Angels of Pure Light

So the next thing to move to is the idea of what is called the belief in Allah, the belief in the angels, the books, and the messengers — and the angels have not yet been covered in much depth. The angels are basically beings made of pure light: created light, not uncreated divine light, but created light. And there is a belief in the angels: that there are angels with us wherever we are. The Muslims believe that there are two angels with us right now — each one of us, whether Muslim or not, has two angels assigned. One is called Raqīb and the other is called ʿAtīd:

And one of the things the Muslim does in the prayer is to say al-salāmu ʿalaykum: one is greeting the angels. So this is a type of becoming conscious of the angelic presence. Part of the gift of that is to feel shy before the angels. Because the dominant function of these two angels is recording actions. Recording actions. According to the Muslim tradition, the angel of the right records good actions, and the angel of the left records bad actions. Now, according to the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), if a person does a bad action, the angel of the right does not write it down.^** It waits. And if the person asks forgiveness before the end of the day for that wrong action, it does not write it down; but if they do not, it writes it down. The angel of the right immediately writes down a good action. And there are even actions that are based on intention. So the angel of the right — and this is the idea that God's mercy is over God's wrath, that it takes precedence over the wrath of God.

There are also angels that have the functions of maintaining order. Now, in the West there is an idea of angels that comes from pictures, and so when people think of angels they start thinking of females, or males, with wings and things like this. And although the angels are described as having wings, from the Muslim point of view there is not an anthropomorphic type: we do not project onto the angels. They have neither sex; they are not male or female, according to the Islamic tradition. And they do what they are told. They cannot disobey God, and they are made of pure light.