Allah, exalted is He, says about them: “For him are successive angels, before him and behind him, guarding him by Allah’s command” (Qur’an 13:11). In other words, by Allah’s leave these angels protect the children of Adam from hardships and dangers until their appointed term arrives. When that moment comes they withdraw, and what Allah has decreed—death, or an injury that leads to death—befalls the person.

Among the angels are those charged with carrying out the divine commands across the heavens and the earth; none knows their number but Allah. Included among them are angels who search for gatherings of dhikr (remembrance of Allah) and attend them, as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whenever a group of people convene in one of Allah’s houses to recite the Book of Allah and study it together, tranquillity descends upon them, mercy envelops them, and the angels surround them.” These angels roam the earth seeking out circles of remembrance and witnessing them.

The true nature, categories, and attributes of the angels are known only to Allah. Whatever has reached us through Qur’anic verses and sound prophetic reports we affirm and hold as creed, and concerning that about which we have not been informed we withhold and do not speculate, for this belongs to the unseen, into which we enter only with proof.