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Fatwa CenterCan the angels see Allaah The Almighty?
Question
Can the angels see their Lord? Allaah The Almighty Says (what means): {Those [angels] who carry the Throne and those around it exalt [Allaah] with praise of their Lord and believe in Him.} [Quran 40:7] How can we interpret the verse in this context, noting that belief is often associated with the unseen? May Allaah reward you.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu 'alyhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
It was narrated on the authority of Anas ibn Maalik 
that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: "I asked Jibreel (Gabriel), 'Do you see your Lord?' He said, 'There are seventy screens of light between me and Him. Had I seen the nearest of which I would have been burnt.'" [At-Tabaraani in Al- Mu‘jam Al-Awsat]
In Faydh Al-Qadeer, the prominent scholar Al-Munaawi 
said, "Al-Haafith Al-Haytami said that the chain of narrators of this Hadeeth includes the guide of Al-A‘mash about whom Abu Daawood said that he narrated Mawdhoo‘ (fabricated) Hadeeths. Ibn Hibbaan mentioned that guide in his book Ath-Thiqaat and said that he was often discredited."
The origin of the screen has been authentically established. It was narrated on the authority of Abu Moosa that he said, "The Messenger of Allaah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, told us five things. They are: Certainly, Allaah The Almighty does not sleep, and it does not befit Him to sleep; He lowers the Scale and raises it; the deeds in the night are taken up to Him before the deeds of the (next) day, and the deeds of the day before the deeds of the (next) night. His screen is light. If He withdraws it, the splendor of His countenance would burn as far as His sight reaches of His creation." [Muslim, Ahmad and others]
Imaam An-Nawawi commented on this Hadeeth, saying, “The phrase, ‘As far as His sight reaches," means all creation, because the sight of Allaah The Almighty encompasses all creatures. It means that if Allaah The Almighty eliminated the screen which prevents us from seeing Him, and which is called ‘light’ or ‘fire’, and appeared to His creatures, His Majesty would burn all His creatures. Allaah knows best."
Therefore, the angels have not seen Allaah The Almighty.
We would like to stress that this screen of light is something that prevents the creation from seeing Allaah The Almighty, not the opposite. Shaykh-ul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said, "No Muslim would claim that the screen prevents Allaah The Almighty from seeing or grasping, because nothing in the heavens or on the earth is hidden from Allaah The Almighty."
Allaah Knows best.
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