Among them are those who are brought near, as the Exalted says: “The Messiah would never disdain to be a servant of Allah, nor would the angels who are brought near” ⦗1⦘.
Among them are those charged with Paradise and with preparing its honours for its people.
Among them are those charged with the Fire and the punishment of its inhabitants; they are the zabāniyah, whose captains are nineteen in number, and its keeper is Mālik, the chief of all the wardens. Allah says: “Over it are nineteen” ⦗2⦘; and He says: “They will cry, ‘O Mālik, let your Lord finish us off’” ⦗3⦘; and He says: “Those in the Fire will say to the keepers of Hell, ‘Call upon your Lord to lighten for us one day of the punishment’” ⦗4⦘. He also says: “Over it are angels, harsh and severe, who never disobey Allah in what He commands them, and who do whatever they are ordered” ⦗5⦘.
Among them are those entrusted with guarding the children of Adam in this worldly life, for He says: “For him are successive keepers before him and behind him, guarding him by Allah’s command …” ⦗6⦘—meaning that with a person are angels who guard him from in front and from behind; but when Allah’s decree arrives, they step aside.
Among them are those assigned to record and preserve the deeds of the servants. Allah says: “Seated to the right and to the left, he utters no word but that with him is a ready observer” ⦗7⦘; and He says: “Indeed, appointed over you are guardians, noble recorders” ⦗8⦘.
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Angels take turns among you by night and by day.” Thus a person is accompanied by angels who protect him from harm, and by angels who record his deeds and everything that issues from him.
Among the angels is one charged with the womb and the affair of the drop of fluid, as is mentioned in the ḥadīth of Ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him: “The creation of each one of you is gathered in his mother’s womb for forty days as a drop, then he is a clot for the same period, then a lump for the same period; then the angel is sent to him, breathes into him the soul, and is commanded with four words: to write down his provision, his lifespan, his deeds, and whether he will be wretched or …”