I bring to mankind, from God, I counsel you to have faith in God, And you shall live |
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And now I beseech you Pray only to God. Do not fear death! Live the full number This is the message |
The Archangel Azrael is forever writing on a large scroll
and forever erasing what he has written; It is the sacred duty of Azrael to summon the departed spirit
into the arc, or its guardian angel, It is the responsibility of the Archangel Azrael This Azrael does with great delicacy and compassion, Above all, he transmits a feeling of great love Those who have shared an encounter with Azrael Azrael is not the foreboding apparition portrayed across the centuries. In reality, the Archangel Azrael is the most gentle and sensitive angel within God’s creation. |
From the book:
Angels A to Z, A Who's Who of the Heavenly Host
by: Matthew Bunson
Page 33
A young man was waling one day in Jerusalem when he looked up and, to his abject horror, was staring into the pale, frightening eyes of Azrael, the angel of death.
Screaming and running for his life....because he knew that no one encounters the angel who is not marked for death....he begged to be received by the mighty and wise King Solomon to implore his advice.
The king agreed to hear his remarkable tale and, after pondering the man's problem, counseled him to flee from Jerusalem, as the angel was said to be required to go to an appointed place and there find the soul who was to die.
By departing Jerusalem, the man might be able to avoid death altogether, having been blessed with the good fortune of seeing Azrael just before the expected time.
The man rode desperately out of the gates of Jerusalem and went straight to Damascus.
Much relieved upon entering the city, he went suddenly white with fear, for there in his path was Azrael.
Now unable to escape, the man cried to the angel that he had avoided death in Jerusalem.
"You see," Azrael said cheerfully, "I was supposed to meet you here in Damascus, so I was quite surprised to find you in Jerusalem."
With that, the angel reached out and snatched the soul from the astonished mortal.
Page 34 - 35
The much feared angel of death in both Islamic and Hebrew lore, whose name means "whom God helps."
Among the Muslims, Azrael possesses four thousand wings and seventy thousand feet.
Most important, he was given a supply of eyes and tongues exactly equal to the number of people inhabiting the world.
Each time Azrael blinks one of his eyes, it signifies that another person has died.
He came to the task by virtue of a surprisingly difficult job given to the angel by God.
The Lord commanded that Michael, Gabriel and Israfel journey to the earth and return with seven handfuls of dirt with which God planned to create Adam.
The earth, however, refused to give up its treasure, moaning that mankind should not be created because they would turn against God and bring only sadness.
As the three angels returned empty handed, the Lord chose a fourth, Azrael.
Far more determined, Azrael wrenched from the earth the dirt and brought it before the heavenly throne.
As a reward, God made Azrael the angel responsible for separating the human soul from the body at the moment of death.
Aside from his blinking eyes, Azrael also keeps track of the dying by scribbling ceaselessly into a mighty book.
He writes into the book the births of the living and just as often erases other names....those who have died.
Azrael does not know, though, when each person is to die.
In fact, he learns it when a leaf, bearing the name of the soon-to-be=deceased, falls off one of the branches of the incomparable tree below the throne of God.
Azrael reads the name and knows that he is to separate the soul forty days later.
Not surprisingly, some mortals resist departing the world.
To entice them, Azrael places beneath their noses an apple plucked from the tree of life; this proves more than sufficient.
In some Islamic legends Azrael is actually to be identified with Raphael, the archangel most closely associated with the life of humanity.