Kiraman Katibin

The Kiraman Katibin originate in the Islamic scriptural and interpretive tradition: the Quran refers to divine record-keeping in passages linked by tafsir to the notion of attendant recorders (e.g., Surahs cited in secondary sources include 6:61; 13:11; 50:17–18; 82:10–12), and hadith and exegetical literature further define their office. They are presented as part of the broader realm of mala'ikah (angels), created by God to perform specific administrative and cosmic duties.

Primary sources supplied do not give fixed, detailed physical descriptions. Traditional and pedagogical accounts commonly portray the pair metaphorically as one angel at the right recording good deeds and one at the left recording bad deeds; children's literature often depicts them as positioned beside a person's shoulders. Some popular traditions provide the personal names Raqib and Atid, but scholastic sources emphasize the office of 'noble writers' over consistent anthropomorphic particulars.

Their defined, scripted function is to write down and record a person's actions. Tradition reports a division of labor—one records good deeds, the other records bad deeds—and indicates they accompany a person continually to document acts each day. Hadith-based summaries in the sources state they record outward actions rather than mere unacted thoughts: a hadith qudsi quoted in secondary material instructs not to record an intended evil until it is performed. Secondary sources also summarize narrations that good deeds may be multiplied in recording and that mercy operates in the recording process (e.g., delayed recording of a sin to allow repentance), though the precise texts and chains are not reproduced in the supplied materials.