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How can the majesty of the angels and their ability to prostrate themselves in a space no larger than four fingers be reconciled, as stated in the hadith: "The heaven creaked, and it has the right to creak, for there is no space in it the size of four fingers except that there is an angel who has placed his forehead, prostrating to Allah the Almighty"?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The apparent meaning of the noble Hadith, "There is no space the size of four fingers therein, but that an angel has placed his forehead prostrating to Allah," is to illustrate the multitude of angels and their continuous worship of Allah. There is no issue with this, as angels are not created in a single form, and Allah has not detailed for us the form of these angels. Furthermore, the form of angels cannot be analogized to the form of humans; they are capable of assuming the most subtle forms. Gabriel, peace be upon him, used to come to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, in the form of a man, and despite his immense creation, Umm Salamah thought he was Dihyah al-Kalbi. The Hadith does not state that each angel has a space of four fingers that it does not exceed; rather, it means that this small space is not devoid of an angel prostrating.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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