The Teachers of the Angels Part 1 of 2

Ayatullah Sayyid Muhammad Taqi Musawi Isfahani quoting Shaykh Saduq

Shaykh Sadooq has quoted an authentic tradition from His Eminence, Ali bin Moosa ar-Reza (a.s.) from his father, Moosa bin Ja’far from his father, Ja’far bin Muhammad from his father Muhammad bin Ali from his father Ali bin al-Husain from his father, Husain bin Ali from his father Ali bin Abi Talib that the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said:

“The Almighty Allah has not created any creature better than me and there is no one more respectable near Him than me.”

Ali (a.s.) says that he asked, “O Allah’s Messenger, are you better or Jibraeel?”

He (the Prophet) replied, “O Ali, Almighty Allah has given superiority to the Messenger Prophets over His proximate angels and He gave me superiority over all the Messengers and Prophets. And O Ali, after me you and after youthe Imams are having superiority over them because the angels of God are our servants and servants of our friends. O Ali, the bearers of the Arsh and the angels around it praise and glorify their Lord and they pray for the forgiveness of those who believe in your Wilayat (mastership). O Ali, if we hadn’t been there, Almighty Allah would neither have created His Eminence, Adam (a.s.) nor Her Eminence, Hawwa (a.s.); neither Paradise nor Hell, neither the earth nor the sky.

And why shouldn’t we be superior to the angels? We have preceded them in praising and glorifying our Lord. It is so because the first creations of Allah were the souls and He made us speaking with His unity and magnification.Then He created the angels. When they saw us with an effulgence (Noor), they considered our affair to be of a great importance.

I said: ‘Glory be to Allah’, so that the angels may understand that we are creatures and servants of God. And that the Almighty Allah is more exalted and purified than our qualities. So by our glorification the angels learnt how to glorify Allah and they understood that God is purified and clean of qualities (of the creatures).

And when they noticed our greatness and majesty, we said: ‘There is no god except Allah’, so that the angels may understand that there is no one worthy of deification except Allah and that we are the servants of God, we are not partners in His divinity. Thus they (also) reiterated: ‘There is no god except Allah.’

When the angels realized our greatness we said: ‘Allah is the Greatest’, so that they may understand that God is much greater than which can be imagined and all the greatness, power and strength is reserved only for God.

After that when they saw that Allah has bestowed us with honor and power, we said: ‘There is no power and strength except by Allah, the High and the great’, so that the angels may understand that there is no power and might except for Allah. Thus the angels also repeated: ‘There is no power and strength except by Allah.’

When they witnessed the bounties that Allah has bestowed on us and that our obedience is made incumbent on all creatures by Him, we said: ‘AlHamdulillaah’ (Praise be to Allah) so that the angels may know that it is the right of Allah upon us to thank Him for His bounties. So the angels also said: ‘Al Hamdulillaah’.

In other words, the angels received guidance through our Barakat, and understood the unity, glorification, praise and magnification of God.

[Mikyalul Makarim Fee Fawaaid ad-Duaa Lil Qaaim; Ayatullah Sayyid Muhammad Taqi Musawi Isfahani, quoting Kamaluddin wa Tamaam an-Ni’mah; Shaykh Saduq; Vol. 1/254]