Does Allah do the deed of creation without any means / intermediaries?

- Does Allah Almighty do the deed of creation Himself, without any means / intermediaries?
- For instance, what is the duty of the appointed angel in the creation of an ant?
- Although Allah Almighty makes a car really move, we say, ''The driver is driving the car.'' Is the duty of the angels like the duty of the driver in the example?

Dear Brother / Sister,

- The general principle regarding the issue should be as follows: Allah is one and has no partners in terms of His being, attributes and names as well as His deeds.

Its meaning is this: No being, including angels, has any effect whatsoever related to creation.

“O ye who believe! Save yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is Men and Stones, over which are (appointed) angels stern (and) severe, who flinch not (from executing) the Commands they receive from Allah, but do (precisely) what they are commanded.” (at-Tahrim, 66/6)

The last sentence of the verse above shows that angels are in charge of doing some deeds.

Accordingly, angels do some deeds in accordance with the instructions of Allah. However, they are not related to creation because the creed of oneness does not allow it.  

The following statement of Badiuzzaman Said Nursi sheds light on the issue:

“Furthermore, there is in the tasks that the angels perform at the command of the One Whom they worship, in the work they accomplish for His sake, in the service they discharge in His name, in the supervision they execute through His favor, in the honor they gain through their connection with Him, in the immaculateness they attain through studying His dominion in both its outer face and its face which looks to Him, and in the ease they find through beholding the manifestations of His beauty and glory, such sublime bliss that the human mind cannot comprehend it, and one who is not an angel cannot perceive it.”

“One sort of the angels are worshippers, and the worship of another sort is in work. Of the angels of the earth, the sort that are workers have a kind of human occupation. If one may say so, one type are like shepherds and another like farmers. That is to say, the face of the earth is like a general farm and an appointed angel supervises all the species of animals within it through the command of the All-Glorious Creator, and with His permission, for His sake and through His power and strength. And for each species of animal there is a lesser angel who is appointed to act as a special shepherd. The face of the earth is also a place of cultivation; the plants are all sown in it. There is an angel charged with supervising them in the name of God Almighty and through His power, and there are angels who are lesser than him and who worship and glorify God by supervising particular species. The Archangel Michael (Peace be upon him), who is one of the bearers of the throne of sustenance, is the most important overseer of these.” (see Nursi, Sözler, p. 353)

To sum up, angels are the doers and representatives of God Almighty’s activities that originate from His attribute of "will", that are known as "shari’ah takwiniyyah" and that operate in the universe. They work and act based on the commands of the Divine Power, which owns the real will and effect.

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