Wisdom behind the creation of Angels
Question:
Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Shalih Al Uthaymeen was asked,
“What is the wisdom behind the creation of angels who write down people’s deed, whereas Allah knows about anything?”
Answer:
For such matters, we say that verily, sometimes we could find out the wisdom behind it, and sometimes we couldn’t. There are plenty of things that we know nothing about the wisdom behind their creation. Allah the Glorified and Exalted decreed, which can be translated as,
“They ask you about “the spirit”. Say: “The spirit descends by the command of my Lord, but you have been given only a little knowledge.” [Al-Isra/The Night Journey : 85]
Indeed, these creatures, if someone asked us, “What is the wisdom behind Allah’s creation of camel with this shape, and horse with this shape, and donkey with this shape, and mankind with this shape, and the likes?”
If he asked us about the wisdom behind all these creatures, we certainly have no knowledge about it. If he asked us, “What is the wisdom behind Allah’s order – Glorified and Exalted be He- to pray the dhuhur prayer four rak’ahs, the ashr prayer four rak’ahs, the maghrib prayer three rak’ahs, and Isha’ prayer four rak’ahs, and the likes”, we surely wont be able to know about it all.
By this explanation, we realize that there are still abundant of natural phenomena and shar’i matters which wisdoms are unclear to us. If that’s the case, then we say, “Indeed, our quest to disclose the wisdoms behind several created or ordered things, until we managed to disclose it, is indeed a great bounty, goodness, and knowledge, and if we couldn’t manage to disclose it, it wont lessen anything of our faith.
Now we go back to the answer of the question, what is the wisdom behind Allah’s order to the angels who write down our deeds and who know about all our deeds?
The wisdom is that it is as a clear picture of how Allah the Glorified and Exalted regulates every single thing, decides, and strengthens it, thus Allah the Glorified and Exalted created the angels who are tasked to write down anything that human did. While Allah is The All-Knowing about their deed before they do it. But it is all serve as a picture of the perfection of Allah’s -Glorified and Exalted be He- attention and maintenance to mankind. And verily, He has regulated this universe at its best, and strengthen it at its best. Allah is The All-Knowing, The Wise.
[Fatwa of Creed, by Sheikh Ibn Uthaymeen, page 347-348].
[Rewritten from the book “Al-Fatawa Asy-Syar’iyyah Fi Al-Masa’il Al-Ashriyyah Min Fatawa Ulama Al-Balad Al-Haram”, Indonesian title “Fatwa-Fatwa Terkini-3”, compiled by Khalid Al-Juraisy, translated by Amir Hamzah, Published by Darul Haq]
Article of www.WhatisQuran.com