, the bearers of the throne shaped like a rooster, with their feet on the earth and their nape supporting the Throne of God in the highest sky.[Notes 1] a number modern Islamic scholars from Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, and other institutes in Yemen and Mauritania also agreed the soundness of this hadith by quoting the commentary from Ibn Abi al-Izz who supported this narrative.[10]
These four angels are also held to be created from four different elements: light, fire, water, and mercy.[citation needed] It is also said they are so large that a journey from their earlobes to their shoulders would take seven hundred years.[11] According to various Islamic tafsir scholars which compiled by Islamic University of Madinah and Indonesian religious ministry, the number of these angels will be added from four into eight angels during the Day of Resurrection.[12] This interpretation is based on Qur'an chapter Al-Haqqa Quran 69:17.[12]
According to Al-Suyuti who quoted a Hadith transmitted by Ibn al-Mubarak, archangel Israfil is one of the bearers of the throne.[13]
The portrayal of these angels is comparable to the seraphim in the Book of Revelation.[14] They might be identified with cherubim or seraphim of Jewish traditions.[15]