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Israfil
Commonly rendered in English transliteration as is-RAH-feel; the Quran does not name him directly, and his identity and role rest on hadith literature rather than on a Quranic vocalization of the name itself.
Angels
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The angel who will sound the trumpet at the end of the world. He is not named in the Quran, which speaks of the blast of the trumpet without naming the one who blows it; the name comes from the hadith literature and the commentary tradition, and readers should know that a figure this prominent in popular Islamic eschatology rests on transmitted reports rather than on the text.
The tradition describes two blasts, or in some accounts three: the first at which all living things die, the second at which the dead rise. Reports describe him as holding the trumpet to his lips, waiting for the command, never having looked away since he was appointed, an image that appears in sermons and in the eschatological literature far more than in the legal or theological material.
His name is a puzzle. It is not Arabic in form, and the derivation, most often proposed from Seraphiel or from the seraphim, is not settled.
Facts
Attributions
Mythic AssociationThough not named directly in the Quran, Islamic tradition holds Israfil to be the angel who will sound the trumpet, the Sur, to announce the Day of Resurrection, first causing all creation to die and then, at a second blast, to be raised again. 1 TraditionSome later Islamic mystical writers associate him specifically with music and beauty of voice, holding that no creature possesses a more beautiful voice than his, a tradition distinct from his eschatological trumpet role and drawn from popular devotional literature rather than from legal or exegetical sources. 1 Status
Status Within the TraditionScholarly tradition holds that he will sound the trumpet twice, the first blast striking terror and death across all creation and the second summoning every soul who ever lived to resurrection, a two blast sequence elaborated in later Islamic eschatology though not detailed in the Qur'an itself. 2 Attestation
HistoricityNot a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being 1 Historicity DetailBecause he is absent from the Quran's own text, medieval commentators disagreed over whether the unnamed trumpet blower it describes was the same figure the hadith literature would later name Israfil, with some proposing Gabriel held that role instead, so the identification that became the standard popular account was never entirely uncontested within the exegetical tradition itself. 1 Life
Office HeldIslamic eschatological tradition holds him charged with sounding the trumpet that ends the world and, at a second blast, calls the dead to resurrection. 2 Associated RelicThe trumpet he will sound at the end of the world 1 Identity
Also Known AsSometimes identified in commentary tradition with the trumpet-angel figure described but not named by the Quran itself in several eschatological passages. 1 GenderBeyond gender: the tradition holds the angels to be created beings without sex Origins
Origin of the NameDerivation debated; often proposed from Seraphiel or the seraphim 1 Disputed
Key TextHe is not named explicitly in the Qur'an itself; the trumpet passages such as Surah 39:68 are attributed to him by hadith and later tradition rather than by the text's own wording. 1 The Qur'an describes the trumpet blast of resurrection without naming an angel; the identification of that angel as Israfil rests on hadith and later exegesis, and some classical scholars named Jibril instead. Learn More
The Trumpet That Ends the World
Israfil is the archangel who, in Islamic tradition, will sound the trumpet (as-Sur) to announce the end of the world and the resurrection of the dead. He is not named in the Quran, which speaks repeatedly of the blast of the trumpet, a first blast at which all creation swoons and dies, and a second at which the dead rise for judgement, without naming the one who blows it; the name Israfil comes from the hadith literature and later tradition.
There he is ranked among the four great archangels, alongside Jibril, Mikail, and the angel of death, and is often described as standing perpetually with the trumpet raised to his lips, awaiting God's command, so that he has never smiled since the creation of Hell. His role gives him a place in eschatology rather than in the ongoing life of the believer: he is the herald of the final hour, the angel whose single act divides this age from the next.
A Name the Qur'an Never Uses
Unlike Jibril and Mikail, Israfil does not appear by name anywhere in the Qur'an. His entire identity as the angel who will sound the trumpet announcing the resurrection comes from hadith literature and later Islamic tradition, which is why classical scholars discussing him rely on prophetic reports and exegetical works rather than being able to point to direct Qur'anic text the way they can for Jibril and Mikail. The trumpet motif itself is not unique to Islamic tradition.
Comparable last day trumpet imagery appears in the New Testament, where Paul describes a trumpet call accompanying the resurrection of the dead without naming which angel sounds it, and in earlier Jewish apocalyptic literature that associates a great trumpet blast with the ingathering of Israel at the end of days, again generally without a single fixed angelic name attached.
Scholars of comparative religion generally read Israfil as part of a broader shared apocalyptic vocabulary current across the late antique Near East, in which a climactic trumpet signaling resurrection or final judgment was a recognisable motif that different traditions incorporated and, in the Islamic case, eventually attached to a specific named archangel to complete a scheme alongside Jibril and Mikail, even though the Qur'an itself leaves that particular angel unnamed.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Israfil directly: "from an unidentified text; the Angel Israfil," a detached manuscript painting, Islamic, Iran or Turkey, circa 1580 to 1590, opaque watercolor, ink and gold on paper."
Belongs to Tradition
Depicted In
The museum's own title for this folio names the subject outright, "the Angel Israfil," a direct identification rather than a bare thematic tag.
Sources
1. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition
P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.), Brill, 2005s.v. IsrafilView the Source 2. The Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection
Jane Idleman Smith and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Oxford University Press, 2002On the eschatological material and its transmitted rather than Quranic basisView the Source The Qur'an
39:68 and 69:13, on the blast of the trumpet, which does not name the one who blows itView the Source Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source Folio from an Unidentified Text, the Angel Israfil, accession S1986.219 (Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art)
Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, Arthur M. Sackler GalleryDepicted In: Folio from an Unidentified Text, the Angel Israfil (Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, S1986.219), accession S1986.219View the Source Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
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