Muḥammad

فَكَيْفَ إِذَا تَوَفَّتْهُمُ الْمَلائِكَةُ يَضْرِبُونَ وُجُوهَهُمْ وَأدْبَارَهُمْ

ذَلِكَ بِأنَّهُمُ اتَّبَعُوا مَا أسْخَطَ اللَّهَ وَكَرِهُوا رِضْوَانَهُ فَأحْبَطَ أعْمَالَهُمْ

27. Then how will it be when the angels will take their souls at death, smiting their faces and their backs?

28. That is because they followed that which angered Allah and disliked that which pleased Him. So He made their deeds fruitless.

The word tawfi indicates “taking back in full what has been given to someone.” The word is employed in the Qur’an in the sense of “death” since death is actually taking back the soul from the body. Death is not on a par with annihilation but it denotes taking back the soul in full by the angels. Attending to the transience of the world, the end of conspiracies, and tasting the torment may hinder man from hatching plots. The blessed Verse warns those who are deceived by satanic beautification of their vices and make Muslims turn away from the Path of Truth through empty promises. All creatures are the Divine Host. Angels responsible for taking the souls also constitute the Divine Host.

They are the enemies of God’s enemies and the friends of God’s friends. Wielding their blazing whips they strike blows on the enemies of God since they followed falsehood and turned away from Truth. They followed the objects of Divine Wrath and disliked to obtain His Satisfaction. Their good deeds, if any, will be rendered vain and they will be the objects of Divine Wrath.⁴

Footnotes

1. 4. According to a tradition narrated from Imam Baqir and Imam Sadiq (as) “who dislike what Allah has sent down” refers to Umayyads who were displeased with the Divine Decree regarding ‘Ali’s (as) Imamate, see Nur al-Thiqalayn, vol. 5, p. 43, hadith 70 apud Mufid’s Rawdhat al-Wa’iÛin; Majma’ al-Bayan, vol.9, p.105. It is needless to say that it expresses the partial meaning of the Verse rather than the total meaning of the same.