who, then, could tally them? None can enumerate them but Allah.

The Prophet ﷺ said in the well-known hadith: “The heaven creaked, and it has every right to creak.” The verb “creaked” refers to the groaning sound made by a camel, a noise it emits only when bearing a heavy load—you can plainly hear its cry. He then explained: “There is not a space the width of four fingers anywhere in it except that an angel is standing, bowing, or prostrating to Allah.”

The heaven is unlike the earth; it is incomparably, immeasurably vaster. Consider its staggering breadth: the earth beneath is but a small sphere, while the circumference of the sky enveloping it is immense. The second heaven is wider still, the third even wider, and so on—the fourth, the fifth, and the seventh, each broader than the one below. In every patch the size of four fingers there is an angel standing for Allah, or bowing, or prostrating. Who, then, could ever count the angels? If we cannot count the angels themselves, how could we hope to count the prayers invoked upon the Messenger? We cannot—for the very angels continually send blessings upon him, making those blessings beyond all reckoning.

Behold the vastness of Allah’s favor. He granted this man—Allah’s Messenger ﷺ—so great an honor, one we know of no other being attaining: “Indeed Allah and His angels send blessings upon the Prophet.” This statement is meant to spur us on, and for that reason Allah immediately follows it with the command: “O you who believe…,” that is, in accordance with your faith, “invoke blessings upon him.” The address is aimed at us in the context of faith, for it is faith that impels a person