and they act at His command. He knows what lies before them and what lies behind them, and they intercede for none except those whom He approves. They tremble with awe of Him. If any of them were to say, “I am a god beside Him,” We would repay him with Hell—thus do We requite the wrongdoers. ⦗…⦘

“And how many an angel there is in the heavens whose intercession avails nothing until, after Allah has given leave, He grants permission to whom He wills and with whom He is pleased.”

“Say: Call upon those whom you claim besides Allah. They do not own even an atom’s weight in the heavens or on earth. They have no share in either of them, nor does He have any supporter from among them. Intercession will be of no benefit with Him except for one to whom He has granted permission.”

“To Him belongs all who are in the heavens and the earth. Those who are with Him are never too proud to worship Him, nor do they grow weary; they glorify Him night and day, never flagging.”

Refuting the Notion that Gabriel Is a Mere Product of Imagination

It is related that the angels came to Abraham—peace be upon him—in the likeness of human beings, that the angel appeared to Mary as a well-proportioned man, and that Gabriel—peace be upon him—used to come to the Prophet ﷺ in the form of Dihyah al-Kalbī or in the guise of a Bedouin, and the people would see him as such. Moreover, Allah the Exalted has described Gabriel—peace be upon him—as one endowed with mighty power