Text copied Link copied

Al-Fatawa – home

﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

Scholar
Search mode

Continuation of the explanation of the hadith of 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As (may Allah be pleased with them both): (Allah the Mighty and Majestic says to whom He wills of His angels: Go to them and give them life)

Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh : Therefore, the reward for these people on the Day of Resurrection is what came in this hadith:
Allah the Mighty and Majestic says to whom He wills of His angels: Go to them and give them life, so the angels say: Our Lord, we are the inhabitants of Your sky and Your choice from Your creation, do You command us to come to these people and greet them? فيقول الله عزوجل لمن يشاء من ملائكته: ائتوهم فحيوهم، فتقول الملائكة: ربنا نحن سكان سمائك وخيرتك من خلقك أفتأمرنا أن نأتي هؤلاء فنسلم عليهم
In this hadith, there is an important theological benefit in which the scholars of theology have long differed. It is a well-known issue in the books of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and books of 'aqidah (creed), which is: Are the angels better or the humans?!
And because it is known that among humans there are the righteous and the wicked, some scholars expressed it thus: "The righteous among humans are better than the angels", and some said the opposite: "The angels are better than the righteous among humans", and some refrained from giving a ruling, among them Imam Abu Hanifah (may Allah have mercy on him). Refraining is the position required by the scientific and legal principles when there is no explicit text in the issue, neither from the Book nor from the Prophetic Sunnah. But since we have found this text, which is before you, where the angels, when commanded by our Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He, on the Day of Resurrection to come to those poor emigrants described by the previous attributes, are commanded to come to them and give them life, the angels say:
We are the inhabitants of Your sky نحن سكان سمائك
First: This phrase contains an indication of preference. We are the inhabitants of Your sky, not the inhabitants of Your earth, and the sky is better than the earth. That is only because of the inhabitants therein, the angels, who are described as:
they do not disobey Allah in what He commands them but do what they are commanded. لا يعصون الله ما أمرهم ويفعلون ما يؤمرون
[At-Tahrim 66:6]
, and that is only as came in some authentic hadiths: There is no place in the sky of a span's width except that in it is an angel of Allah standing, bowing, or prostrating. So the angels indicate, then they express explicitly in clear terms that the angels are better because they are the inhabitants of the sky, and the sky is better than the earth. Then they state explicitly and say:
and Your choice from Your creation وخيرتك من خلقك
So this hadith cuts off the dispute and removes the argument in the aforementioned issue. We say as the angels said:
We are Your choice from Your creation نحن خيرتك من خلقك
, so the angels of Allah are better and more beloved to Allah than any creation of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, by the evidence of this hadith.
Someone might say: This issue does not deserve a long research. I say that is so, but with one condition: when there is no such text. But since the issue has been researched and many pages have been written on it, and the book closest to the Sunnah among these is the book Sharh al-Tahawiyyah, and yet the author, although he took the position that correct science dictates, which is not deciding by preferring the angels over the righteous humans or the opposite, because he did not recall this hadith, nevertheless he wrote two pages or more and in the end reached nothing, because he said: Since there is no text in the issue, the best is to refrain. This position is the correct one. And since the topic has been researched at length, there is no harm in us mentioning this benefit contained in this hadith and linking it to that long and broad disagreement. We say: If you hear this disagreement, cut it off and end it with the testimony of the angels about themselves and their saying to their Lord: نحن سكّان سمائك وخيرتك من خلقك أفتأمرنا أن نأتي هؤلاء فنسلم عليهم قال إنهم كانوا عبادً -أو عُبّادً لعل هذا أولى- يعبدوني لا يُشركون بي شيئًا، وتُسد بهم الثغور وتُتقى بهم المكاره، ويموت أحدهم وحاجته في صدره لا يستطيع لها قضاءً، قال: فتأتيهم الملائكة عند ذلك فيدخلون عليهم من كل باب سلام عليكم بما صبرتم فنعم عقبى الدار We are the inhabitants of Your sky and Your choice from Your creation, do You command us to come to these people and greet them? He said: They were worshippers—or perhaps 'ubbad (devotees) is more appropriate—who worshipped Me and did not associate anything with Me, and the frontiers are secured by them and the evils are averted by them, and one of them dies with his need in his chest, unable to fulfill it. He said: Then the angels come to them at that time and enter upon them from every door, saying: Peace be upon you for what you have been patient in, so good is the abode of the home..
Source alathar.net

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

Similar fatwas