Īzrael, as both a character or a more abstract concept has been adopted by many different artists, musicians, poets, and authors over the centuries to express or evoke a variety of different meanings or emotions in the reader – often drawing on the cultural resonance of the name for effect. Several Muslim traditions recount meetings between Azrael and the prophets, the most famous being a conversation between Azrael and Moses. However, the Qur'an makes it clear that only God knows when and where each person will be taken by death, thus making it clear that Azrael has no power of his own. The Qur'an states that the angel of death takes the soul of every person and returns it to God. Along with Gabriel, Michael, Raphael (archangel) and other angels, Azrael is believed by Muslims to be one of the archangels. Riffian ( Berber) men of Morocco had the custom of shaving the head but leaving a single lock of hair on either the crown, left, or right side of the head, so that the angel Azrael is able ".to pull them up to heaven on the Last Day." In Islam Īzrael, also pronounced as Izrael, is the name given to the angel of death in Muslim literature as well. He will be the last to die, recording and erasing constantly in a large book the names of men at birth and death, respectively. In one of his forms, he has four faces and four thousand wings, and his whole body consists of eyes and tongues, the number of which corresponds to the number of people inhabiting the Earth. Depending on the outlook and precepts of various religions in which he is a figure, Azrael may be portrayed as residing in the Third Heaven. Rather than merely representing death personified, Azrael is usually described in Islamic sources as subordinate to the will of God "with the most profound reverence." In Jewish mysticism he is identified as the embodiment of evil, not necessarily or specifically evil itself. Although some sources have speculated about a connection between Azrael and the human priest Ezra, he is generally depicted as an archangel whose history long predates this figure. He watches over the dying, separates the soul from the body, and receives the spirits of the dead. Azrael, the angel of death in the Jewish and Islamic religions.
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