Angel of Death (Izra'il)

Malak al-Mawt (the Angel of Death) is mentioned in the Quran in Surah al-Sajdah (32:11): 'Say: The angel of death will take you who has been entrusted with you. Then to your Lord you will be returned.' He is responsible for taking the souls of all creatures at the moment of death, by the command of Allah. The name Izra'il (Azrael) for this angel appears in some Islamic scholarly works and is widely known in popular tradition, though it does not appear in the Quran or the most authentic hadith — the Quran uses the title Malak al-Mawt. He has assistants (the angels of death) who help with the actual process of the soul's departure from the body, but he is the chief overseer of this task. One of the most significant encounters with the Angel of Death in Islamic history is narrated in hadith about Musa AS: when the Angel of Death came to take Musa's soul, Musa struck him and knocked out his eye. The Angel of Death reported this to Allah, who gave him back his eye and sent him again to Musa, asking him whether he wished to live. Musa asked how long, was told one year for every hair he could hold in his hand, and declined — asking instead to be brought near the Holy Land, which was granted. The Prophet ﷺ said: 'Were it permissible to report any grave, I would show you the grave of Musa beside the red sand dune.' The Malak al-Mawt appears in Islamic eschatology at every death and is a constant reminder of the temporary nature of worldly life.