Two Blasts of the Trumpet النَّفْخَتَان

Overview

The Quran describes two blasts of the Trumpet (aṣ-Ṣūr) that bookend the end of the world and the resurrection. The angel Israfil is charged with both:

1. The first blast (nafkhat aṣ-ṣaʿq, "the blast of swooning/collapse") — collapses creation. All living beings fall dead, except those whom Allah wills.
2. The second blast (nafkhat al-baʿth, "the blast of resurrection") — resurrects all who have ever lived for the Day of Judgement.

Surah Az-Zumar 39:68 articulates both: "And the Trumpet will be blown, and whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth will fall dead, except whom Allah wills. Then it will be blown again, and at once they will be standing, looking on."

Hadith

Abu Hurayra reported the Prophet ﷺ said: "Between the two blasts of the Trumpet there will be forty…" They asked whether forty days, months, or years; he refrained. "Then Allah will send rain from the sky and they will grow as a herb grows. Every part of the human body will decay, except one bone — the coccyx — and from it the creation will be re-formed." — Sahih al-Bukhari 4814; Sahih Muslim 2955

Some scholars cite a third intermediate blast in Surah An-Naml 27:87 — "the Day the Trumpet will be blown and whoever is in the heavens and earth will be terrified" — but the dominant view (Ibn Kathīr, al-Qurṭubī) treats this as a description of the first blast, not a third.

See also

• The Trumpet
• Israfil
• Day of Judgement
• Resurrection of Bones
• An-Nazi'at

References

1. The Quran: Surahs Az-Zumar 39:68; An-Naml 27:87; An-Naba 78:18; An-Nāziʿāt 79:6–7.
2. Sahih al-Bukhari 4814; Sahih Muslim 2955.
3. Ibn Kathir, Tafsīr, on Surah Az-Zumar 39:68.