Angels

"We must not suppose that it is the result of chance that a particular duty is assigned to a particular angel; the work of curing and healing, for instance, to Raphael; the supervising of wars to Gabriel; the task of attending to the prayers and supplications of mortals to Michael. We must believe that they have obtained their duties for no other reason except their own individual merits and that they entered upon them as a reward for the zeal and virtue they displayed before the construction of this world; after which event this or that kind of duty was assigned to each member of the order of archangels, while others were counted worthy of being enrolled in the order of angels and to act under this or that archangel, or under this or that leader or chief of his order. All this, as we have said was arranged not by chance or at random, but by the most appropriate and righteous judgment of God, being settled in accordance with merit, God himself deciding and approving. p. 85, Chapter VIII, Angels."

"No angelic office, therefore, exists except as a reward of merit, nor do authorities wield their authority except as a result of their progress, nor do those who are called thrones, that is, authorities for judging and ruling, administer their functions except as a reward of merit, nor do the dominions exercise dominion but by merit; for this supreme and most excellent order of rational creatures in the heavenly places is thus arranged in a glorious variety of offices. p. 89"

"We know the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm?"

"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

"Not all angels play the harp, Or sing in heaven’s choir. Some of them are warriors Who fly on wings of fire."

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

"Men would be angels, angels would be gods."

"They swear their strongest oaths by Allah, that if a (special) sign came to them, by it they would believe. Say: "Certainly (all) signs are in the power of Allah: but what will make you (Muslims) realise that (even) if (special) signs came, they will not believe"? We (too) shall turn to (confusion) their hearts and their eyes, even as they refused to believe in this in the first instance: We shall leave them in their trespasses, to wander in distraction. Even if We did send unto them angels, and the dead did speak unto them, and We gathered together all things before their very eyes, they are not the ones to believe, unless it is in Allah's plan. But most of them ignore (the truth). Likewise did We make for every Messenger an enemy,- evil ones among men and jinns, inspiring each other with flowery discourses by way of deception. If thy Lord had so planned, they would not have done it: so leave them and their inventions alone. To such (deceit) let the hearts of those incline, who have no faith in the hereafter: let them delight in it, and let them earn from it what they may."

"Or did We create the angels females, while they witnessed? Now surely it is of their own lie that they say: Allah has begotten. And truly they are liars."

"And how many angels are in the heavens, whose intercession avails naught except after Allah gives permission to whom He pleases and chooses. Surely those who believe not in the Hereafter name the angels with female names. And they have no knowledge of it. They follow but conjecture, and surely conjecture avails naught against Truth."

"A guardian angel o'er his life presiding, Doubling his pleasures, and his cares dividing."

"Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar With angels blest; but even from angelhood I must pass on: all except God doth perish. When I have sacrificed my angel-soul, I shall become what no mind e'er conceived. Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence Proclaims in organ tones, To Him we shall return."

"All angel now, and little less than all, While still a pilgrim in this world of ours."

"Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell."

"In Heaven an angel is nobody in particular."

"Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!"

"I charge thee, fling away ambition: by that sin fell the angels."

"How oft do they their silver bowers leave To come to succour us that succour want!"

"Why don't we make love 'stead of makin' plans Mother Nature, Father Time, maybe its the Family Man Angels cry when they hear that tune It's sleepless nights for the man in the moon And its the rhythm of life, mind's made up."

"Around our pillows golden ladders rise, And up and down the skies, With winged sandals shod, The angels come, and go, the Messengers of God! Nor, though they fade from us, do they depart— It is the childly heart We walk as heretofore, Adown their shining ranks, but see them nevermore."

"So when an angel by divine command With rising tempests shakes a guilty land, Such as of late o'er pale Britannia past, Calm and serene he drives the furious blast; And, pleas'd th' Almighty's orders to perform, Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm."

"I have a dream, a song to sing, To help me cope with anything. If you see the wonder of a fairy tale You can take the future even if you fail. I believe in angels, something good in everything I see. I believe in angels, when I know the time is right for me, I'll cross the stream, I have a dream."

"The people who walk angelically according to their free will and practice discipline in the life of the angels remove themselves completely from the desires of the flesh, beloved brothers; they die daily in the life that belongs to earth, but they live in the life of the angels, just as they share in the life of the Lord."

"An angel can illuminate the thought and mind of man by strengthening the power of vision, and by bringing within his reach some truth which the angel himself contemplates."

"Since a lower power acts in virtue of a higher power, a lower order performs actions proper to a higher order by acting in virtue of that higher power. But the higher orders possess in a more eminent way whatever is proper to the lower orders. Thus all things are in a certain sense common to the various orders. However, they receive their proper names from properties that are characteristic of each order. Nevertheless the lowest order of all retains the common name of angels for itself, for the reason that it acts, as it were, in virtue of all the rest. Furthermore, since the higher naturally influences the lower, and since intellectual action consists in instructing or teaching, the higher angels, in instructing the lower angels, are said to purify, illuminate, and perfect them."

"The Lord will command his angels to take good care of you. They will lift you up in their hands. Then you won't trip over a stone."

"O white-robed Angel, guide my timorous hand to write as on a lofty rock with iron pen the words of truth, that all who pass may read."

"Cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from ye door."

"I heard an Angel singing When the day was springing: "Mercy, Pity, and Peace Are the world's release.""

"A tear is an intellectual thing, And a sigh is the Sword of an Angel King."

"It is not because angels are holier than men or devils that makes them angels, but because they do not expect holiness from one another, but from God alone."

"The player is a liar when he says : "Angels are happier than men, because they are better." Angels are happier than men and devils, because they are not always prying after good and evil in one another, and eating the tree of knowledge for Satan's gratification."

"Hey if God will send his angels And if God will send a sign And if God will send his angels Would everything be alright?"

"If God will send his angels I sure could use them here right now Well if God would send his angels And I don't have to know how."

"Angels and Demons can't cross over into our plane. So, instead we get what I call half-breeds. The influence peddlers. They can only whisper in our ears. A single word can give you courage, or turn your favorite pleasure into your worst nightmare. Those with the demon's touch and those part angel, living alongside us. They call it the balance. I call it hypocritical bullshit."