Page:The Mohammedan system of theology (IA mohammedansyste00neal).pdf/135

 "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater he sware by himself."

The next article in the Moslem creed is the belief of angels, both good and bad; a kind of machinery well adapted to the romantic imagination of an Asiatic, but which being brought too prominently forward, has a tendency to withdraw the mind from the great First Cause to the contemplation of subordinate agency. The principal are, Gabriel, who is styled the Angel of Revelations; Michael, the friend of the Jews; Azrael, the angel of death; and Israfil, whose office it will be to sound the trumpet at the resurrection; all of whom are said to be described almost similarly in the Apocryphal Gospel of Barnabas. Besides these, there are various other spirits, sustaining different functions, noting the good and evil actions of mankind,