The Recording Angels on Either Shoulder

The Kiraman Katibin, the "noble scribes," are the pair of angels who record every deed a person performs. The Quran names them at 82:10-12, "over you are keepers, noble recorders, who know whatever you do", and describes them at 50:17-18 as two receivers seated on the right and on the left, so that "not a word does he utter but there is a watcher by him, ready."

Tradition developed this into a settled image: the angel on the right records good deeds, the angel on the left records sins, and their ledger is the record that will be handed to each person at the judgement, placed in the right hand of the saved and the left of the damned. The doctrine gives the ordinary moral life a continuous divine witness: nothing is unobserved, and the account is being written at every moment. It is among the most practically felt of Islamic beliefs about the unseen, a constant reminder that shapes conduct in the awareness of being recorded.