Israfil, Archangel of the Trumpet-blast

21:103: "The Supreme Horror will not grieve them, and the angels will welcome them, saying: This is your Day which ye were promised."

25:25: "A day when the heavens with the clouds will be rent asunder and the angels will be sent down, a great descent."

47:27: "Then how will it be with them when the angels gather them, smiting their faces and their backs!"

After God created the Throne He created the Trumpet (sur) and hung it on the Throne. Then He said: "Be!" and the angel Israfil was. He ordered him to take up the Trumpet which is like a white pearl and transparent like glass. He made holes in the Trumpet according to the number of every spirit and angel created in creation without duplication. In the middle of the Trumpet there is an opening bigger than the sky and the earth put together. Israfil is able to stop that opening from top to bottom by placing his mouth over it. The length of this Trumpet is seventy thousand light-years and its body is divided into seven trunks.

God said to Israfil: "I order you to blow this Trumpet when I shall tell you." Israfil stands at the base of the Throne and awaits God's order. He is so near to God that between him and his Lord there are only seven veils of light. One of his wings is in the East, another in the West, one encompasses the seven earths, and the fourth wing is on his head to protect his eyes from the light of God.

One day the Prophet was sitting with Gabriel, and the sky opened. Gabriel humbled himself and appeared to fall to the ground as if prostrating, and an immense angel dressed in white appeared before the Prophet and said: "O Muhammad! God sends you greetings and salutations and gives you the choice between being an angel-prophet or a servant-prophet." The Prophet answered: "The happiest time of my life is when my Lord calls me: 'O My servant!' O servant of God! I choose to be a servant-prophet." And Gabriel revealed: "God chooseth from the angels messengers, and also from mankind. Lo! God is Hearer, Seer" (22:75).

Then the angel disappeared. The Prophet asked Gabriel: "Who was that angel?" Gabriel said: "That was Israfil. Since the day God created him, he has not raised his eyes from the ground for fear of his Lord. Between him and God there are seven veils of light and if he were to pass only one of them he would be annihilated. The Preserved Tablet whereupon the destinies of mankind are written lies before him. Whenever God allows for something to exist in heaven or on earth that Tablet is raised up and he reads it. If a task falls within the sphere of the angel of death, He orders him to perform it. If in my sphere He orders me to do it, and if in Michael's sphere He orders him in the same manner. I did not think that Israfil would come down to earth before the Day of Judgment and that is why I was afraid!"

On the Day of Judgment God will order Israfil to blow that Trumpet. Upon the first sounding of the Trumpet all bad things are lifted and taken away from the earth. Wrongdoings and all that is related to it will disappear. The heavenly books will shine in every place. Angels will appear and reveal the places where they have been kept in their pristine state. The memory of heavenly teachings will become fresh again in people's minds. All manner of good character, dignity, honor, mercy, and blessings will be brought over all the earth and become the norm. Angels will feel welcome to walk upon the earth for the first time. No-one will have power to do any harm in the world. Belief in God and knowledge of spiritual things will become the daily conversation of everyone young and old. Angelic ligh t will increase upon the earth to such a degree that everything sad will become happy, everything bad will become good, everything poor will become rich, and everything ugly will become beautiful.

Upon the second sounding of the trumpet, all beings in the heavens and on earth will enter a state of perplexity and become afraid. They will fall down on their faces and faint believing the Day of Judgment has dawned upon them. This is described in the Koran, 39:68: "And the trumpet is blown , and all who are in the heavens and on the earth swoon away, save him whom God willeth. Then it is blown a second time, and behold them standing waiting!" The sound of that trumpet will be so awesome and terrifying that all beings will lose consciousness. The earth will begin to roll and heave, the stars will fall from the heavens, the light will disappear, the sun and the moon will lose their light, and all will be plunged into abysmal darkness. The mountains will jump from their places and turn to dust, and rise as clouds over the earth. The water of the oceans will dry up. Just as wind carries away chaff, so creation will be blown away by those cataclysmal storms.

The good people will be covered with garments of light and mercy which the angels will bring down in waves. The angels will smite all wrongdoings and shameful actions and they will disappear like dust that must be removed from furnishings in a huge palace. They will bring light and smile on those who believed in them like parents smile on their children, as reassurance on that day. For on Judgment Day there is no-one who will not need the support of reassurance.

Upon the third sounding of the Trumpet God will dress and adorn all human beings with angelic power and send them into the throng of His servants. There they will inhabit that divine indescribable light that enables them to reach the everlasting life of Paradise.


Blessings and Peace on the Prophet, his Family, and his Companions.


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