Do the angels of mercy or the angels of punishment seize the soul of a disobedient Muslim who prays, yet commits sins such as looking at forbidden things or listening to music?

The sacred texts divide people into two categories when their souls are taken: 1. Believers: Their souls are taken by the angels of mercy with glad tidings and bliss. 2. Disbelievers and hypocrites: Their souls are wrenched out by the angels of torment with severity and threats, and the gates of heaven are closed to them. Allah has mentioned this in His statement: (By those who extract with violence, By those who remove with ease, And by those who glide along smoothly) An-Nazi’at/1-3.

As for the disobedient or dissolute Muslim, this is from the unseen about which no explicit texts have been revealed. However, some indications suggest that the angels of torment might be entrusted with taking their souls if they do not repent; as in the hadith of the man who killed a hundred souls, where the angels of mercy and the angels of torment disputed over him. Some narrations of hadiths have described the wicked or evil person in a manner similar to the state of a disbeliever when the soul is taken.

Sheikh Al-Shanqeeti said: "Those whom the angels take, being pure, they say: 'Peace be upon you; enter Paradise for what you used to do.'" From this, it is understood that those who are not characterized by piety will not have their souls taken by the angels in that honorable state, nor will the angels greet them, nor give them glad tidings.

Perhaps the state of those who commit sins and major transgressions at the time of death varies according to their sins and their acts of obedience.