“…‘I fashion for you out of clay the likeness of a bird; then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird by Allah’s permission’ (Al-ʿImrān 49).

Thus he informed them that he shapes from clay a bird which, by Allah’s leave, becomes a living creature; and in the same way the angel fashions the drop of fluid in the womb—again, by Allah’s leave.

It is impermissible to suppose that the intended meaning is, ‘The life of Allah created me and teaches me,’ for no divine attribute creates or instructs. The One who creates and teaches is the Lord Himself—He who created man from a clinging clot, who taught by means of the pen, who taught man what he did not know. Yet He, exalted be He, brings creation about through the agency of the angels, for the angels are Allah’s envoys in matters of creation. Accordingly, an act may at times be ascribed to the intermediaries and at other times directly to the Lord.

This manner of expression appears repeatedly in the revealed scriptures, as in the Qur’an:

‘Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those that do not die during their sleep’ (Az-Zumar 42);

and elsewhere:

‘When death comes to any one of you, Our messengers take him in full, and they never fall short’ (Al-Anʿām 61);

and in a third passage:

‘Say: The Angel of Death who has been entrusted with you will take you in full; then to your Lord you will be returned’ (As-Sajdah 11).”