There are eight angels who support the throne of God. "And the angels shall be on its sides, and over them on that day eight shall bear up the throne of thy Lord." (Sura lxix. 17). Nineteen have charge of hell. "Over it are nineteen. None but angels have we made guardians of the fire." (Sura lxxiv. 30). There is a special arrangement made by Providence to mitigate the evils of Satanic interference. "Iblis," says Jabir Maghrabi, "though able to assume all other forms is not permitted to appear in the semblance of the Deity, or {142} any of His angels, or prophets. There would otherwise be much danger to human salvation, as he might, under the appearance of one of the prophets, or of some superior being, make use of this power to seduce men to sin. To prevent this, whenever he attempts to assume such forms, fire comes down from heaven and repulses him." The story of Harut and Marut is of some interest from its connection with the question of the impeccability of the angels. Speaking of those who reject God's Apostle the Quran says: "And they followed what the Satans read in the reign of Solomon; not that Solomon was unbelieving, but the Satans were unbelieving. Sorcery did they teach to men, and what had been revealed to the two angels Harut and Marut at Babel. Yet no man did these two teach until they had said, 'We are only a temptation. Be not thou an unbeliever.'" (Sura ii. 96). Here it is quite clear that two angels teach sorcery, which is generally allowed to be an evil. Some explanation has to be given. Commentators are by no means reticent on this subject. The story goes that in the time of the prophet Enoch when the angels saw the bad actions of men they said: "O Lord! Adam and his descendants whom Thou has appointed as Thy vice-regents on earth act disobediently." To which the Lord replied: "If I were to send you on earth, and to give you lustful and angry dispositions, you too would sin." The angels thought otherwise; so God told them to select two of their number who should undergo this ordeal. They selected two, renowned for devotion and piety. God having implanted in them the passions of lust and anger said: "All day go to and fro on the earth, put an end to the quarrels of men, ascribe no equal to Me, do not commit adultery, drink no wine, and every night repeat the Ism-ul-A'zam, the exalted name (of God) and return to heaven." This they did for some time, but at length a beautiful woman named Zuhra (Venus) led them astray. One day she brought them a cup of wine. One said: {143} "God has forbidden it;" the other, "God is merciful and forgiving." So they drank the wine, killed the husband of Zuhra, to whom they revealed the "exalted name," and fell into grievous sin. Immediately after, they found that the "name" had gone from their memories and so they could not return to heaven as usual. They were very much concerned at this and begged Enoch to intercede for them. The prophet did so, and with such success that the angels were