Duties of angels

21/10/2009| IslamWeb

Question:

 

I read a Hadith saying that there are two groups of angles who follow you in the morning and the evening. Do the angles protect you or do they just stay with you until they go back to Allah and tell Allah about you?

 

Fatwa:

 

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

 

The questioner may be referring to the narration of Abu Hurayrah may Allah be pleased with him, who narrated that the Prophet said: "A group of angels in the night and a group of angels in the day alternate with each other among you, and gather together at the time of the 'Asr and Fajr prayers. Then those who have spent the night among you ascend, and He asks them, and He Knows best, 'How did you leave My slaves?' and they say: "When we left them they were praying, and when we came to them they were praying." [Maalik and An-Nasaa'ee]

 

If you mean this narration, then the scholars, may Allah have mercy upon them, have different opinions whether these angels are the same who are keepers of humans or different.

 

Imaam As-Suyooti said: 'The narration refers to the keepers; this is the opinion of the majority of the Muslim scholars as reported from Al-Qaadhi 'Iyaadh and others. Ibn Barzah was unsure who they are, while Imaam Al-Qurtubi said they are different from the keepers.'

 

Imaam Ibn Hajar was inclined to the opinion that they are not the keepers. He said: 'There is no evidence which proves that the angels who are keepers ever separate from the person, and also there is no proof that the keepers of day are different from the ones of night. If they were keepers then they would not be asked only about how the slaves were at the time of their separation.'

 

Those who believe that they are keepers differ whether they are those who record the deeds of a slave or those who protect him from evil (as the Arabic word could mean either of the two meanings)?

 

It seems that they mean the angels who record the deeds as mentioned in the verse (which means): {And indeed, [appointed] over you are keepers, noble and recording, they know whatever you do.}[Quran 82:10-12]

 

Imaam An-Nawawi said: 'The preponderant opinion and that of the majority of Muslim scholars is that these angels are those who record the deeds.'

 

Allah Knows best.

  

Fatwa answered by: The Fatwa Center at Islamweb