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yunazzilu l-malāʾikata bi-r-rūḥi min ʾamrihī ʿalā man yashāʾu min ʿibādihī ʾan ʾandhirū ʾannahū lā ʾilāha ʾillā ʾana fa-ttaqūni
He sends down the angels with the spirit of His command to whomever He wishes of His servants: ‘Warn [the people] that there is no god except Me; so be wary of Me.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah An-Nahl – Verse 2
2. “He sends down the angels with the inspiration of His commandment upon whomever of His servants He wills as to warn (people) that there is no God but I, so be in awe of Me.”
The Arabic term /rūh/ refers to one of the Divine near-stationed angels the name of which is mentioned separately in the Qur’an and has come beside the word ‘the angels’:
“The Day (on which) the spirit (Rūh) and the angels shall stand arrayed…” 1
However, in the verse under discussion the letter /b/ (with) is employed between the two words used instead of the conjunction /wa/ (and). Perhaps, the meaning intended in this verse is not ‘that angel’ when dealing with /rūh/, but it may mean the literal sense of the word which is the spiritual life. In this case the verse signifies: Allah sends down the angels along with the means of life to those servants whom He pleases; as is the case in verse 50 from Surah Ash-Shour a, where the word /rūh/ denotes the Qur’an which is the source of spiritual life.2
In any case, as no punishment and retribution will be inflicted on anyone without adequate explanation and without delivering a just ultimatum, the Qur’an implies that Allah sends down angels with the Divine spirit to those of His servants whom He wants, ordering them to awaken the people to the fact that there is no other one to be worshipped except Him. Therefore, they should avoid any opposition to His commandments and feel responsible when confronting Him.
The verse says:
“He sends down the angels with the inspiration of His commandment upon whomever of His servants He wills as to warn (people) that there is no God but I, so be in awe of Me.”
Footnotes