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There are many kinds of angels. They are: the
Angels of light, the highest band of Angels, the Heavenly Angels, the
Elementary Angels, Mullai Rizwan, the Angels of Time and Space, and the
Recording Angels.
Among all other creatures in this world, the
angels and ghost are distinctive ones but human beings are the crown of all
creatures. Allah has many angles from even among them human being is the
superior of all. Allah has created Angles from light, ghosts from fire and
human being from clay, air and gas. The throne of Allah is the greatest binding
force of this universe. It is also considered the second place of beatific vision.
The ever happening events appear from it and everything will return in the end.
The highest throne of Allah surrounds every creature and no part of this
highest throne or any other thing in the universe is beyond the reach of
beatific vision. The waves of light emerge from this distinguished throne of
Allah. There exists a sketch of whole humanity under the highest throne of
Allah called the Great Man. The term the great man is found by the Sufis. The
Human beings cannot exist without the connection with the great man and in fact
the great man is the life blood of whole humanity. Similarly, all other
creatures' one great sketch do exists under the highest throne and from which
they link and get insight respectively. This connection is found through the
inspiration of the angels.
Allah says that the angels who support and
surround the highest throne of Allah always pray to Allah and remain prepared
to take order and pray for the believers.
The Holy Prophet (PBUH) says: when the Almighty
Allah places any order in the heaven, the angels flutter their wings and this
creates such a sound as is created by dragging a chain on the stone. The lower
rank angels enquire of the message from the upper angels. The upper rank angels
transfer the message by corroborating its veracity that Allah is great and then
detail the message of Allah. When the Almighty gives any new order the angels
who support the throne of Allah say Subhanalla till this prayer reaches the
heaven near to the earth. After this the angels living near the angels who
carry the highest throne asks the about the message of Allah. The angels of
throne transfer the message of Allah to them with due permission of Allah and
similarly the angels from the lower rank receive the message from the angels of
higher rank till the message reaches both the heaven and earth.
The Holy Prophet (PBUH) said, "One day
after some part of night, I got up, did ablution and offered prayer in the
given time. While praying I dozed and saw the almighty Allah. He said to me,
"O Muhammad" I ensured my presence to Him. Allah asked me "what
the Mullai Aala (the angels of highest rank) was discussing". I replied,
"I did not know." Allah repeated this question three times and I
replied three times in the same. Then I saw that Allah put His palm in between
my both the shoulders till I felt the coolness in my heart and everything
revealed to me. I got all and then Allah said to me, "O Muhammad" I
replied, "Yes my lord." Allah asked me, "What was the Mulai Aala
(the angels of highest rank) were discussing." I replied, "They were
discussing the Kafarat." Allah asked, "What is Kafarat?" I
replied, "It means to walk on foot to join prayers, to sit in the mosque
after prayers, to perform ablution even in misery." Them Allah asked,
"And they were discussing what?" I said, "They were discussing
the things to raise their ranks." Allah asked, "What were they?"
I said, "To feed people without any discrimination i.e. without
differentiating the poor and the needy ones rather there should be an open
invitation for all because there are many honorable persons who may not like to
be included in the category of needy ones. And talk politely with every one and
pray to Allah at that part of night when every one sleeps.
The Holy Prophet (PBUH) says "when Allah
loves any one, He calls Gabriel and says to him that He loves that person and
you too love him". So Gabriel also loves him. It is proclaimed in the
heavens that God loves the following person and you all are supposed to do.
Consequently, all the angels from the heaven love him and he is made popular
with other beings. Similarly when Allah dislikes any one calls Gabriel and says
that He does not like the following person. So Gabriel does not like him and
then it is announced in the heaven that Allah does not like the following.
Consequently all angels dislike him. After this all types of creatures do not
like him and he becomes the most cursed one on the earth. The Holy Prophet
(PBUH) said, "Everyday when human beings awaken two angels descends from
the heaven. One of them says, "O Allah! Bless those who spend their money
on good deeds." The second one says, "Curse on those who practice
black marketing." The beloved angels of Allah remain near Him and pray for
every good person and curse those who-try to create anarchy in the society. The
angels transfer the message of Allah to the human beings and similarly report
back what the human beings do. These angels inspire the human beings to do good
acts. When the angels inspire the human beings, they tend to do good deeds. The
angels came in the form of groups and fly in groups. They also talk with one
another. The souls of noble human beings are also included in the groups of
angels. The almighty Allah says, "O contented soul, be happy and attentive
to Him and then join my beloved followers and enter the paradise." The
Mulai Aala lives there from where Allah reveals His message.
Thy almighty Allah has blessed them with
certain characteristics. Their duty is to run the system of this universe
according to its requirements and requisites.
They are near to the angels of the first type
as stated above.
They follow the Mullai Aala and consequently
they perform such deeds as their mind and heart get purified: They can
understand the message of Mullai Aali because they have pure hearts. When they
pass away, they are included in the group of angels. The place where the angels
and holy souls unite is called Hizarat-ul-Quds.
The angels and holy souls in Hizarat-ul-Quds
ponder over the ways to save the human beings from destruction and miseries. The
agreed ways to save humanity are transferred to- human beings. For this a man
who is most chaste is selected. The people are inspired to follow the chaste
person and then there becomes a group which saves the whole humanity by working
for the betterment of their followers. The soul of chaste person receives
heavenly instructions in his dreams or in mystery through revelation because
our chaste souls and Mullai Aala can talk face to face.
The Asfal Angels are junior to Mullai Aala but
they are not as great as the light angels. They do nothing themselves and wait
for order from above. They know what they are told and worked without any
consideration of any personal loss or profit. They do what they are revealed
from their upper rank angels.
Firstly the order of Allah reaches
Hizarat-ul-Quds from where it gets transferred to the angels of lower rank by
Mullai Aala. The angels of lower rank further it to their juniors called the heavenly
angels. The heavenly angels transfer the order of Allah to the elementary
angels.
They elementary angels after receiving order of
Allah inspire the human beings. For instance if two groups fight with each
other, they (the elementary angels) inspire one of the groups with bravery,
patience and victory by helping them out while the other party is inspired by
the thoughts of weakness, cowardice so that the result of this fight must be in
accordance with the will of Allah and the party who Allah wants overcome the
other. This type of function is performed by the Asfal angels
One of the types of angels is called the
recording angels. They are always on duty with every person. One of them
records the good deeds and the second keeps the records of evil acts.
The inhabited dwelling is Sidratul Muntaha. It
is the abode of Hazrat Ibrahim and this is the place where Mullai Aala lives.
The angels who live over Mullai Aala are called light angles. They are followed
by the angels of heavens and elementary angels respectively.
The group of Gabriel
The group of Michael
The group of israfeel
The group of Izraiel
Each group has separate capabilities and
separate use of them too. Hazrat Gabriel is the messenger of Allah. Among his
salient attributes are: to reveal and inspire. The duty of Israfeel is to deal
with all the matters of rain. The responsibility of Izraiel is death and issues
regarding it. The liability of israfeel is dooms day and its matters.
Among seven heavens, every heaven is a zone.
The angels of every zone are different one but the angels of seven heavens are
called heavenly angels. The capabilities of angels are revealed · through their
wings which can be bigger or smaller according to their capabilities and
attributes. The difference also exists in the count of Wings too. As the wings
of peacock have a lot of decoration so are they wings of angels. Every
decoration reveals a competence. The angels' wings also glitter and they wings of
the second type of angels reflects green light.
The Gabriel, the Michael, the Israfeel, the
Izraiel, the recording angels,, the Munkir Nakir, Malika Rizwan and the Malika
Zamania have got further groups. All the angels are performing their duties in
the system of universe. All angels are Allahs and they obey Allah without fail.
It is hard to know the total number of angels, however as stated with every
single person a number of twenty thousand: angels perform their duties. Currently,
the population of our world is six billion and like our World there are
billions of other worlds. Comparatively our world is the smallest planet. Sufis
sees our world as small as a big doom with a sign made through the point of
needle. Allah says if the trees of this world become pens and seas turn into
ink and even all the things would not be ,enough to mention the signs of Allah.
When a person dies whatever he does in this world
is recorded, whether it be a minor virtue or vice. The recording angels record
every deed and saying after death, which is seen by the soul. For instance a
person intends stealing, the angels of virtues inspires him that it is a bad
deed. He should not do as it makes Allah unhappy but if thief does not accept
the angel’s aspiration he moves out for stealing, breaks into someone’s house,
steals goods and returns home. Form religious points of view he knows that the
punishment of stealing is to chop hands off. After death, the sinner would be
shown his evil deeds. As a
punishment of theft his hands will be cut off.
A sinner watching it forgets about his sin. As soon as his hands an amputated
and he sees his amputated hands he feels a great pain.
Similarly, when a pious man goes to the mosque,
offers his prayers. He sits there after praying for solace by reciting he:
receives the heavenly lights from Allah; he becomes happy by receiving this
from Allah. This starts as he moves from home he inundates himself with a lot
of heavenly lights. When this person passes away watches his good deeds and
gets solace and satisfaction.
Munkir Nakir visits the soul in grave after
death to decide his future. He tells him the difference between vice and
virtue. The chaste soul is conferred favors from the sights of heaven and if
the soul is an embodiment evil the curse of hell will be in front of him.
KHWAJA SHAMS-UD-DEEN AZEEMI
Many a scholar has written a lot about
spiritualism and pantheism. One school of thought is of the view that as saints
often used to wear wooly dresses therefore people would call them sufis. Wool
is called sauf in Arabic. They used to wear such a dress, for it had been the
habit of many a prophet, saints and pious people. According to some people, as
they have been associated with the Ashaab-e-suffa that is why they are called sufis;
whereas according to yet another school of thought the word sufi is linked with
suf a.... but all these explanations are not satisfactory.
In fact, the terminological meaning of Sufi'ism
(tasawaf) is self cleansing. It is the name of a true spirit that is related
to conscience and the light of conscience is always inherent. A sufi always
thinks in the context of Allah. His talk moves around Allah. He lives with
Allah and dies in the name of Allah. He recites His words and always praises
Him and remains enmeshed in His love. He sacrifices everything in order to see
and meet Allah.
