Belief in Angels, Books and
Messengers
Fiqh (jurisprudence) is a delicate
subject and before diving into rulings and Hadiths we must first build a strong
foundation of knowledge about the essentials. This post will discuss the
fundamentals of belief. There are three types of creations:
Belief in Angels:
This is to believe in the
existence of Allah’s angels. What are angels? They are honoured servants of
Allah, who do not disobey Him and do as they are commanded. This is proven in
the Qur’an where Allah (SWT) says: "They do
not disobey Allah's commands that they receive; they do precisely what they are
commanded" (Quran 66:6). They are a creation made from light (noor). They have no free will and are
given one specific command from Allah-mainly worship. Angels do not eat and
drink or require any sleep. They are not characterized by gender, but they can
change form. Angels have different levels of honours-among them are the higher
angels and the messenger angels.
There are 6 things we have to
believe in Angels:
- This
is to believe the existence of Angels
- They
are the honoured servants of Allah (SWT)
- They
do not disobey Him & do as they are commanded
- Not
characterised by gender
- They
do not require food or drink
- Each
angel has been given a service to perform
There are four main angels:
- Gibril – The command that has been set to Gibril is to
convey revelation (wahi) and to
communicate with the Prophets.
- Israfil – The command that has been set to Israfil is to
blow the trumpet to signal the day of Judgement on Allah’s command.
- Izrael – The command that has been set to Izrael is to
control the weather and provisions.
- Mikael – Mikael is the Angel of
Death, his job is to ensuring the extraction of the soul.
There are also different
categories of Angels. These are:
- Hafazah
angels – these types of angels are called the preservers. The Hafazah
angels are the protective angels. For example, when someone reads the
verse of the Throne (Ayatul-Kursi)
then the hafazah angels have the job of protecting you. All the Hadith about
protection refers to the Hafazah angels.
- Kiraman
Katibin – these types of angels are constantly beside man recording every
action that he does. These angels record deeds.
- Jundullah
– these types of angels are called the ‘soldiers of Allah’. They assist
Muslims in battle. For example, in the battle of Badr when the Muslims
were outnumbered by the opposition Allah commanded these angels to descend
and assits the Muslims in battle.
- Hamalatul-Arsh
– these types of angels are the ones who hold the Throne of Allah.
- Munkar
and Nakir - these are two angels that ask the three questions to the
dwellers of the grave after they are placed into the grave. The questions
are: Who is your Lord? What is your din? And who was the one who came with
the message?
- Dara’di
- these types of angels are called the traveller angels. They guide the
travellers in need.
- Malik
– Malik is the chief angel who looks over the Zabania.
- Zabania
– these types of angels are the guards of Jahannam. (19 angels)
Belief in the Books:
This is to believe in all the
books revealed by Allah. The main books are the four: the Torah of Musa (AS)
(Moses), the Zabur of Dawud (AS) (David), the Injeel of ‘Isa (AS) (Jesus) and
The Qur’an of Prophet Muhammad (SAW);. Though divinely revealed, the Torah, Psalms
and Gospel have all been altered by men, and their laws were abrogated apart
from the Qur’an. As the Qur’an is the last and final divine revelation it has
terminated all the other books. Its injunctions will remain valid for all time.
The previous books provided laws for the other nations, but now the Qur’an has
been revealed the other books have been suspended.
Belief in the Messengers:
This is to believe in all the prophets
and messengers of Allah, the first of whom is Adam (AS) and the last our Master
Muhammad (SAW). Every prophet was sent to a specific tribe (i.e Musa and the
Children of Isreal), apart from Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who was sent for all of
mankind.
The Prophets had jobs that they
were sent to fulfil:
- Read
the book that had been revealed
- Cleanse
the hearts of the people spiritually
- Teach
them the book – its interpretations and its rulings
The difference between prophets
and messengers is that the Prophets are those chosen servants of Allah, who
have been sent without a scripture whereas the messengers have a book.
There are five characteristics that are necessary for all
messengers:
- Truthfulness
- Trustworthiness
- Conveying the message
- Intelligence
- Sinlessness – there is a difference between sins and mistakes. The messengers were all ma’sum, immune to sin.
It is essential we know about the angels, the books revealed
by Allah and the messengers as they are the fundamentals of faith.
And Allah knows best.
