Angels in Islam
In Islam, angels are believed to be heavenly beings, created from a luminous origin by God. The Quran is the principal source for the Islamic concept of angels, but more extensive features of angels appear in hadith literature, literature, Islamic exegesis, theology, philosophy, and mysticism.
Belief in angels is one of the core tenets within Islam, as it is one of the six articles of faith. Angels are more prominent in Islam compared to Jewish and Christian traditions. The angels differ from other invisible creatures in their attitude as creatures of virtue, in contrast to evil devils and ambiguous jinn. Despite being considered to be virtuous beings, angels are not necessarily bringers of good news, as per Islamic tradition, angels can perform grim and violent tasks.
Angels are conceptualized as heavenly beings. As such, they are said to lack passion and bodily desires. If angels can nevertheless fail, is debated in Islam. Mu'tazilites and many Salafis usually hold the opinion that angels are always obedient and never fail to perform their tasks. In contrast, schools of theology often accept the fallibility of angels. Ashʿarites agree that angels have no free agency, but argue that they may still fail and then fall. Māturīdites say that the heavenly creatures are tested, and angels may fail such a test, whereupon they are dismissed from their duties.
In Islamic philosophy and Sufism, angels are related to the nature of reason. According to Sufi cosmology, they connect the higher realms of the intellect with the lower world of matter. Thus, the human mind is conceptualized to form a connection with the heavenly spheres through such heavenly entities associated with light. In contrast, the devils attempt to disturb the connection by diverging the mind to the lower spheres, thus associated with fire.
Etymology
The Quranic word for angel derives either from, meaning "he controlled", due to their power to govern different affairs assigned to them, or from the triliteral root, or with the broad meaning of a "messenger", just as its counterpart in Hebrew. 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 instead.In pre-Islamic Arabian culture, the term was also used by the Thamud for beings who deserve supplication.
Quran and exegesis
The Quran describes angels in the context of earlier Middle Eastern cultural traditions, both monotheistic and polytheistic belief-systems. Belief in angels is prescribed for the believer. Surah 35 is, in some manuscripts, named after them. With a few exceptions, angels in the Quran are largely impersonal. They appear in stories about the mythic past, eschatological imagery, and in discussions about prophecy and worship.While in the Bible the term 'angel' refers to 'messengers' the Quran uses the term 'rasul' instead. Angels are solely heavenly spirits. As in Biblical tradition, angels deliver the message to Zechariah and Mary. In the Quran, angels are not limited to be messengers but are also part of the heavenly council. They serve as scribes, serve as God's warriors, and carry God's throne. God commands the angels to prostrate themselves before Adam, similar to the Syrian Cave of Treasures.
The Quran portrays the Jahiliyyah as worshipping angels as minor deities, believed to function as intercessors. In the pre-Islamic Arabian religion, deities, jinn, angels, and demons are not clearly distinguished and shade into another. Several angels in the Quran function as personified meteorological phenomena, and may root in polytheistic animistic beliefs.
The Quranic creation account suggests the superiority of humans over angels: When God creates Adam, he taught him the names of all things, knowledge the angels lack. Muslim exegetes read this as a demonstration of the a unique capacity whereas the angels are lacking. As such, angels are no longer objects of deserving worship and also become distinguished from God. According to Quranic exegesis, some angels refused to accept the superiority of mankind and became devils. This debate is closely related to a discussion regarding other verses about angels.
Prostration of angels and obedience
A key event regarding angels in the Quran is the command addressed to the angels to bow before the newly created Adam. According to the Quran, the angels object to the creation of mankind at first, arguing that they commit the sins the jinn committed previously. After the objection of the angels, Adam demonstrates his ability to "name all things" and whereupon all angels bow down, except Iblis.That Iblis is a fallen angel was widely accepted among Classical scholars of Islam. Objection towards the concept of fallen angels, however, is attested as early as to the influential Hasan of Basra, who is often considered one of the first who asserted the doctrine of angelic infallibility and he rejected that Iblis was an angel. While the arguments existed early on, opposition to fallen angels was not universal in early Islam, as Tabari, for example, does not mention angelic infallibility, when discussing the nature of Iblis. The traditions of ibn Abbas, and Hasan of Basra, reflect two different interpretations of the Islamic conceptualization of angels.
Bulak al-Djurdjani opposes the ‘iṣmah of angels on the ground that the protest of the angels proves inevitably potential flaws in their character, such as slander, pride, malice, and finding fault with God. In a comment by Gibril Haddad on Qadi Baydawi's defense on angelic fallibility, in his Tafsir al-Baydawi, it is said that the angels' "obedience is their nature while their disobedience is a burden, while human beings' obedience is a burden and their hankering after lust is their nature."
Infallible
Opposition to the concept of the fallen angel is mostly found among the Qadariyah and most Mu'tazilites. Many Salafis also agree with this view. Those who oppose angelic fallibility refer to Surah at-Tahrim in favor of their position:
O believers! Protect yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is people and stones, overseen by formidable and severe angels, who never disobey whatever Allah orders—always doing as commanded.
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi is an exception to most Sunni mutakallimūn, and agrees that angels are free from any form of sin and includes angelic infallibility to the six articles of faith.
Al-Razi argues that "except Iblis" is read as an "interrupted exception", excluding Iblis from the group of angels and states that he hailed from jinn species instead. Ibn Taimiyya rejects any ambiguity on the nature of Iblis and portrays him as a satanic jinni in contrast to the obedient angels. Following the opinions of ibn Taimiyya and his disciple ibn Kathir, many scholars of Salafism and Wahhabism agree on this. Furthermore, many of them regard this as a major difference between Christianity and Islam.
A possible reconciliation of Iblis' fall and the doctrine of angelic impeccability is to say that God wanted Iblis to disobey or that Iblis' disobedience derives from a noble yet misguided motivation. Mahmud al-Alusi resolves potential conflicts by iterating that ʿAzāzīl was first an infallible angel, but then God removed his angelic nature and replaced it with satanic attributes, whereupon he becomes Iblis and sinned.
Fallible
According to those who accept the concept of fallen angels, the phrase "except Iblis" in 2:34 and 18:50 is understood as an uninterrupted exception. Therefore, Iblis is an exception from within number of angel and thus an angel himself.According to a number of traditional exegetes, God's command to bow before Adam is meant to test the angels. Al-Maturidi explains the test of the angels as follows and also suggests that they have free-will based on the Quran:
By calling the stars adornment of the heavens, we can deduce another meaning: that is, the inhabitants of the heavens themselves are put to the test to see which of them is the best in deeds,
Those who are in support of the concept of fallen angels refer to al-Anbiya stating that angels would be punished for sins and arguing that, if angels could not sin, they would not be warned to refrain from committing them:
Whoever of them were to say, "I am a god besides Him", they would be rewarded with Hell by Us
Besides the case of Iblis, the presence of Harut and Marut in the Quran, further hindered their complete absolution from potentially sinning. Ahmad ibn Hanbal describes these angels, in his Musnad, as boasting of their obedience, so God sends them down to earth, where they commit sins. Although not explicit in the Quran, some exegetes linked them to Iblis, and the angels with him, protesting the creation of Adam.
The angels in the Quran are tested. As the inhabitants of heaven, they believed to be superior to humans and jinn, who only inhabit the earth. Yet, by commanding them to bow before Adam, the humility of the angels was tested:
ظنوا أنهم أكرم الخلق على الله، وأَنه لا يُفَضِّل أَحداً عليهم.
ومنهم من يقول: ظنوا أَنهم أعلم من جميع من يخلق من جوهر النار أَو التراب؛ من حيث ذكرت من جوهرهم، أَو لعظم عبادتهم لله، وعلمهم بأَن في الجن والإِنس عصاة؛ فلهذا امتحنهم بالعلم، ثم بالسجود؛ لإظهار علو البشر وشرفه، وعظم ما أكرموا به من العلم.
Imam Maturidi argues, that if angels could not sin, angels could also not be good, since moral goodness implies the possibility for evil. The sin of angels derive from their cognition and mental states, not from sensual temptations. As celestial beings, angels are free from the latter but subject to potential errors of the former.
They thought they were the most honored of God's creation, and that He favored no one over them.
Some say they thought they were more knowledgeable than all those created from the essence of fire or dust, either because of their inherent nature, or because of their great devotion to God and their knowledge that there are sinners among both jinn and humankind. Therefore, He tested them with knowledge, and then with prostration, to demonstrate the superiority and honor of humankind, and the greatness of the knowledge with which they were honored.