Claim: There are conflicting views on who takes the souls at death: THE Angel of Death [32:11], THE angels (plural) [47:27] but also It is Allah that takes the souls (of men) at death. [39:42] Response: This issue is resolved quite completely in the long sermon of the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) wherein he gave the details of how mankind die and then are taken to judgment. That hadeeth can be found for example in the collections of hadeeth by Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Abu Dawud, or Ibn Majah, who narrate upon the authority of Al-Bara ibn `Aazib the sermon of the prophet (pbuh) which, to make a long story short, tells us about how when a person appointed time of death arrives, God sends the Angel of Death with two other angels to take his soul. The Angel of Death will extract the soul and then hand it over to the other two angels who will, within the blink of an eye, wrap it in a shroud and embalment. They then ascend with it up into the sky then returned it to earth in its grave in time to hear the footsteps of those who buried him as they are leaving. The soul will then be taken to trial and asked four questions and based upon the answers a window either to heaven or to hell will be opened upon it in the grave and it will be left there to wait for the Day of Judgment. In this manner it is God who initiates the command, the Angel of Death who fulfills the first part of the process of death, and the other two angels who fulfill the second part. Once again, to use everyday terms, if a mans car falls into a river and the chief of police arrives with some police officers, divers and paramedics, and if the chief coordinates the effort by issuing the necessary commands while the divers pull out the driver of the car and then hand him over to the paramedics in order to perform CPR, who then actually SAVED the driver? Can we say that the chief had nothing to do with the rescue operation? Can we say that they divers are not responsible for saving the man? Can we say that the paramedics had nothing to do with saving the mans life? They may differ in the degree of participation, however, this does not mean that only one of them did indeed SAVE the man. If all three of these groups then receive medals of valor for their actions then is this a contradiction? Does only one of them really DESERVE the medal while the other two dont? According to this logic, if a crime kingpin were to send a hitman to kill someone then it would be unjust to say that they both killed the man or to attempt to prosecute both of them since it is obvious that only one of them could possibly be responsible for killing the man. Right? If a man strikes another man over the head with a lead pipe and kills him, then according to the author of this list I could not say both the man was killed by a fatal blow to the head and the man was killed by an intruder, Since, for him, either the lead pipe did it or the killer did it, but not both. That would be a contradiction. The angels can not disobey God, differ with Him in will, or do evil. One good summary of the relationship of the angels to God in their wills in found in the following Hadeeth Qudsi: If Allah has loved a servant [of His] He calls Gabriel (pbuh) and says: I love So-and-so, therefore love him. He (the Prophet pbuh) said: So Gabriel loves him. Then he (Gabriel) calls out in heaven, saying: Allah loves So-and-so, therefore love him. And the inhabitants of heaven love him. He (the Prophet pbuh) said: Then acceptance is established for him on earth. And if Allah has abhorred a servant [of His], He calls Gabriel and says: I abhor So-and-so, therefore abhor him. So Gabriel abhors him. Then Gabriel calls out to the inhabitants of heaven: Allah abhors So-and-so, therefore abhor him. He (the Prophet pbuh) said: So they abhor him, and abhorrence is established for him on earth. Further, once prophet Muhammad (pbuh) asked Gabriel why he did not come more often to visit him. God responded in the Quraan on behalf of all angels with the following verse with neatly sums up the relationship of the will and actions of the angels with regard to the will of God: And we (angels) descend not except by the command of your Lord. To Him belongs what is before us and what is behind us and [all] that is in-between that. And your Lord is never forgetful. Mariam(19):64 Numerous other verses or Hadeeth may be found in this regard for those who which to research this issue further. It is clear from the above that the angels are submissive to God in both will and deed, living only to serve Him and carry out His commands. In Islam there is no such thing as fallen angels who disobey God. All angels obey God faithfully and fully in spite of themselves. So, do the verses really contain a contradiction? Mishaal ibn Abdullah
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 12:28:12 +0000
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