Advice of Scholars - TO BELIEVE IN HIS ANGELS

2. The second of the six essentials 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, likewise 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 heavenly books, which come before belief in Prophets; and in the Qur’ân al-kerîm the names of these tenets of belief are given in this succession.

Belief in angels has to be as follows: angels are 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. Although, 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, “Yâ Rabbî! Are You going to create creatures who will corrupt the world and shed blood?” Such questions, called dhella, 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.