إِن كُلُّ نَفْسٍ لَّمَّا عَلَيْهَا حَافِظٌ (there is no human being, but there is a watcher over him....86:4). This is the subject of the oath. The particle in at the beginning of the statement is used in the sense of 'no', that is, a negative particle; and the particle lamma is used in the sense of 'but/except', that is, it is an exceptive particle in the dialect of Banu Hudhail. The verse purports to say that there is not a single person over whom there is not a watcher [ hafiz ]. The word hafiz may mean 'guardian' who may watch over someone's actions and deeds, so that the reckoning is made on that basis. The word hafiz may also be used in the sense of 'one who protects from calamities'. In the first sense, the word hafiz refers to the angels who record the deeds. Here the word hafiz , although appears in the singular form, it is used in the generic sense, because there is not just a single recording angel, but there is a host of them as another verse testifies to this fact:
وَإِنَّ عَلَيْكُمْ لَحَافِظِينَ ﴿10﴾ كِرَامًا كَاتِبِينَ
'While [ appointed ] over you there are watchers, who are noble, the writers [ of the deeds ],[ 82: 10-11] '
According to the second sense of the word, hafiz refers to the angels who have been appointed to protect man from all kinds of calamities that befall him day and night, except the calamities that Allah has decreed for him, as the following verse explicitly states:
لَهُ مُعَقِّبَاتٌ مِّن بَيْنِ يَدَيْهِ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِ يَحْفَظُونَهُ مِنْ أَمْرِ اللَّـهِ
'For him there are angels replacing each other, before him and
behind him, who guard him under the command of Allah [ 13:11]
A tradition has reported the Messenger of Allah saying that Allah has appointed three hundred and sixty angels for every believer. They protect every limb of his. Of the three hundred and sixty, seven angels alone protect man's eye. These angels defend man from every calamity that is not decreed, like a fan chases away the flies coming to a vessel containing honey. If there are no security guards for man, the devils will snatch them away. [ Qurtubi ].