The Twenty-eighth Letter

Second issue

 

(This treatise removes all doubt over the Tradition saying that Prophet Moses slapped Archangel Azrail, the Angel of Death, on the eye.372)

 

Someone bought me a reliable book, which contains a Prophetic Tradition bearing the sign to show that Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim agreed on its authenticity, and asked me whether it was so.

I replied: We should rely upon the judgment of the person who inserted that sign. Thus the Tradition is authentic. However, some Prophetic Traditions, like some Qur’anic verses, are allegorical and have meanings that can be understood only by distinguished scholars. This Tradition may fall into this category.

Later, I heard that it had been discussed in Egridir. Such discussions are harmful, especially now. If I had known of this, I would have answered as follows:

FIRST: Such discussions may be permissible if they occur between qualified persons to discern the truth and result in clarity. Its participants must be able to admit the truth even if it is reached by their opponents. In such a case, those in the wrong have overcome their ignorance or corrected their error. If they are right, they have learned nothing new and may become boastful.

SECOND: Participants must know the degrees of Traditions, implicit Revelation, and categories of the Prophetic sayings. They cannot debate such matters in public, acting like advocates defending their own opinions and so displaying their virtues and placing their egoism over the truth. Such discussions usually affect people negatively, for they encourage people to deny authentic Traditions they do not understand, either because they are allegorical or because an allegorical Tradition’s literal acceptance may cause the people of misguidance to reject them as superstitions. Given this, whether the Tradition concerned is authentic or not, a truth to remove doubts about such matters and allegorical Traditions must be explained.

Although I have analyzed such matters in The Twenty-fourth Word and The Nineteenth Letter, I discuss it here briefly, as follows: Angels are not limited to one form, for they can represent an entire species by assuming a particular form. As Archangel Azrail is the Angel of Death having subordinates or aids, scholars debate whether he takes every soul by himself or his subordinates also do so. While discussing the three opinions on this issue, I shall try to explain the meaning of: “Prophet Moses slapped Azrail on the eye.”

FIRST OPINION: Azrail takes the soul of everybody. Created from light, he can be omnipresent and simultaneously assume many forms and do countless things. All different forms of such light-created beings have that being’s properties and so are considered to be identical with its essence. As the sun’s reflections in mirrors display its heat and light, the ideal forms of light derived spirit beings in various mirrors of the World of Ideas are identical with their essences and possess their properties.

Nevertheless, they take on forms according to the reflecting capacity of the mirrors. For example, Archangel Gabriel was present in thousands of places and in different forms while prostrating before God’s Supreme Throne of Honor with his magnificent wings stretching from east to west, and when the Companions saw him in the form of the Companion Dihya. He takes a different form according to the place’s reflecting quality, and can be present in thousands of places at once.

According to this opinion, Moses, who was a glorious Messenger of God and one of the five greatest Prophets, could have slapped a particular human form of Azrail when he appeared to take his soul.

SECOND OPINION: Such archangels  as Gabriel, Michael, and Azrail have subordinates that both resemble and are supervised by them and who differ according to the creature’s species. For example, the subordinate angel taking the souls of the righteous differs from the one taking the souls of the wicked.373 This is indicated in: By those who pluck out violently; by those who draw out gently (79:1-2). According to this opinion, Moses could have slapped the ideal, energetic body of one of Azrail’s subordinates because of his glory, might, inborn courage, and his being beloved by God Almighty.374

THIRD OPINION: As explained in The Twenty-ninth Word and indicated by various Prophetic Traditions, some angels have 40,000 heads, each with 40,000 tongues and 80,000 eyes, and 40,000 praises sung by each tongue. Since some angels supervise species of creatures in this world and represent their praises and glorifications in the World of Spirits, they should be as described by the Tradition mentioned above. For example, Earth is a creature that glorifies God. It does not have 40,000 tongues, but rather countless species, each corresponding to a head. Each species has countless individual members, each corresponding to a tongue. Given this, the angel supervising Earth should have countless tongues in countless heads.

According to this opinion, Azrail has a face turned to and an eye looking at each person. So Moses did not slap the person of Azrail in his essential nature to reject and humiliate him, but only one of his eyes that willed to end his mission, because he wanted to continue his duty of Messengership. Only God knows the truth and the Unseen. Say: “Knowledge is with God only.”

He sent the Book to you, and in it are clear and allegorical verses. Those with hearts that swerve pursue the allegorical, seeking dissension and (distorted) interpretations. Yet only God knows its (true) interpretation. Those firmly grounded in knowledge say: “We believe in it, [for] it is all from our Lord.” Yet, only people of discernment heed this.

Said Nursi

372 Bukhari, Anbiya’, 31; Muslim, Fada’il, 157.

373 When the Angel of Death charged with taking the souls of saints approached a great saint known to us and having the title of “Sayda,” those by his death bed heard him pray: “Let an angel charged with taking the souls of students of religious sciences take mine, for I like those students very much.”

374 It is narrated that a brave man from our province saw the Angel of Death while dying. He exclaimed: “You have seized me in bed!” Mounting his horse and raising his sword, he challenged the angel and thus died bravely.