Psychic Angels In Islam
The idea of psychic angels isn't unique to
the Christian religious tradition. Islam and Judaism share the same roots and those roots have some pretty
noticeable appearances by angels. Islam's angels, however, are significantly different from their Christian and
Jewish cousins.
Angels in Islam
Islamic angelic tradition is pretty sparse.
This is because, unlike Christian and Jewish religious scholars, Islamic theologians do not consider the study of
psychic angels as an important topic. In their opinion, if the Qu'ran does not directly talk about
a particular subject, there's no need to study it. Of course, there's a hierarchy, but they are of the belief that
it's none of their business. Why worry about something that's not broken after all? Besides, psychic angels have no free will - they do everything that God commands, their
supernatural psychic powers focused on their goal.
Angelic Psychic Prophesies
There are, of course, several angels named in
Islamic tradition, each accorded their duties by God. Some of them are actually quite familiar. Jibril is
Gabriel, transliterated to Arabic, of course. His job is to be God's voice to his prophets. He was
the one who delivered the Qu'ran in its entirety to the prophet Muhammad and this has made him a pretty honored
angel. Another familiar angel is Mikaaiyl or Michael as we know him.
The Angel of Mercy
Instead of being Heaven's general, in Islam, he is the
angel of mercy, dispenser of rain, a very big thing when you're living in the desert. He's also in
charge of the just reward of virtuous people, a long way from the demon slayer of Christian tradition. The name
Israfil sounds unfamiliar, but just take out that initial "is" and you get Raphael. He's got the dubious honor of
blowing his trumpet that ends the world on Judgement Day.
The Angel of Death
Of course, there are some original angels
among the bunch named in the Qu'ran and in the Hadith, the oral stories about Muhammad. Probably the most famous is
Malak al Maut, the Angel of Death, though popular tradition calls him Azrael, which is
strange considering he isn't even named in the Qu'ran. His job, if it wasn't obvious enough from his title, is
pretty much to take the souls of people at death to be judged.
The Keeper of Heaven
Other angels mentioned in the Qu'ran are
Maalik, the guardian of Hell, and Ridwan, the keeper of Heaven. Note that Maalik is not a fallen
angel. Islamic tradition states that angels cannot fall because since they do not have free will,
they cannot rebel. Maalik's there because Allah wants him to make sure that no one escapes.
He stays there with nineteen other angels to
make sure that sinners receive their well-deserved punishment. Kiraamun and Kaatibeen double-team to record all the
good and bad deeds a person has done, while another pair, Munkar and Nakir interview them in the afterlife about
it.
Psychic Power and Position
As is typical of psychic angel imagery, most Islamic sources describe
angels by their wings, two to four wings is the usual count, but Gabriel and
Michael are said to have thousands of wings sprouting from their back, signifying their
psychic power and position. Some aren't even human in appearance - 70 thousand headed
angels are said to sing praises to Allah in Heaven.
All in all, you can see how different Islam views its
angels. There's a certain familiarity that we can almost recognize, but there's a telling
difference in the way these things are seen.
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