Be A GOOD MUSLIM

Company Of Angels

Angels are honoured and pious servants of Allah. They are a sign of His majesty and power. Created from light, they are colossal numbers of them. When the Prophet ﷺ was taken up to the heavens, he was shown al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr. He was told that 70,000 angels pray in it every day, and when they leave, they do not get another chance to return. Imagine how many angels there are in total! He ﷺ also said, “Indeed I see what you do not see. The sky is creaking, and it has every right to creak: there is not even the space of four fingers (in the sky), except that there is an angel who has lowered his head in prostration to Allah” (Tirmidhī).

Some angels have two wings, some have three, some have four and some have many more. The Prophet ﷺ saw Jibrīl (ʿalayhis-salām) in the Night of Miʿrāj by the Lote Tree in the heavens: he had 600 wings, from which multicoloured pearls and rubies were falling. His wings are so huge that if he was to unroll a pair of them, it would fill the space between the sky and the earth. Likewise, the Prophet ﷺ was given permission to inform us about an angel who is so great that his feet are in the lowest earth and his neck is under the Throne of Allah. Realising the greatness of Allah, he constantly repeats, “How Perfect are You! How Magnificent are You, Our Lord!” (Ṭabarānī).

Despite being huge and having immense strength, angels never stop praising Allah (ʿazza wa jall) and worshipping Him. Allah says, “And those nearest to Him are never too proud to worship Him, nor do they tire. They glorify Him day and night, never wavering” (21:19-20). And yet, on the Day of Judgement, they will look at Allah and say, “How Perfect are You! We did not worship You as You deserved to be worshipped.”

**Reflecting on the greatness of the angels, should increase our awe of their Creator: Allah, and make us appreciate and revere Him as He deserves to be revered. **

Orderly and organised in straight rows, angels have different tasks assigned to them. Jibrīl - the best of them – was assigned the task of bringing down Allah’s words and conveying them to our beloved Prophet ﷺ. He was the bearer of the eternal guidance, without which, we would be completely lost. Reflecting on this should increase our gratitude for Allah.

Angels: Our Companions

We all have two angels who accompany us and record all our deeds, good and bad. Allah says, “Yet there are guardians watching over you, honourable scribes, who know all that you do” (82:10-12). Believing this and being regularly aware of this should increase our fear of Allah. It should deter us from sinning, both when we are in public and when alone.

It is from the mercy of Allah that the angels delay “registering the sin of a Muslim for six periods of time. If he repents (within these six periods of time), and seeks Allah’s forgiveness, they drop it off. If he doesn’t, they write it down as a single sin” (Ṭabarānī).

We also have angels who are assigned to protect our bodies and souls from harm. Allah says, “For each one there are successive angels in front of him and behind him, protecting them by Allah’s command” (13:11). Imagine if a person offered this kind of service to you: to always, and freely, be your bodyguard? Wouldn’t you love him? We should be grateful (shukr) to Allah and earnestly praise Him for His divine care.

The less the servant sins, the further shayṭān retreats from him; and the closer his guardian angel draws to him, until it takes responsibility for him, and takes him under its wings. Ibn al-Qayyim (raḥimahullāh) describes this angel as “the servant’s companion, the one who brings him the most benefit amongst the creation, and the one who is the sincerest to him, and the one in whose closeness lies his happiness.” He goes on to say, “There is nothing which brings greater benefit to the servant than the company of his angel. The angel is his guardian when he is awake and asleep, in his life and at the time of his death, and in his grave. He is his source of comfort in his loneliness, his companion in his isolation, and the one who shares his secrets.