rightly belongs to the Beneficent, and it will be a hard day for the disbelievers” (25:25, 26). This shows that it was the promised punishment of the unjust which was hinted at in the coming of the angels. Elsewhere it is said: “And if thou couldst see when the angels cause to die those who disbelieve, smiting their faces and their backs” (8:50). “But how will it be when the angels cause them to die, smiting their faces and their backs?” (47:27). And on one occasion, the demand and the answer are thus put together: “Why bringest thou not the angels to us if thou art of the truthful? We send not the angels but with truth, and then they would not be respited” (15:7, 8).
Another very important function of the angels is that of intercession— an intercession which includes both the believer and the unbeliever. As God “has ordained mercy on Himself” (6:12), and His “mercy encompasses all things” (7:156) — in fact, it was to show mercy that “He created them” (11:119) — it was necessary that His angels, who are intermediaries carrying out His will, should include all in their intercession. The intercession of the angels is mentioned in the Holy Qur’ān on one occasion in particular: “And how many angels are there in the heavens whose intercession avails not except after Allāh gives permission to whom He pleases and chooses” (53:26). The Ḥadīth also speaks of the intercession of angels (Bu. 98:24). Now intercession is really a prayer to God on behalf of the sinners on the Day of Judgment, but we are told that the angels pray for men even in this life: “The angels celebrate the praise of their Lord and ask forgiveness for those on earth” (42:5), “those on earth” including both the believer and the unbeliever. And while this prayer is all-comprehensive, it grows stronger in the case of believers: “Those who bear the Throne of Power and those around it celebrate the praise of their Lord and believe in Him and ask protection for those who believe: Our Lord, Thou embracest all things in mercy and knowledge, so protect those who turn to Thee and follow Thy way … (and) make them enter the gardens of perpetuity which Thou hast promised them and such of their fathers and their wives and their offspring as are good … and guard them from evil” (40:7-9). As a result of the prayers of the angels, the faithful are actually guided forth from