mythologyfolklore:Azrael (“Help from God/God helps”), the Angel of Death.In Islamic folklore (where
mythologyfolklore:Azrael (“Help from God/God helps”), the Angel of Death.In Islamic folklore (where she is called “Izra’il”), she (yes, my version of Azrael is female) is canonically the Archangel of Death, who presides over a whole host of lower-ranking angels of death. Azrael is a benevolent figure and one of the four big Archangels. She ends lives by separating the soul from the body and also acts as a psychopomp, guiding souls to the afterlife. To good people she appears as a stunningly beautiful being, while evil-doers see a horrific monster.She is said to hold a scroll containing the names of humans. She records the names of the newborn and erases the names of those who die. God informs her forty days in advance, when she is to take a life.There is a legend saying that Azrael became the Angel of Death (“Malak al-Maut”), because she was the only angel, who could handle looking at Death without fainting, which prompted Death to submit to her.I based one of my headcanons on that legend: after the War in Heaven, Death asked God (or Life, as she calls Him) for a new vessel, as her old one had fallen. So God tested His angels to see, which one was worthy. All of them fainted in terror, except for Azrael, who kept staring at Death in mesmerisation. Seeing that this Archangel alone could handle her presence, she chose her to be her new vessel. That’s how Azrael became the Angel of Death. The other angels fear her a little and even her fellow Archangels feel uneasy in her presence (save for Raphael, who as a healer is used to facing her). But she is generally compassionate, civil, level-headed and as calm as can be, unless God asks her to reveal her darker, more destructive side..Of course Azrael has countless hands, because she’s an Archangel, but I chose to depict only six. Her left hand (the one attached to her arm) is holding the inevitable scythe that Death is associated with in Christianity. The hourglass stands for the passing of time, the scales for judgement, the lamp is to guide the souls into the afterlife, she replaced her scroll with a handier smartphone and she’s pointing heavenwards as a symbol of hope for a place in paradise.I chose not to give her eyed wings, like I do with all the other angels and fallen ones, because she sees with her shadow. But in Islamic lore she has as many eyes as there are people on earth and of course I can’t draw over 7 billion eyes (or thousands of wings, for that matter). XD -- source link
#islamic lore#azrael