Overview (Verse 1)

 The Originator 
 
All praise is due to God, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, who assigns angels to be messengers, endowed with wings, two, or three, or four. He adds to His creation what He pleases. Indeed God has power over all things. (Verse 1)
 
The sūrah begins by offering all praise to God, as its whole purpose is to make our hearts turn to Him, contemplate His signs, appreciate His mercy, and look at the wonders of His creation. We are made to fully appreciate these wonders so that our hearts overflow with His praise and glorification: “All praise is due to God.”
 
Next comes God’s attribute indicating creation and His bringing it into being: “the Originator of the heavens and the earth.” It is He who has originated all these great bodies, some of which we see around us. We know only a little about the smallest and nearest to us of all these bodies, i.e. our mother earth. Yet they are all subject to one law of nature that keeps them in harmony, despite the huge distances separating them, which we can only imagine with great difficulty. Despite their great sizes and endless spaces separating their orbits, there exists certain relations between them which, if disturbed even by just a little, could lead to a major catastrophe.
 
We often pay little attention to Qur’ānic references to the creation of the heavens and the earth, or to its scenic descriptions of the universe. This is because our senses have been blunted by familiarity. Therefore, these scenes do not elevate us to the same level of inspiration that they give a heart that remembers God always, and thus remains sensitive to what His able hand produces. Only such a heart feels the awe these scenes impart.
 
An alert heart which maintains its bond with God does not need accurate information about the exact positions of stars, their sizes, relations to each other in position or movement, the thickness of the atmosphere around each, or the orbits they follow in order to appreciate the awesomeness of this great, wonderful and beautiful creation. It is enough for such a heart that these scenes play their precisely stringed music. It is enough for it to look at the stars shining across the dark night sky; or the light reflected by a full moon; or the dawn breaking through the darkness giving a feeling of new life; or the sunset heralding the darkness that brings a feeling of farewell; or the earth with its endless vistas; or indeed a single flower with its colour and shape that takes us long to contemplate.
 
The Qur’ān gives us inspiring directives so that we contemplate these creatures, large and small. Looking at only one of them is enough evidence of the greatness of its Creator and makes us address our glorification, praise and prayer to Him alone.
 
“All praise is due to God, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, who assigns angels to be messengers, endowed with wings, two, or three, or four.” (Verse 1) This sūrah dwells long on God’s messengers, revelation and the truth it contains. The angels are God’s messengers to His chosen servants on earth. The message they bring is the greatest thing in life. Hence God follows the reference to His creation of the heavens and the earth by mentioning the role of the angels whereby it is they who make contact between heaven and earth, fulfilling the greatest task of all as they deliver His message. It is a message from the Originator of the heavens and the earth to His prophets whom He sends as guides to mankind.
 
For the first time in the Qur’ān we have a physical description of the angels. Previously we were given descriptions of their nature and role, such as “Those that are with Him are never too proud to worship Him and never grow weary of that. They extol His limitless glory by night and day, tirelessly.” (21: 19-20) “Those who are near to your Lord are never too proud to worship Him. They extol His limitless glory, and before Him alone prostrate themselves.” (7: 206) Here, however, we have a reference to their physical appearance. They are ‘endowed with wings, two, or three, or four.’ This description does not, however, help us imagine how they look, because we do not know anything about their physique or about the form their wings take. We can do no more than take this description as it is, without adding anything from our imagination, for anything we may imagine could be wrong. We do not have any definite description of how the angels look from a reliable source. What we do have though in the Qur’ān is this description and a reference to the angels in charge of hell: “Over it are appointed angels who are stern and severe: they do not disobey God in whatever He has commanded them, but always do what they are bidden to do.” (66: 6) Again this description does not give any physical delineation. It is reported in a ĥadīth that ‘the Prophet saw Gabriel in his natural form twice.’ One report mentions that Gabriel ‘has 600 wings’. [Related by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.] Again we do not have here a physical description, so we must leave it at the level God has imparted to us, accepting that all knowledge belongs to Him.
 
Wings are specified as being in twos, threes and fours, but man knows only a two- winged form in all birds. Therefore, the opening verse states that God ‘adds to His creation what He pleases,’ thus making it clear that God’s will is free, unlimited to any one form of creation. We know and see countless forms of creation, but the ones we do not know about are far more numerous. “Indeed God has power over all things.” This comment is broader and more comprehensive than the statement before it. Its import applies to all forms of creation, origination, transformation and alteration.