Appearance
Angels
This page gathers what Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī teaches about the angels across al-Tasnim: who they are and how they serve God, the courtesy of their speech with Him, the limits and growth of their knowledge, their prostration to Adam, and how the angels stand beside the perfect human being. What the angels asked about Adam’s vicegerency, and whether the angels are infallible, are answered in the themes on Iblīs and Infallibility. Each answer is a short summary of his words, with links that open the passage in al-Tasnim.
Who the angels are
Do the angels, for all their rank, worship God?
Yes, and the higher they stand, the more they worship. When the Qur’an says The Messiah would never disdain being a servant of God, nor would the angels brought near (4:172), it answers those who took Jesus’ birth without a father, his miracles or his distinction before God as reasons he could not be a servant. The angels have neither father nor mother, the Holy Spirit and the angels brought near have the power to do all these things by God’s leave, and they too are distinguished before Him; yet none of this turns them from worship. Indeed those who are near your Lord do not disdain to worship Him. They glorify Him and prostrate to Him (7:206).
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:172 · The Servitude of Exalted Angels · Verse 4:172 · The Servitude of Exalted Angels
Are the angels bound by religious duties, as people are?
No. Revelation, prophethood, commands and prohibitions, promise and threat, Paradise and Hell, obedience and disobedience do not apply to the angels. A being that is wholly infallible and cannot sin obeys of necessity, so the duties, warnings and rewards on which religious law rests have no place for them. That is why, when the Qur’an speaks of the purpose of creation, I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me (51:56), the angels are not mentioned.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:34 · Subtleties and Allusions
Did the angels exist before human beings?
Their existence comes before the elemental, bodily existence of the perfect human being, but that is not a precedence in time. The words what you used to conceal (2:33) might suggest the angels came first and only later had their secret brought out. That impression comes from the limits of ordinary language. The realm of the angels, of the spirits of the saints and of the perfect human beings lies beyond time, where past and present do not apply; there the angels hold a station with some knowledge, and above them is the perfect human being, through whose mediation knowledge reaches them.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:33 · Subtleties and Allusions
Was Khiḍr an angel?
No. Al-Tasnim points to the verses themselves: Moses and Khiḍr asked its people for food, and angels neither hunger nor eat; and Moses said If you had wished, you could have taken payment for it, which shows Khiḍr rebuilt the wall with his own hands like any man. According to the Qur’an he was one of Our servants, given mercy and knowledge from God’s presence.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 18:77–78 · Some Evidence that Khiḍr Was Not an Angel
The angels before God
How do the angels speak to God?
With courtesy. They begin with glorification and end with glorification, sanctification and praise, and set their matter between the two: Glory be to You! We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Indeed You are the All-knowing, the All-wise (2:32). In those few words they admit their incapacity, attribute all knowledge and teaching to God, make wisdom His alone, and acknowledge how little their own share of knowledge is. The prophets kept the same courtesy, as when Moses said Glory be to You! I turn to You in repentance (7:143) and Jonah There is no god except You! Glory be to You! (21:87).
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:32 · The Etiquette of Angels in Speaking with God · Verse 2:32 · The Etiquette of Angels in Speaking with God
Was their glorification an apology for their question about Adam?
No. Some exegetes read the many emphases in the angels’ words as a sign that they realised they had overstepped and were making amends with praise. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī rejects this: their question carried no disapproval, and their praise now is not a repair. Glorification in harmony with praise is simply the angels’ constant conduct and inner state.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:32 · The Conduct of Angels in Glorification
When the angels said “Glory be to You,” what were they declaring God free of?
He gives three possibilities. That God is above preferring the lesser over the greater, or withholding knowledge or vicegerency from one who is ready for it: the angels saw that they were not taught the names because they lacked the capacity, not because grace was withheld. Or that He is above their coming to know the unseen without His teaching, which fits We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Or that He is above acting without wisdom, which fits Indeed You are the All-knowing, the All-wise.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:32 · The Object of the Angels’ Exaltation
What the angels know
Can the angels grow in knowledge?
It may seem not: We have no knowledge except what You have taught us and There is none of us but has a known station (37:164) suggest each angel has a fixed rank whose beginning and end are the same, unlike the human soul, which grows. But Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī argues that some angels, as administrators of the heavens and the earth, may have a soul-like rather than a purely intellectual immateriality, and so the capacity to gain new knowledge. Only a pure intellect free of any potential is beyond increase, and proving that of any particular angel needs evidence. We have no knowledge except what You have taught us denies only that their knowledge is their own, and the known station may mean each angel’s particular mission, or have degrees that some angels can climb.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:32 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:32 · Subtleties and Allusions
Why were the angels asked to name what they could not know?
Inform Me of the names of these (2:31) was neither a creative command that would have enabled them, nor a real moral duty, which would have been a burden beyond their capacity. It was meant to show the angels their own incapability and how far they stood from divine vicegerency. They could not even report the names of the divine names, let alone know their reality or be adorned with them; and being adorned with the beautiful names is the cornerstone of governing the world as God’s vicegerent.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:31 · Detailed Exegesis
The angels and the human being
Was the prostration to Adam a real command?
Taken literally, it would have to be either a creative command or a legislative one, and neither fits. A creative command cannot be disobeyed, nor even carried out reluctantly, yet Iblīs refused; and a legislative command does not apply to the angels, who are not subject to religious duties. Since there is no third kind of real command, Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī concludes that it is to be understood as a parable. That does not make it a story without reality: an unseen truth is shown in a form we can grasp, as when the Qur’an says that had it been sent down on a mountain, the mountain would have crumbled (59:21). The truth shown is that the station of humanity and divine vicegerency is the highest in the realm of creation, one before which even the angels humble themselves.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:34 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 2:34 · Subtleties and Allusions
Did the angels prostrate to Adam the man, or to the human station?
The apparent wording points to Adam himself, but there is strong evidence that they prostrated to the station of humanity, the perfect human being in every age. The prostration follows the account of vicegerency, and vicegerency was given to the perfect human, not to Adam alone. And God says We created you, then gave you form, then said to the angels, “Prostrate to Adam” (7:11), addressing all human beings: Adam was the one prostrated to as the exemplar of humanity.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:34 · Subtleties and Allusions
Is the perfect human being superior to the angels?
Yes, absolutely. Some scholars held that the angels learning the names from Adam shows only that humans are more perfect in nature, not superior. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī answers that in the higher realm knowledge and action are never separated, so knowledge is existential perfection, and what is more perfect is also better. Knowledge can sometimes give only a relative advantage, as Khiḍr’s did over Moses; but teaching all the beautiful names is perfection without qualification, so Adam, the teacher of the names, is absolutely superior to the angels who learned them. The comparison is between like and like, since both humans and angels differ among themselves.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 2:33 · Subtleties and Allusions
Then why does 4:172 mention the angels brought near beside the Messiah?
Some take it to mean that the angels brought near are not below Jesus in rank. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī notes that this could fit with the exalted ones (al-ʿālīn), a group of angels who, according to the masters of gnosis, were so immersed in God that they were not included in the command to prostrate to Adam: these would be superior, not all angels. In any case the ruling on the angels as a whole is not the ruling on each of them, and he adds that comparing the excellence of prophets and angels is neither necessary nor beneficial; it is raised here only to explain why the two are joined in the verse.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:172 · The Relationship Between the Station of the Messiah and the Rank of the Angels Brought Near · Verse 4:172 · The Relationship Between the Station of the Messiah and the Rank of the Angels Brought Near
Does an angel speaking to someone make them a prophet?
Not necessarily. There is no doubt the angels spoke with Mary, and some Sunni exegetes took that as proof of her prophethood. Those who deny it answer that Gabriel brings legislative revelation to the prophets, while what came to Mary was revelation of guidance, support and glad tidings, which other saints also receive; and Gabriel did not descend only on prophets.
Read in al-Tasnim: Verse 3:42 · Subtleties and Allusions · Verse 3:42 · Subtleties and Allusions