Likewise, on the Day of Resurrection they will come before the Lord — glorified and exalted is He — in ranks, as the Most High says: “Your Lord will come, and the angels, rank upon rank” (Q 89:22). They will stand in rows before their Lord on that Day, as He also says: “On the Day when the Spirit and the angels stand in rows, none shall speak except him to whom the All-Merciful grants leave, and he will speak what is right” (Q 78:38).
As for the meaning of “the Spirit” in this verse, Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Ḥasan, and Qatādah said that it refers to the children of Adam. Others maintained that it is a category of angels who resemble human beings in appearance; this was reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid, Abū Ṣāliḥ, and al-Aʿmash. Still others said that it is Gabriel, a view held by al-Shaʿbī, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, and al-Ḍaḥḥāk. Another opinion is that it is an angel called “the Spirit,” whose size equals that of all created things. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah related from Ibn ʿAbbās regarding the words “On the Day when the Spirit stands” (Q 78:38): “He is an angel, among the greatest of the angels in stature.”
Ibn Jarīr recorded: Muḥammad ibn Khalaf al-ʿAsqalānī told us, Rawwād ibn al-Jarrāḥ told us, from Abū Ḥamzah, from al-Shaʿbī, from ʿAlqamah, from Ibn Masʿūd, who said: “The Spirit is in the fourth heaven. He is greater than the heavens, the mountains, and the angels. Each day he utters twelve thousand acts of glorification, and from every glorification Allah creates an angel. On the Day of Resurrection he will arrive as an entire row by himself.” This report is exceedingly unusual.
Al-Ṭabarānī reported: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAras al-Miṣrī narrated to us, Wahb Allāh ibn Rizq Abū Hubayrah narrated to us, Bishr ibn Bakr narrated to us, al-Awzāʿī narrated to me, from ʿAṭāʾ, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah — may Allah bless him and grant him peace — say, “Allah has an angel who, were he ordered to swallow the heavens and the earths in a single mouthful, would do so. His glorification is: ‘Glory be to You wherever You may be.’” This ḥadīth too is extremely rare and may in fact be a statement halted at Ibn ʿAbbās.
We have also cited, in describing the bearers of the Throne, the report from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh: the Messenger of Allah — peace and blessings be upon him — said, “I have been granted permission to speak about one of the angels who bear the Throne of Allah: the distance between his earlobe and his shoulder is a journey of seven hundred years.” Abū Dāwūd and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded it; the latter’s wording is: “A bird would fly for seven hundred years before reaching from his earlobe to his shoulder.”
As for the description of Gabriel — upon him be peace — something tremendous has been related. Allah, Most High, says: “He was taught by one mighty in power” (Q 53:5). They say that, by virtue of his immense strength, he lifted the towns of the people of Lot — seven in all — with their inhabitants, and they were near