سورة الأنبياء

Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him): It is narrated from Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) that Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him) said: ... "As for the Throne about which he asked — from what Allah created it — the Throne is the fourth thing that He created. Before it He had created the air, the Pen and the light. Then He created the Throne from lights of various colours: among them a green light, from which greenness came into being; a yellow light, from which yellownesses come; a red light, from which rednesses come; and a white light, which is the light of lights, and from it comes the brightness of the day. Then He made it into seventy thousand layers, the thickness of each layer being like the distance from the Throne down to the lowest of the low. Every layer glorifies and sanctifies Him with different voices which are not confused with one another. If one of those voices were made manifest and its sound reached what lies beneath it, all the mountains, cities and walls would be destroyed, the seas would be split open, and whatever else there is would perish. The Throne has eight pillars, and each pillar is borne by a company of angels who glorify Allah night and day without wearying, and none knows their number but Allah. If one of the voices that are above the Throne were sensed, it would not last a single moment. But between those voices and the senses lie al-Jabarut (omnipotence), al-Kibriya (grandeur), al-'Azamah (magnificence), al-Quds (holiness), al-Rahmah (mercy) and al-'Ilm (knowledge). Beyond this there is nothing to be said."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Dawud ibn Farqad al-'Attar narrates that one of our companions asked me: "Inform me about the angels — do they sleep?" I said: "I do not know." He said: "Allah the Mighty and Majestic says: يُسَبِّحُونَ اللَّيْلَ وَ النَّهارَ لا يَفْتُرُونَ [They glorify (Him) by night and day; they are never languid]." Then he said: "Shall I not tell you something fresh from Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) on this?" I said: "Yes." He said: He was asked about this and he answered: "There is no living thing but that it sleeps, except Allah the Blessed and Exalted. The angels too sleep." I said: "But Allah says: يُسَبِّحُونَ اللَّيْلَ وَ النَّهارَ لا يَفْتُرُونَ [They glorify (Him) by night and day; they are never languid]?" He said: "Their breathing is the glorification of Allah."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Abu Abdullah al-Barqi narrates in a marfu' hadith: A man asked Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): "May my father and mother be sacrificed for you, regarding the verse يُسَبِّحُونَ اللَّيْلَ وَ النَّهارَ لا يَفْتُرُونَ [They glorify (Him) by night and day; they are never languid] and this verse: 'Allah and His angels send blessings upon the Prophet. O you who have believed, send blessings upon him and greet him with peace.' (al-Ahzab/56), in which the angels are described — what is it? Inform me! How is it that the angels do not grow languid while they send blessings upon the Prophet? For when they send blessings upon the Prophet, they should ordinarily be prevented from the remembrance of Allah." Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said: "When Allah created Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), He commanded the angels: 'To the extent that you send blessings upon the Prophet, reduce from My remembrance.' Thus when someone in prayer sends blessings upon Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), it is as though he is uttering this remembrance: سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَ اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ [Glory be to Allah, and praise be to Allah, and there is no god but Allah, and Allah is the Greatest]."

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): It is narrated from Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): It is [narrated] from the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) concerning what he saw during the Mi'raj, in which it comes; the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: "Then we passed by some of the angels of Allah the Mighty and Majestic, whom Allah has created as He willed and whose faces He has placed as He willed; there is no part of their bodies that does not glorify Allah and praise Him from every direction with different voices. Out of fear of Allah, their voices are raised in praise and weeping. I asked Jibra'il about them, and he said: 'They have been created just as you see them; never has an angel among them, beside his companion, spoken to him, and out of fear and reverence they have not raised their heads towards what is above them, nor have they lowered them towards what is below them.' I greeted them; so they returned my greeting by a gesture with their heads, while out of reverence [for Allah] they do not look at me. Jibra'il said to them: 'This is Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), the Prophet of Mercy; Allah has sent him to the servants as a messenger and prophet, and he is the seal of the prophets and their master; will you not speak with him?!' [The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family)] said: "When they heard that [statement] from Jibra'il, they turned to me, greeted me, honored me, and gave me glad tidings of good for myself and for my ummah."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Glorifiers who do not tire — neither does the sleep of eyes overcome them, nor the forgetfulness of minds, nor the weariness of bodies, nor the heedlessness of forgetting.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): In the manner of their prolonged obedience, no slackness finds its way in.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Muhammad ibn Muslim said: "I asked Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): what is the measure of the inheritance of knowledge? Is it general matters, or an explanation of every single thing about which we speak?" He said: "Indeed, Allah the Mighty and Majestic has two cities, one in the east and the other in the west. In them are a people who do not know Iblis and are unaware of his creation. We meet them at all times; they ask us about whatever they need, and they ask us for supplications, and we teach them, and they ask us when our Qa'im (may Allah the Exalted hasten his noble relief) will appear. They worship [Allah] and strive intensely in the worship of Allah. The distance between their two cities is one hundred farsakhs; they have glorification, supplication and intense striving. If you were to look upon them, you would consider your own deeds trivial. One of them keeps his head in the prostration of his prayer for a whole month; their food is tasbih (glorification), their garment is leaves, and their faces are radiant [with light]. When they see one of us Imams, they eagerly question him and gather around him, and they take up the dust from beneath his feet and seek blessing through it. When they pray, they raise a sound louder than the sound of a raging whirlwind. A group of them, from the time they began awaiting the appearance of our Qa'im (may Allah the Exalted hasten his noble relief), have not laid down their weapons; they are always ready, and they beseech Allah the Mighty and Majestic to show him to them. The lifespan of each of them is one thousand years. In their faces are visible khushu' (humility), fear of Allah and the seeking of Allah. When we hold ourselves back from them, they suppose it is out of anger against them. They watch and await the times we come to them; they neither grow weary nor languid. They recite the Qur'an just as we taught them, and among what we teach them are things which, if they were recited to the people, they would disbelieve in them and reject them. They ask us about the difficult passages of the Qur'an, and when we explain to them, they rejoice at what they hear from us, and they ask Allah for us for a long life and that they may not lose us; and they know that what we teach them is a great blessing from Allah bestowed upon them. They will go forth with the Qa'im Imam. When he rises, their armed forces are in the vanguard, and they beseech Allah the Mighty and Majestic for the victory of the Imam. Among them are elders and youths; when their youth passes his elder, he sits before him like a slave and does not rise until [the elder] commands him. Better than anyone else they know what command the Imam (peace be upon him) has; and once he issues a command to them, they stand firm upon it until he issues another command. If they were to descend upon all the creatures between east and west, they would annihilate them in a single hour. Iron does not affect them; they have swords made of iron other than this ordinary iron, and if one of them were to strike a mountain with his sword, he would cleave it in two. The Imam (peace be upon him) fights, with their help, India, Daylam, the Roman host, the Berbers and the Persians. And between Jabarsa and Jabalqa — which are two cities, one in the east and the other in the west — they call the people of every religion to Allah the Mighty and Majestic, to confession of the messengership of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), to tawhid, and to our wilayah, [the wilayah of] the Ahl al-Bayt. Whoever accepts and becomes a Muslim, they leave him and appoint a commander and amir from among themselves over him; and whoever does not accept and does not confess the messengership of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and does not become a Muslim, they kill him, until between the east and the west and below the mountains no one remains except a believer."

Imam Ali — narrated from Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) was asked, "Before Adam and his descendants, were there any of Allah's creatures on the earth who worshipped Allah?" He replied: "Yes. Indeed there were in the heavens and the earth creatures of Allah who sanctified Him and glorified Him, and by night and day, without slackness or failing, magnified Him. When Allah the Mighty and Majestic created the earths before the heavens, He created spiritual angels who had wings, flying wherever Allah willed, and He settled them between the layers of the heavens, and they sanctified Him night and day; and He chose from among them Israfil, Mika'il and Jibra'il. Then Allah the Mighty and Majestic created on the earth spiritual jinn with wings, who were lower than the angels, and He held them back from reaching the rank of the angels in flight and other things, and He settled them between the layers of the seven earths and above them, and they sanctified Allah night and day without becoming weary. Then He created below them creatures with bodies and souls but without wings, who ate and drank, called 'nasnas' — similar in creation to them, but not human beings — and He settled them, together with the jinn, in the middle of the earth and on its surface. They sanctified Allah night and day and did not slacken in worship. The jinn used to fly to the heavens and meet the angels, and they would greet them, visit them, take rest with them, and learn from them. Then a group of the jinn and the nasnas whom Allah had created and settled in the middle of the earth with the angels rebelled against the command of Allah; they became wicked and oppressed unjustly, and they outdid one another in insolence toward Allah, until they shed each other's blood, spread corruption, and denied the lordship of Allah the Exalted. The obedient group of the jinn stood firm in what is pleasing to Allah and in obedience to Him, and they separated themselves from the two groups of jinn and nasnas who had rebelled against the command of Allah the Exalted. Allah stripped away the wings of the group of jinn who had rebelled against the command of Allah and disobeyed, so they could not fly to the heavens or meet the angels, because they had committed sins and disobedience. The group of jinn obedient to the command of Allah continued to fly to the heavens night and day as before, and Iblis — whose name was al-Harith — used to pretend to the angels that he was of the obedient, submitting group. Then Allah the Exalted created a creation unlike the angels, unlike the jinn, and unlike the nasnas. They crawled as the vermin crawl on the earth. They ate and drank as cattle eat from the pastures of the earth. All of them were male; there were no females among them. Allah did not place in them desire for women, love of children, greed, long hopes, or the pleasure and enjoyment of life. Night did not cover them nor did day overtake them. They were neither beasts nor vermin. Their clothing was the leaves of trees, and they drank from gushing springs and great streams. Then Allah willed to divide them into two groups. He placed one group behind the place of the sun's rising, beyond the sea, and He built for them a city called Jabarsa, twelve thousand farsakhs by twelve thousand farsakhs, and He built around it an iron wall reaching from the earth to the sky, and He settled them there. And the other group He cast behind the place of the sun's setting, beyond the sea, and He built for them a city called Jabalqa, twelve thousand farsakhs by twelve thousand farsakhs, with an iron wall reaching to the sky, and He settled them there. The people of Jabarsa do not know the place of the people of Jabalqa, nor do the people of Jabalqa know the place of the people of Jabarsa, nor do the people of the middle of the earth from among the jinn and the nasnas know either of them. The sun shines upon the people of the middle of the earths — that is, the jinn and the nasnas — and they benefit from its heat and see by its light; then it sets in a muddy spring, and the people of Jabalqa are unaware of it when it sets, and likewise the people of Jabarsa are unaware of it when it rises, because it rises on the far side of Jabarsa and sets on the far side of Jabalqa." It was said, "O Amir al-Mu'minin! Then how do they see and remain alive? How do they eat and drink when the sun does not shine upon them?" He said: "They take light from the light of Allah, which is more radiant than the light of the sun. They do not know that Allah has created a sun, or a moon, or stars, or planets, and they know nothing other than Him." It was said, "O Amir al-Mu'minin! What connection does Iblis have with them?" He said: "They do not know Iblis and have not heard mention of him, and they know none but Allah, the One, who has no partner. Not one of them has ever committed an error or a sin; they do not fall ill, they do not grow old, and they do not die until the Day of Resurrection. They worship Allah and do not slacken in worship. Night and day are the same to them." And he said: "Indeed Allah, after seven thousand years had passed since the creation of the jinn and the nasnas, wished to create a new creation. When it was decreed in Allah's creation that He would create Adam, in order to arrange and determine what He was bringing into being in the heavens and the earths, He raised the veils of the heavens."