Angels in Islam

✴Some Basics✴

According to Ibn Hajar, Sa'id bin al-Musayyab, "The angels are neither male nor female. They neither eat nor drink. They do not marry nor have children."

And they have made the angels, who are servants of the Most Merciful, females. Did they witness their creation? Their testimony will be recorded, and they will be questioned.(43:19)                                                                                                                                                                                     Indeed, those who do not believe in the Hereafter name the angels female names,and they have thereof no knowledge. They follow not except assumption, and indeed, assumption avails not against the truth at all.(53:27-28)

These 3 verses confirm that Angels are not female and are honored slaves of Allah because He connected them with His name.

No one but Allah knows when the Angels were created, however, it can inferred that they were created sometime before jinn and mankind from the following verse:

And [mention, O Muhammad(peace be upon him)], when your Lord said to the angels, "Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority." They said, "Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?" Allah said, "Indeed, I know that which you do not know."(2:30)

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

(Note: the source I was using said that they are talking about both Jinn and mankind, though, I'm not entirely sure... in sha Allah,I will find more information on this very soon.)

I found these two sources indicating that the Angels were present before  Jinn:

1.At-Tabari narrated in his Tafseer from Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said:

The first ones to dwell on earth were the jinn, and they caused mischief therein, shedding blood and killing one another. It was narrated from ar-Rabee' ibn Anas that he said: Allah created the angels on Wednesday, and He created the jinn on Thursday and He created Adam on Friday. Then some of the jinn disbelieved, and the angels used to come down to earth to fight them, and there was bloodshed and corruption on earth.

2.The second opinion is that there was no one on earth, jinn or otherwise, before Adam (peace be upon him). at-Tabari narrated this view in his Tafseer from 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Zayd, who said:

Allah, may He be exalted, said to the angels: I want to create a creature on earth and make him a vicegerent (khaleefah) therein. On that day Allah had no creation except the angels, and there were no creatures on earth. Al-'Allamah at-Tahir ibn 'Ashoor said in at-Tahreer wa't-Tanweer: After mentioning the creation of the earth then the heavens, Allah referred to His will, that He would create a vicegerent. This indicates that creating the vicegerent was the first thing done on earth after it was created. The vicegerent here is the one who takes control of another's property and manages it, and the original owner does not necessarily have to have been in that place beforehand. So the vicegerent was Adam (peace be upon him), and his role as vicegerent was to do what Allah, may He be exalted, wanted of developing the earth on the basis of inspiration and revelation, and to teach his offspring Allah's plan concerning this earthy realm.

Allah Knows Best.