which will utter forty thousand Divine glorifications, which will know that splendid, unconscious, innate worship, represent it consciously, and offer it to the Divine Court, as the Bringer of Sure News informed us absolutely correctly.
Also, the existence and extraordinary nature of angels like Gabriel (Peace be upon him), who conveys and announces the dominical relations with man, the most important result of the universe’s creation; and Israfil (Peace be upon him) and Azra’il (Peace be upon him), who merely represent the Creator’s most awesome actions in the world of animate beings, which are the raising to life and giving of life, and the release from duties with death, and they supervise them in worshipful manner; and Michael (Peace be upon him) who besides supervising the bounties of the Most Merciful in food, which is the most extensive and most pleasurable mercy in the sphere of life, consciously represents unconscious thanks — the existence and extraordinary nature of angels like these, and the immortality of their spirits, are necessitated by the sovereignty and splendour of dominicality. Their existence and that of their own species is as certain and free of doubt as the existence of the sovereignty and splendour that are to be seen in the universe as clearly as the sun. Comparisons may be made with this for other matters concerning the angels.
Yes, the All-Powerful One of Glory and Beauty created four hundred thousand species of living beings on the earth, and created beings with spirits in great abundance, even out of common and rotting substances, filling everywhere with them. In the face of the miracles of His art He causes them to declare: “What wonders God has willed! How great are God’s blessings! Glory be to God!”, and before the gifts of His mercy: “All praise be to God! All thanks be to God! God is Most Great!” Most certainly and without doubt therefore He created inhabitants and spirit beings suitable for the vast heavens, who never rebel and perform constant worship. Not leaving the heavens empty, He populated them with these beings. He created too countless different sorts of angels, far greater in number than the animal species. Some in tiny form, mount raindrops and snowflakes and applaud the Divine art and mercy in their own tongues. Others mount the travelling stars and on their journeys through space, through their Divine exaltations and pronouncements of Divine Unity, proclaim to the world their worship before the