The Essence of Islam – Volume II — Page 151
Angles 151 lent even if it is a speck of dust, or is a drop of water which enters a pearl-oyster, or is a drop of water which enters the womb by the spiritual training of the angels of God becomes a pearl, or a ruby, or an emerald, or a sapphire, or a man of superior heart and mind. . . . . Angels are the Life of the Planets. The manner in which the Holy Qur'ān has expounded the subject of angels is straightforward and reasonable and there is no escape from accepting it. Deep reflection over the Holy Qur'an discloses that for the development of man, and indeed for the external and internal development of the whole universe, some intermediaries are needed. It appears clearly from certain indications in the. Qur'ān that some of the pure beings that are called angels have distinct relationship with heavenly bodies. Some of them drive the wind and some cause the rain to descend and some others cause other influences to descend upon the earth. There is no doubt that those pure creations would be related to the bright and illumined stars that are in heaven, but this relationship should not be deemed to be the relationship that exists between every animate and its soul. Those pure spirits have, on account of the brightness and light that they possess, an indeterminate spiritual relationship with the bright stars which is so strong that, if it were to be supposed that those pure spirits had departed from those stars, the faculties of the latter would be upset. It is through the hidden power of those spirits that the stars carry out their functions. It might be said that as God Almighty is, as it were, the life of the universe, those illumined spirits are, as it were, the life of the planets and stars and by their departure the condition of the planets and the stars is bound to be