Angels are often mentioned in the Quran. Based on the Quran, the Hadith, and the later tradition, the Islamic cosmographer and geographer, al-Qazwīnī (d.1283 CE) identifies fourteen kinds of angels (see S.E. Nasr, Islamic Spirituality, eBook (2013), pp. 324-344). Some angels are messengers:
Praise be to Allāh, Originator of the heavens and the earth, Who made the angels messengers, of wings two, three, and four, increasing creation as He will. Truly God is Powerful over all things. (35:1)
In the popular view Angels are considered to be the agencies through which The Almighty “causes His commands to materialize within the universe created by Him” (Asad translation, Note 1). Wings refer to the various faculties possessed by angels, such as the faculty of knowledge and the faculty to act according to this knowledge (Islamic Spirituality, p334). Wing in Arabic has several meanings including “side” or “hand” and can metaphorically denote “strength or power or ability” (Lane, vol2, p400). Verse (16:32) cited in Chapter 7, Section “Death and Its Aftermath”, Spirituality Rekindled, speaks of angels taking lives at the time of death. The nature of angels and how they act as agencies of The Almighty is a mystery of the Unseen, which is beyond human knowledge or perception.
