The Quranic Expression of the Trumpet is Blown

Published in December 30, 2018

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Introduction:

 We have received a question, via email, about the meaning of the Quranic expression of (the Trumpet is blown); Sunnite interpreters of the Quran assume within their myths that an actual trumpet will be blown by an arch-angel named ''Israfeel'' to signal the Hour and the Resurrection. This is not true.

Firstly: the interpreters of the Middle-Ages were ignoramuses who hated and disbelieved in the Holy Quran:

1- Al-Qurtubi mentions contradictory views about the Quranic expression (the Trumpet is blown); he mentions that some narrators did not know what this phrase means; some narrators assumed it is a horn blown by heralds to announce the coming of the Lord God to judge humanity; other narrators talked about the arch-angel Israfeel who will blow this horn/trumpet once (and some hadiths assert blowing this horn twice or thrice) to usher the end of the world; each of the narrators provided hadiths to asserts different viewpoints.

2- The above point taken from the book of Al-Qurtubi shows the features of disbelief and ignorance of interpreters.

2/1: Hadiths-narrators (or rather fabricators) and interpreters held contradictory views as per their whims and they never agree on anything; they offer vague and unclear 'interpretation'.

2/2: Interpreters follow their whims and never resort to the Quranic verses which explain one another. They intentionally disregarded Quranic verses that prove their stances/views wrong.

2/3: Interpreters never hesitated to invent and/or quote contradictory hadiths/lies ascribed to Muhammad more than two centuries after his death.

2/4: Interpreters and hadiths-fabricators insult the Lord God by inventing an imaginary figure known as arch-angel Israfeel who supposedly will blow a horn or a real trumpet; there is no mention of Israfeel in the Quran; the three names of angels mentioned in the Quran are Gabriel, Michael, and Malik. True, sincere monotheists never invent lies/hadiths about the metaphysical realm of the unseen/invisible and of the future. As per the Quran, Muhammad himself never knew or predicted the future. We are not to follow conjectures, surmises, whims, and guesses as far as religion is concerned.

Secondly: the meaning of the Quranic expression of the Trumpet is blown:

1- The Arabic tongue – as well as other tongues – is not enough to express the Hour and its tremendous explosion; this is why the Lord God employs figurative, metaphorical style of language in the Quran to help human mind grasp this tremendous explosion. The human ears are not qualified to hear everything in the physical realm; let alone imagining how the tremendous explosion of the Hour will sound like; no human languages can express this tremendous explosion of the universe when the Hour takes place; hence, the Quranic text employs figurative, metaphorical style regarding this topic by using the expression (the Trumpet is blown).

2-The Lord God is the Master of the Last Day; He uses the expression (the Trumpet is blown) to indicate the tremendous explosion of the Hour: "...and His is the sovereignty on the Day when the Trumpet is blown..." (6:73). This expression using the (Trumpet) indicates the sovereignty of the Eternal King: God Himself; by the way, heralds of mortal kings/queens use trumpets to announce things; this is why the figurative image of (the Trumpet is blown) is understood by everyone in all eras. Instead of the word (Trumpet), other terms are also used in other verses.

2/1: The term (scream) is used in other verses instead of the (Trumpet). Human experience on earth makes most people refuse to believe that a scream will cause the destruction of the universe and another one will cause the Resurrection of souls of human beings; yet, the enormity of such screams cannot be imagined by the limited human mind; the figurative metaphorical style of the Quran helps us understand what will inevitably occur: "All they can expect is a single scream, which will seize them..." (36:48); "It will be but a single scream; and behold, they will all be brought before Us." (36:53); "When the Trumpet is blown. That Day will be a difficult day. For the disbelievers - not easy." (74:8-10)

2/2: Another term is the Deafening Noise: "But when the Deafening Noise comes to pass. The Day when a person will flee from his brother. And his mother and his father. And his consort and his children. Every one of them, on that Day, will have enough to preoccupy him." (80:33-37).

2/3: Other terms are being stunned and struck by the Shocker: "The Shocker. What is the Shocker? What will explain to you what the Shocker is?" (101:3); "And the Trumpet will be blown, whereupon everyone in the heavens and the earth will be stunned, except whomever God wills..." (39:68); "So leave them until they meet their Day in which they will be struck." (52:45).

2/4: The above point is explained within another Quranic context: "They have not esteemed God as He ought to be esteemed. The entire earth will be in His grip on the Day of Resurrection, and the heavens will be folded in His right. Superior He is beyond the polytheism to which they adhere. And the Trumpet will be blown, whereupon everyone in the heavens and the earth will be stunned, except whomever God wills. Then it will be blown another time, whereupon they will rise up, looking on. And the earth will shine with the Light of its Lord; and the Book will be put in place; and the prophets and the witnesses will be brought in; and Judgment will be passed among them equitably, and they will not be wronged. And every soul will be fully compensated for what it had done. He is well aware of what they do." (39:67-70).

2/5: This is about the Hour of destruction of the universe; the term (Trumpet) is not used; the term (quake) is used instead: "When the earth is shaken with its quake. And the earth brings out its loads. And man says, "What is the matter with it?" On that Day, it will tell its tales. For your Lord will have inspired it." (99:1-5)

3- Other verses mention that the Trumpet is blown twice: one explosion is for the Hour and the other is for Resurrection and gathering of souls. This is inferred from the following two Quranic contexts.

3/1: "And they say, "When will this promise be, if you are truthful?" All they can expect is a single scream, which will seize them while they feud. They will not be able to make a will, nor will they return to their families. The Trumpet will be blown, then behold, they will rush from the tombs to their Lord. They will say, "Woe to us! Who resurrected us from our resting-place?" This is what the Dominant Lord had promised, and the messengers have spoken the truth." It will be but a single scream; and behold, they will all be brought before Us. On that Day, no soul will be wronged in the least, and you will be recompensed only for what you used to do." (36:48-54).

3/2: "And the Trumpet will be blown, whereupon everyone in the heavens and the earth will be stunned, except whomever God wills. Then it will be blown another time, whereupon they will rise up, looking on." (39:68).

4- Apart from these two explosions of the Hour and the Resurrection and gathering of souls, there was the explosion of the creation of the universe or the Big Bang. Let us tackle in the points below how the Quran mentions such explosions.

Thirdly: the first explosion:

1- It is the Big Bang as the universe created by the Lord God out of nothing (i.e., creatio ex nihiloin Latin). This zero point of creation is estimated by some scientists to have occurred 13.8 billion years ago. The observable universe is still being expanded nonstop.

2- The universe has been created before the creation of human beings. The Lord God says the following in the Quran: "I did not call them to witness the creation of the heavens and the earth, nor their own creation..." (18:51). Of course, human beings never witnessed the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything between them (i.e., the universe) and the creation of all human souls; yet, we know from the Quran that the Lord God has originated the universe out of nothing; this is the meaning of this Quranic verse: "Praise be to God, Originator of the heavens and the earth..." (35:1).

3- Thus, the creation of the heavens and the earth (i.e., the universe) is beyond the measure of knowledge human beings have (or will have in the future); the Big Bang or the first explosion is mentioned here: "Do the disbelievers not see that the heavens and the earth were one mass, and We tore them apart?..." (21:30).

4- This one mass/point was not porous (i.e., it was impermeable) and it exploded by God's command in order to create the heavens and the earth; we tend to think that God has taken a piece of time and has caused it to explode; this resulted in the creations of all the levels of physical and metaphysical realms of the universe (i.e., the earth and the heavens with the planets, stars, and galaxies).

5- When the heavens and the earth (i.e., the physical and metaphysical levels of the universe) have been created, all elements and creatures in them are made in pairs. These Quranic verses assert this fact: "We created all things in pairs, so that you may reflect and ponder." (51:49); "He Who created all the pairs..." (43:12); "Glory be to Him who created all the pairs; of what the earth produces, and of their own selves, and of what they do not know." (36:36). Science now tells us of matter and antimatter and the universe and the counter-universe whose collusion will cause total destruction.

6- The Quran asserts the expansion of the universe; this means that the heavens and the earth are also created in a pair: positive and negative; each one of this pair moves in the opposite direction of each other; the universe is being expanded all the time since its creation: "We constructed the heaven with power, and We are expanding it. And the earth - We spread it out - How well We prepared it! We created all things in pairs, so that you may reflect and ponder." (51:47-49). The word (heaven) here refers to the universe, of course.

Fourthly: the first explosion (i.e., the Trumpet is blown) of the Hour when the universe is destroyed:

1- The Lord God says the following in the Quran: "Do the disbelievers not see that the heavens and the earth were one mass, and We tore them apart? And We made from water every living thing. Will they not believe? And We placed on earth stabilizers, lest it sways with them, and We placed therein signposts and passages, that they may be guided. And We made the sky a protected ceiling; yet they turn away from its signs. It is He who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; each floating in an orbit." (21:30-33). These verses indicate the Big Bang which resulted in the emergence of the universe and the counter-universe; it is a well-known scientific fact that water is the basis of life within all living organisms; mountains are stabilizers which protect the crust of the earth, oceans, etc. so as to prevent their fall into the molten core of the Planet Earth. The protected ceiling is the Ozone layer, in our view. Of course, no one can change the design, patterns, and system of the universe except the Lord God Who will destroy the universe by an unimagined explosion resulting from the collusion of the universe with the counter-universe when the Hour comes. Everything is measured by the Lord God: "He to whom belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth...Who created everything and determined its measure." (25:2); "Everything We created is precisely measured." (54:49); "The sun and the moon move according to certain measures...And the heaven, He raised; and He set up the balance." (55:5-7). The Lord God fully controls the heavens and the earth (i.e., the universe): "God holds the heavens and the earth, lest they fall apart. And were they to fall apart, there is none to hold them together except He..." (35:41); "Do you not see that God made everything on earth subservient to you? How the ships sail at sea by His command? That He holds up the sky lest it falls on earth - except by His permission?..." (22:65). Once the Hour of destruction comes, such design, patterns, and system of the universe are disturbed by the Lord God's permission within a tremendous explosion.

2- These patterns, systems, and designs of the universe will collapse; the heavens will be ruptured and the balance between gravity and the centrifugal force will vanish once the Hour comes: "And Our command is but once, faster than the twinkling of an eye." (54:50); "To God belongs the unseen of the heavens and the earth. The coming of the Hour is only as the twinkling of the eye, or even nearer..." (16:77).

3- This is asserted in other verses: "When the heaven breaks apart. When the planets are scattered. When the oceans are exploded." (82:1-3); "The Day when the Trumpet is blown, and you will come in droves. And the heaven is opened up and becomes gateways. And the mountains are set in motion, and become a mirage." (78:18-20).

4- The universe and the counter-universe have emerged once the Big Bang occurred and both of them move within elliptic trajectory in opposite directions; when they collide against each other, this is when the Hour of destruction of the universe will occur and it will return to its zero point: "On the Day when We fold the heaven, like the folding of a book. Just as We began the first creation, We will repeat it..." (21:104). Again, this means that the creation of the universe began with an explosion and it will be destroyed within another explosion.

5- The moving Time is created along with the universe; it envelopes the physical universe; Time is unstoppable and it moves forward and never moves backwards; the Eternal Realm of the Last Day and the Resurrection will have no sense of time; new heavens and earth will be created before the Judgment. After the explosion (i.e., blowing the Trumpet), an alternative, eternal universe (i.e., the eternal heavens and earth of the Last Day of the Resurrection, Gathering, Meeting, Judgment, Hell and Paradise) will be created; this is when the Dominant Lord God will manifest Himself to judge all humanity: "On the Day when the earth is changed into another earth, and the heavens, and they will emerge before God the Dominant One." (14:48).

6- The Quranic expression (the Trumpet is blown) figuratively indicates the tremendous explosion of the Hour in the following verses.

6/1: "It is He who created the heavens and the earth in truth. On the Day when He says: "Be," it will be. His saying is the truth, and His is the sovereignty on the Day when the trumpet is blown..." (6:73).

6/2: "Then, when the Trumpet is blown a single time. And the earth and the mountains are lifted up, and crushed, with a single crush. On that Day, the Event will come to pass. And the heaven will crack; so on that Day it will be frail." (69:13-16).

6/3:"And the Trumpet is blown: "This is the Promised Day." And every soul will come forward, accompanied by a driver and a witness. You were in heedless of this, so We lifted your screen from you, and your vision today is keen." (50:20-22).

Fifthly: the second explosion (i.e., the Trumpet is blown) of Resurrection and gathering of souls:

 The Lord God says the following in the Quran: "Until, when death comes to one of them, he says, "My Lord, send me back. That I may do right in what I have neglected." By no means! It is just a word that he utters. And behind them is a barrier/Barsakh, until the Day they are resurrected. When the Trumpet is blown, no relations between them will exist on that Day, and they will not ask after one another." (23:99-101).

 These verses are about gathering of souls:

1- "..And the Trumpet will be blown, and We will gather them together." (18:99).

2- "On the Day when the Trumpet is blown - We will gather the sinners on that Day, blue." (20:102).

3- "On the Day when the Trumpet is blown, everyone in the heavens and the earth will be horrified, except whomever God wills; and everyone will come before Him in humility." (27:87).

4- "The Day of Sorting has been appointed. The Day when the Trumpet is blown, and you will come in droves." (78:17-18).