Some people have recited the phrase
“and that which was sent down to the two milikayn”
with a kasrah on the lām, taking the word to mean “two kings” rather than “two angels,” and they regard them as two foreign men from Persia; this was the view reported from al-Ḍaḥḥāk.

Others maintain that they were indeed two angels from heaven; yet, if the report concerning them were sound, Allah’s prior decree about their affair would already have taken effect. Their ruling would then resemble that of Iblīs—if one holds that he was an angel—although the correct view, as will be shown, is that he was of the jinn.

Among the angels explicitly named in the ḥadith literature are Munkar and Nakīr. The traditions mentioning them in connection with the interrogation of the grave are mass-transmitted; we cited them earlier under Allah’s words,
“Allah makes firm those who believe with the firm word in the life of this world and in the Hereafter; and Allah leaves astray the wrongdoers, and Allah does whatever He wills” (Ibrāhīm 27).
They are the examiners of the grave, charged with questioning the deceased about his Lord, his religion, and his prophet. They test both the righteous and the wicked, and are described as blue-black, frightening, with fangs, alarming features, and terrifying voices. May Allah protect us from the torment of the grave and keep us steadfast with the firm word. Āmīn.

Al-Bukhārī narrated: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf related to us, Ibn Wahb related to us, Yūnus related to me from Ibn Shihāb, who said: ʿUrwah told me that ʿĀʾishah, the Prophet’s wife, said to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “Has any day come upon you harder than the Day of Uḥud?” He replied, “I have endured from your people what I have endured, and the hardest of what I faced from them was on the day of al-ʿAqabah, when I presented myself to Ibn ʿAbd Yālīl ibn ʿAbd Kulāl and he gave me no response to what I desired. I departed, overwhelmed with sorrow, and did not recover until I found myself at Qarn al-Thaʿālib. I lifted my head and saw a cloud shading me. I looked, and in it was Gabriel, who called me, saying, ‘Allah has heard the words your people spoke to you and how they answered you, and He has sent to you the Angel of the Mountains for you to command him concerning them as you wish.’ The Angel of the Mountains then called me, greeted me, and said, ‘O Muḥammad, if you so will, I shall crush them between the two mountain-peaks.’ The Prophet said, ‘Rather, I hope that Allah will bring forth from their loins people who will worship Allah alone and associate nothing with Him.’” Muslim likewise recorded it from the narration of Ibn Wahb.

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The angels, in accordance with the tasks for which Allah has prepared them, are of various ranks. Among them are the Bearers of the Throne, already mentioned; the Cherubim who surround the Throne—these, together with the Throne-Bearers, are the noblest of all angels and are the ones brought nearest, as Allah says, “The Messiah will never disdain to be a servant of Allah, nor will the angels who are near to Him” (al-Nisāʾ 172). Among them also are Gabriel and Michael, about whom Allah has spoken