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In Islam, angels (Arabic: ملاك٬ ملك, romanized: malāk; plural: ملائِكة, malāʾik/malāʾikah)[1] are believed to be heavenly beings, created from a luminous origin by God.[2][3] They have different roles, including their praise of God, interacting with humans in ordinary life, defending against devils and carrying on natural phenomena.[3] Islam acknowledges the concept of angels both as anthropomorphic creatures with wings and abstract forces advising good.[4] Belief in angels is one of the main articles of faith in Islam.[5]
The Quran is the principal source for the Islamic concept of angels,[4] but more extensive features of angels appear in hadith literature, Mi'raj literature, Islamic exegesis, theology, philosophy, and mysticism.[2][3][6] The angels differ from other spiritual creatures in their attitude as creatures of virtue, in contrast to devils and jinn.[2][7] Angels play an important role in Muslim everyday life by protecting the believers from evil influences and recording the deeds of humans.
Islamic Modernist scholars such as Muhammad Asad and Ghulam Ahmed Parwez have suggested a metaphorical reinterpretation of the concept of angels.[8]
The Quranic word for angel (Arabic: ملك, romanized: malak) derives either from Malaka, meaning "he controlled", due to their power to govern different affairs assigned to them,[9] or from the triliteral root '-l-k, l-'-k or m-l-k with the broad meaning of a "messenger", just as its counterpart in Hebrew (malʾákh). Unlike the Hebrew word, however, the term is used exclusively for heavenly spirits of the divine world, as opposed to human messengers. The Quran refers to both angelic and human messengers as rasul instead.[10]
In Islam, angels are heavenly creatures created by God. They are considered older than humans and jinn.[11] Contrary to popular belief, angels are never described as agents of revelation in the Quran, although exegesis credits Gabriel with that.[12] One of the Islamic major characteristic is their lack of bodily desires; they never get tired, do not eat or drink, and have no anger.[13] As with other monotheistic religions, angels are characteristics of their purity and obedience to God.[14] In Islamic traditions, they are described as being created from incorporeal light (Nūr) or fire (Nar).[15][a] A narrative transmitted from Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, audited and commented by two hadith commentary experts in the modern era, Shuaib Al Arna'ut[23] and Muḥammad 'Abd ar-Raḥmān al-Mubarakpuri,[24] has spoken a hadith that Muhammad said the number of angels were countless, to the point that there is no space in the sky as wide as four fingers, unless there is an angel resting his forehead, prostrating to God.[24][23]
Angels are usually described in anthropomorphic forms combined with supernatural images, such as wings, being of great size, wearing heavenly clothes and great beauty.[25] Some angels are identified with specific colors, often with white, but some special angels have a distinct color, such as Gabriel being associated with the color green.[26]
Angels were being able to impersonate humans, such as when Gabriel,[27] Michael, Israfil,[28] [Notes 1][b] and thousands of the greatest angels, from the third heaven, came to the battle of Badr by impersonating appearance of Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, a Companions of the Prophet and bodyguard of the prophet.[c][33]
Prior to Islam, angels were considered to be daughters of God and worshipped in pre-Islamic Arabia.[34] This is also mentioned concerning Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manāt.[35] The notion that God created the angels as females and fathered daughters is rejected in the Quran.[36]
Scholars debated whether human or angels rank higher. Angels usually symbolize virtuous behavior, while humans have the ability to sin, but also to repent. The prostration of angels before Adam is often seen as evidence for humans' supremacy over angels. Others hold angels to be superior, as being free from material deficits, such as anger and lust. Angels are free from such inferior urges and therefore superior, a position especially found among Mu'tazilites and some Asharites.[37] A similar opinion was asserted by Hasan of Basri, who argued that angels are superior to humans and prophets due to their infallibility, originally opposed by both Sunnis and Shias.[38] This view is based on the assumption of superiority of pure spirit against body and flesh.
Contrarily argued, humans rank above angels, since for a human it is harder to be obedient and to worship God, hassling with bodily temptations, in contrast to angels, whose life is much easier and therefore their obedience is rather insignificant. Islam acknowledges a famous story about competing angels and humans in the tale of Harut and Marut, who were tested to determine, whether or not, angels would do better than humans under the same circumstances,[39] a tradition opposed by some scholars, such as ibn Taimiyya, but still accepted by others, such as ibn Hanbal.[40]
Maturidism generally holds that angels' and prophets' superiority and obedience derive from their virtues and insights to God's action, but not as their original purity.[41]
Andalusian scholar ibn Arabi argues that a human generally ranks below angels, but developed to Al-Insān al-Kāmil, ranks above them.[42] This is comparable to the major opinion, stating that prophets and messengers among humans rank above angels, but the ordinary human below an angel, while the messengers among angels rank higher than prophets.[37] Ibn Arabi explains this, in his al-Futuhat regarding the questions of Tirmidhi, by that Muhammad intercedes for the angels first, then for (other) prophets, saints, believers, animals, plants and inanimate objects last.[43]
Groups of modern scholars from Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Yemen and Mauritania issued fatwa that the angels should be invoked with blessing Islamic honorifics (ʿalayhi as-salāmu), which is applied to human prophets and messengers.[44] This fatwas were based on the ruling from Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya.[44]
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Main article: Ismah |
The possibility and degree of erring angels is debated in Islam.[45] In the early Islamic period, supernatural creatures were not expected to understand sin or expiate it. They only follow their nature created by God.[46] Hasan of Basra is often considered one of the first who established the doctrine of infallibility of angels by reinterpreting verses which seem to imply erring angels.[47] To establish the doctrine of infallible angels, he asserted that Harut and Marut haven't been angels, but kings, and Iblis (Satan) was a jinn, with support from the Quranic verse "he was one of the jinn".[48] This view was, however, not universal in the formative stage of Islam, as Abu Hanifa (d. 767), on the other hand, divided angels into three categories. Obedient angels, like Gabriel; disobedient angels, like whose who teach sorcery and unbelieving angels, like Iblis and his host.[49]
Objection to a strict infallibility of angels rests on the following events in the Quran and Muslim tradition.[50] The Quran mentions the fall of Iblis (whose angelic nature is rejected by many scholars) from the place of angels in several Surahs. Surah 2:102 implies that a pair of angels fell to earth and introduces magic to humanity. According to Surah 2:30, angels complained about God's decision to create Adam.[50] In Shia traditions, a cherub called Futrus was cast out from heaven and fell to the earth in the form a snake.[51] The Isma'ilism work Umm al-Kitab reiterates the story of Iblis in the form of an angel called Azazil who boasts about himself being superior to God until he is thrown into lower celestial spheres and ends up on earth.[52]
Al-Maturidi (853–944 CE) pointed at verses of the Quran, according to which angels are tested by God and concludes angels have free-will, but, due to their insights to God's nature, choose to obey. Some angels nevertheless lack this insight and fail, pointing to Surah Al-Anbiya, and thus sentenced to hell.[41][53] Since both the Quran and Kutub al-Sittah describe angels erring or failing to accomplish that has been ordered to them, Sunni scholars (Kalam) also explained that angels might be effected by circumstances, like smell or confusion when God created Adam.[54][55][56][57]
Al-Taftazani (1322 AD –1390 AD) accepted that angels might slip into error and become disobedient, but rejected that angels would ever consciously turn against God's command and become unbelievers.[58] Most scholars of Salafism usually reject accounts on erring angels entirely and do not investigate this matter further.[59]
Angels believed to be engaged in human affairs are closely related to Islamic purity and modesty rituals. Many hadiths, including Muwatta Imam Malik from one of the Kutub al-Sittah, talk about angels being repelled by humans' state of impurity.[60]: 323 Such angels keep a distance from humans, who polluted themselves by certain actions (such as sexual intercourse). However, angels might return to an individual as soon as the person (ritually) purified himself or herself. The absence of angels may cause several problems for the person. If driven away by ritual impurity, the Kiraman Katibin, who record people's actions,[60]: 325 and the Guardian angel,[60]: 327 will not perform their tasks assigned to the individual. Another hadith specifies, during the state of impurity, bad actions are still written down, but good actions are not. When a person tells a lie, angels nearly are separated from the person from the stench the lie emanates.[60]: 328 Angels also depart from humans when they are naked or are having a bath out of decency, but also curse people who are nude in public.[60]: 328
Inspired by Neoplatonism, the medieval Muslim philosopher Al-Farabi developed a cosmological hierarchy, governed by several Intellects. For al-Farabi, human nature is composed of both material and spiritual qualities. The spiritual part of a human exchanges information with the angelic entities, who are defined by their nature as knowledge absorbed by the Godhead.[61] A similar function is attested in the cosmology of the Muslim philosopher Ibn Sina, who, however, never uses the term angels throughout his works. For Ibn Sina, the Intellects have probably been a necessity without any religious connotation.[62]
Muslim theologians, such as al-Suyuti, rejected the philosophical depiction on angels, based on hadiths stating that the angels have been created through the light of God (nūr). Thus angels would have substance and could not merely be an intellectual entity as claimed by philosophers.[63]
The chain of being, according to Muslim thinkers, includes minerals, plants, animals, human and angels. Muslim philosophers usually define angels as substances endowed with reason and immortality. Humans and animals are mortal, but only men have reason. Devils are unreasonable like animals, but immortal like angels.[64][65]
The Sufi Muslim and philosopher Al Ghazali (c. 1058–19 December 1111) divides human nature into four domains, each representing another type of creature: animals, beasts, devils and angels.[66] Traits human share with bodily creatures are the animal, which exists to regulate ingestion and procreation and the beasts, used for predatory actions like hunting. The other traits humans share with the jinn[d] and root in the realm of the unseen. These faculties are of two kind: that of angels and of the devils. While the angels endow the human mind with reason, advices virtues and leads to worshipping God, the devil perverts the mind and tempts to abusing the spiritual nature by committing lies, betrayals and deceits. The angelic natures advices how to use the animalistic body properly, while the devil perverts it.[68] In this regard, the plane of a human is, unlike whose of the jinn and animals, not pre-determined. Humans are potentially both angels and devils, depending on whether the sensual soul or the rational soul develop.[69][70]
In later Sufism, angels are not merely models for the mystic but also their companions. Humans, in a state between earth and heaven, seek angels as guidance to reach the upper realms.[71] Some authors have suggested that some individual angels in the microcosmos represent specific human faculties on a macrocosmic level.[72] According to a common belief, if a Sufi can not find a sheikh to teach him, he will be taught by the angel Khidr.[73][74] The presence of an angel depends on human's obedience to divine law. Dirt, depraved morality and desecration may ward off an angel.[71]
Just as in non-Sufi-related traditions, angels are thought of as created of light. Al-Jili specifies that the angels are created from the Light of Muhammad and in his attribute of guidance, light and beauty.[75] Influenced by Ibn Arabis Sufi metaphysics, Haydar Amuli identifies angels as created to represent different names/attributes of God's beauty, while the devils are created in accordance with God's attributes of Majesty, such as "The Haugthy" or "The Domineering".[76]
According to al-Ghazali humans consist of animalistic and spiritual traits. From the spiritual realm (malakut), the plane in which symbols take on form, angels and devils advise the human hearth (qalb).[77] However, the angels also inhabit the realm beyond considered the realm from which reason ('aql) derives from and devils have no place.
Unlike kalām (theology), Sufi cosmology usually makes no distinction between angels and jinn, understanding the term jinn as "everything hidden from the human senses". Ibn Arabi states: "[when I refer to] jinn in the absolute sense of the term, [I include] those which are made of light and those which are made of fire."[78] While most earlier Sufis (like Hasan al-Basri) advised their disciples to imitate the angels, Ibn-Arabi advised them to surpass the angels. The angels being merely a reflection of the Divine Names in accordance within the spiritual realm, humans experience the Names of God manifested both in the spiritual and in the material world.[71] Haydar Amuli specifies that angels are created from the Light of Muhammad and reflect guidance, light and beauty, while the devils God's attributes of "Majesty", "The Haughty" and "Domineering".[76]
Contemporary Salafism continues to regard the belief in angels as a pillar of Islam and regards the rejection of the literal belief in angels as unbelief and an innovation brought by secularism and Positivism. Modern reinterpretations, as for example suggested by Nasr Abu Zayd, are strongly disregarded. Simultaneously, many traditional materials regarding angels are rejected on the ground, they would not be authentic. The Muslim Brotherhood scholars Sayyid Qutb and Umar Sulaiman Al-Ashqar reject much established material concerning angels, such as the story of Harut and Marut or naming the Angel of Death Azrail. Sulayman Ashqar not only rejects the traditional material itself, he furthermore disapproves of scholars who use them.[79]
Islam has no standard hierarchical organization that parallels the division into different "choirs" or spheres hypothesized and drafted by early medieval Christian theologians, but generally distinguishes between the angels in heaven (karubiyin) and the messengers who carry out divine decrees between heaven and earth.[80] Angels are not equal in status and consequently, they are delegated different tasks to perform.
There are four special angels (karubiyin)[81] considered to rank above the other angels in Islam. They have proper names, and central tasks are associated with them:
According to hadith transmitted by Ibn Abbas, Muhammad encountered several significant angels on his journey through the celestial spheres.[116][117] Many scholars such as Al-Tha'labi drew their exegesis upon this narrative, but it never led to an established angelology as known in Christianity. The principal angels of the heavens are called Malkuk, instead of Malak.[118]
| First heaven | Second heaven | Third heaven | Fourth heaven | Fifth heaven | Sixth heaven | Seventh heaven |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Habib | Angel of Death | Maalik | Salsa'il | Kalqa'il | Mikha'il (Archangel) | Israfil |
| Rooster angel | Angels of death | Angel with seventy heads | Angels of the sun | - | Cherubim | Bearers of the Throne |
| Ismail (or Riḍwan) | Mika'il | Arina'il | - | - | Shamka'il | Afra'il |
