- To believe in the angels. The word “angels” (malāʾikah) is the plural of malak; it was originally malaʾak, the hamzah later being elided, though some philologists trace it directly to malak. Angels are a category of Allah’s creation dwelling in the unseen realm. He fashioned them to worship Him and to carry out His commands throughout His kingdom.
They consist of various orders, each assigned a particular task that it performs unfailingly. They never disobey Allah in what He commands them; rather, they do exactly as they are ordered.
Among them is the angel charged with revelation—Gabriel, the noblest of all the angels, the trustworthy Spirit, endowed with tremendous strength. Others are entrusted with bearing the Throne: “those who bear the Throne and those around it” (Qur’an 40:7). The Almighty also says: “And the angels will be at its edges, and on that Day eight will bear above them the Throne of your Lord” (Qur’an 69:17).
The Throne is the greatest of all created things; none knows its true immensity but Allah. It is carried by angels, and this alone testifies to their grandeur and to the vast strength and stature with which they have been endowed. The Most High says: “All praise is due to Allah, Originator of the heavens and the earth, Who appoints the angels as messengers, possessed of wings—two, three, or four; He increases in creation whatever He wills” (Qur’an 35:1). Some of them, such as Gabriel, possess six hundred wings. In reality, the magnitude of their created form is known only to Allah.