Bismi Allahi al-rahmani al-rahim
Assalamu aleikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, my dears :o)
I prepared a note about angels and jinn which is based on an amazing lecture by sheikh Bilal Philips. It is based on hadeeths and Qur´an and I decided to share with you these information because the topic of angels and jinn in Islam is in my opinion neglected. The world of angels and jinn is extremely interesting and these entities are with us day and night even if we can´t see them. So let´s get some knowledge about the world of hundred thousands invisible beings...
- It is a part of Islam (the part of faith) to believe in the existence of angels and jinn.
- ANGELS: It is stated in Sunna that angels are created from light. As we know, angels are invisible to us. But angel Gabriel was visible to Prophet (SAWS) as a man (while revealing him Qur´an) and there are also some people who can see these beings even if they are invisible.Narrated Abu Huraira "When you hear a roaster crow, ask Allah for His grace, for it has seen an angel." (Bukhari, Tirmidhi, Muslim and others)
- Angels DON´T have free will, they act only according to Allah´s commands.
- With regards to the form of angels, Allah described angels as having wings but we shouldn´t imagine any bird wings and we should have on minds that angels are not like those from Greco-Roman legends, they are not little kids with wings. If an angel appears as a man, he is a man without any wings. Abdullah ibn Mas´ud reported that Allah´s Messenger (SAWS) had seen angel Gabriel in his natural state in which he had 600 wings, each of which filled the horizon and they were like a multicolor drops of pearls and coral falling from the wings.
- Angels in their natural state are quite huge. Jabir ibn Abdallah with regards to the angels that carry the throne of Allah, Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) said: "Allow me to speak about one of the throne bearers. The distance between his earlobe and shoulder is what a bird would fly in 700 years." When angels appear in human form, they appear as males. Once angel appeared as being very similar to one of the companions and once the angel appeared as an unknown beduin.
- There are only 8 names of angels mentioned and recorded in the Islamic sources. There are many names in folklore but only 8 names of angels in authentic Islamic text. These are: JIBREEL - angel of revelation; MIKA´EEL - angel responsible for rain; ISRAFEEL - angel who will blow the horn signaling the end of the world; MALIK - guardian of the Hell; MUNKAR & NAKIR - angels who will question people in the grave; HARUT & MARUT - angels sent to the people od Babylon to test their faith. Other angels´ names are from the Israeli or biblical sources, from weak narrations or they are simply fabricated.
- What about abilities of angels? They are able to read person´s intend, they know what is going on in human mind. Narrated Abu Huraira, Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) said: "The angels say to Allah that man intends to do evil although he is more vigilant than them." He replies, "Watch him, if he commits evil, record it in kind but if he abandons it, record for him one good deed for surely he gave it up for my sake." Sahih Bukhari
- Each person has the angel assigned to him. It is not necessarily still the same angel all the time but an angel is with him throughout his life, encouraging him to good and guarding him from evil. Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) said: "Everyone of you has been assigned a companion from among the jinn and one from the angels." There are also two angels assigned to record our deeds. These two angels are with us constantly, they NEVER leave us.
- JINN are created from fire. Some of them are good and some are evil and they all HAVE free will. Although they are created from fire, those evil of them will be punished in the Hell fire.
- Jinn were created on the Earth before human beings. Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) said that jinn populated the Earth and that corruption began amongs them.
- Based on a hadeeth, these beings are devided into three basic types:1. jinn which fly around the Earth all the time and they can move within our world and outside of our world.2. another jinn exist as snakes and dogs3. and some jinn live still in the same place, they are attached to people or objects.
- Among jinn there are believers and disbelievers, as among people.
- What is important - no human being can gain control over the jinn. This was something special given to prophet Sulaiman as a miracle from Allah and to NON after him. Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) informed his companions: "Verily an Ifreet (the most powerful among jinn) spat on me last night trying to break my prayer, however Allah let me overpower him and I wanted to tie him to one of the columns in the masjid so you all could see him in the morning but then I remember my brother Sulaiman´s prayer "Oh my Lord, forgive me and bestow on me a kingdom not allowed to anyone after me." So the Prophet was able to keep the jinn off him to restrain it but not to control it.
- The area where jinn play the biggest havoc in human life is the area of fortune telling. From the Ancient time till today there have been people selling information about good. Some of them were able to give solid information which has made people believe in them to have such a power. But how could they get such an information? Jinn who can move through the worlds can go up to the lowest heaven (but not enter it) and there steal or listen the commands of Allah toward angels. However they are distracted and driven away by comets and meteors. It is stated in the suratu l-jinn (72). Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) said that the jinn can pass the information back down until it reaches the lips of the fortune teller, sometimes a meteor may overtake them before they can pass it on. But if they pass it on before being struck, they add to it one hundred lies. So such information of the fortune tellers is then a mixture of lies and only few truths. Narrated Hafsa that prophet Muhammad (SAWS) said: "The prayer of whoever approaches a fortune teller and asks him anything will not be accepted for 40 days and nights." It includes all available forms of fortune telling (sings of zodiac, astrological sings, reading about the zodiacal sings in magazines or newspapers NO MATTER IF YOU BELIEVE IT OR NOT). But it doesn´t mean a vacation from praying ;o) Reported by Abu Huraira, prophet Muhammad (SAWS) said: "Whoever approaches a fortune teller and believes what he says, has disbelieved in what was revealed to Muhammad." Such practices are forbidden even in the Old Testament and magicians used to be executed in the past.
- Allah has informed us about the world of angels and jinn in order for us to be conscious in order to improve the quality of our deeds, realize that our deeds are being recorded, to know about the evil from the spiritual world of jinn which can affect our lives and drive us into various forms of shirk.
- Whole lecture is available on this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Toiqdm5XHMw and contains much more amazing information about angels and jinn. I tried to mention the most important and most interesting points of the lecture and I am really happy if you like this note and if it made you want to know more information about the amazing world of invisible beings :o)Wish you all blessed and happy eid full of joy and lovely family gatherings :o) Katka
