- The Coming of the Hour Is Sudden
- As Soor – The Horn
- When will the Horn be Blown?
- The Exceptions
- How many Times will the Horn be blown?
- Events of the Hour
1. The Coming of the Hour Is Sudden
A moment will come when every living thing will cease to exist. All forms of life will end. Allah subhaana wa ta’aala says, “everything on it will perish.” Everything on the face of the earth will die.
And Allah says: “They await only but a single shout which will seize them while they are disputing.” It will come so suddenly that while people are discussing and disputing, everything will stop. Now there’s no time to advise your family or take care of unfinished business.
Allah says, “Then they will not be able to make bequest, nor will they return to their family.”
It comes so suddenly that Prophet ﷺ says in the hadith, “The Hour will arrive when two men are discussing a deal. One man will be selling a piece of cloth to the other, but the Hour will arrive and they will not even have time to wrap up that piece of cloth or sell it. The Hour will come when a man is going back home with fresh milk from his camel, but he will not be able to taste it. And the Hour will arrive when one will raise the food to his mouth, but he will not be able to put it in his mouth.” Bukhari 7121
2. As Soor – The Horn
How will it happen? It will be blown with as-soor. What is as-soor? It is mentioned in the Qur’aan in many places. It is a trumpet or a horn. The Angel Israfeel is holding it.
Prophet ﷺ saw Israfeel. And this is what Prophet ﷺ had to say, “The eyes of the angel are fixed on the throne of Allah, because he is afraid the command will come and he will not have time to turn his sight. So he has fixed his eyes on the arsh, waiting for the command to come. His eyes are like two bright stars.” When Prophet ﷺ saw this with his own eyes, he lost any appetite for this world. So he said, “How can I enjoy myself? How can I have any entertainment in this world when the angel has put the horn in his mouth and he has leaned his head forwards, and he has opened up his ears, waiting for the moment when the command will come, so he will blow in the horn?”
3. When will the Horn be Blown?
On what day will the horn be blown? On Friday. Prophet ﷺ says, “The greatest and the best day the sun has risen over is the day of jum’ah (Friday). In that day, Adam was created. In that day, he entered into Jannah. And in that day, he was driven out of Jannah. And on that day the Hour will occur.” The Hour is the day of judgement.
Prophet ﷺ says in another hadith, “All of the days were presented to me. So I saw the day of Friday, it looked like a white mirror – very bright and clean – but in the middle there was a dark spot. So I asked what the dark spot was and I was told that it was the Hour.”
Prophet ﷺ says in another hadith, “The best day the sun has risen over is Friday. On that day, Adam was created. On that day, he came down to earth. On that day, Allah accepted his repentance. On that day, he died. On that day the Hour will occur.” What’s new in this hadith? The rest of the hadith tells the response of the animals. Prophet ﷺ says, “Every animal is worried on the day of jum’ah – from the time of fajr because they know that is when the Hour will occur, except Jinn and humans.” We are the only creation that is asleep and unaware. We are heedless and continue to do everything on Jum’ah as if this Hour is something that will never occur.
4. The Exceptions
Allah says, “And the trumpet will be blown, and all who are on the earth will swoon away, except him whom Allah wills. Then it will be blown a second time and behold, they will be standing, looking on.” The ayah gives an exception – everyone would die – so who are the exceptions? Some scholars say hoor al-ayn; some say the servants in jannah; some say jibra’eel, mika’eel and israfeel; some say the angels who are carrying the throne; some say the shuhadaa`; and on and on.
AlQurtubi says, “The right opinion is that there is no evidence to support any of this. All of them are possible.” We don’t need to dwell too much on this. What we need to know, we already know – we are not one of those who are excluded. We don’t need to theorize and hypothesize, because we don’t need to know. This is a very, very important principle in Islam – we should always be practical and know the information that will help us.
When a Bedouin came into the masjid and asked the Prophet ﷺ, “When is the Hour?” He came in and interrupted the Prophet ﷺ when he was giving a speech.
Prophet ﷺ kept on going and didn’t give him any attention. The man insisted and asked a second and a third time. By now, the sahabah are upset and want him to calm down. They thought that Prophet ﷺ is not responding because he doesn’t like the question. When Prophet ﷺ was done with his speech, he said, “Where is the one who was asking about the Hour?” He then asked the Bedouin, “What have you prepared for it?” Why do you want to know? You should know the information that will help you. The man then said, “I did not prepare for it a lot of fasting and prayer, but I have prepared for it with love for Allah and His Messenger.” Prophet ﷺ said, “You will be with the ones that you love.” A lot of times, we waste our times on issues that will not benefit us or add to our good deeds. That is knowledge that does not benefit.
Prophet ﷺ said, “O Allah, we want from You knowledge that will benefit us and we seek refuge in You from the knowledge that does not benefit us.”
5. How many Times will the Horn be blown?
Some scholars, such as Ibn Hajar and Qurtubi, say that there will be two shouts. One shout that will destroy everything that is living (as sa’aq), and then another shout that will revive everything again (al ba’ath).
Some scholars say that there are three blowings. One is al faza – it will strike fear in all of the hearts. The second is sa’aq and the third is al ba’ath. This is the opinion of Ibn Katheer, Ibn Taymiyyah and some other scholars.
6. Events of the Hour
6.1 The Wrapping of the Heavens
Allah subhaana wa ta’aala will grab the earth with His Hand and then He will wrap the sky like a scroll – that is how easy it will be for Allah to sweep up this earth. Remember that we are not talking about the atmosphere around the earth – we are talking about something greater than that. We know there are seven heavens and we live on the lowest one. The scholars and people of astronomy tell us that the stars are billions of light years away – they are all in the lowest heaven. Remember that the measurement is by the speed of light. Imagine that there are stars light years away – so imagine how far they are because the light takes years to travel to us. The closest star to us (after the sun, of course) is 4 ¼ light years away. That is the closest. There are some that are thousands and billions of years away.
Allah says, “Verily! We have adorned the near heaven with the stars (for beauty).” (37:6) To Allah, it is just zeena. This vast creation, that we are struggling to understand, is just adornment to Allah, and on that Day, it will be wrapped in His Hand.
The scholars say that the lowest heaven, in comparison to the size of the heaven above it, is like a ring in a desert. Allah is going to wrap it all in His Hand. We are not able to give right estimate to Allah.
Allah says, “They made not a just estimate of Allah such as is due to Him. And on the Day of Resurrection the whole of the earth will be grasped by His Hand and the heavens will be rolled up in His Right Hand….” (39:67)
What will happen to the earth? As we said, it will be spread – muddat al-ardh.
6.2 What will happen to the Mountains?
Allah subhaana wa ta’aala also says, “And the earth and the mountains shall be removed from their places, and crushed with a single crushing.” (69:14) Allah subhaana wa ta’aala also says, “And the mountains will be like carded wool,” (101:5) and “And when the mountains are blown away” (77:10)
6.3 What will happen to the Oceans?
Allah subhaana wa ta’aala says two things: wa idhal bihaaru fujjirat (82:3) and idhal bihaaru sujjirat (81:6). The first one means exploding and bursting. Sujjirat means burning. So the oceans of the earth are exploding and also burning. How can that happen to water? Now we have a little bit of understanding of that. All knowledge belongs to Allah. The atoms, like hydrogen or helium or uranium, can be broken up and split, and the result would be a nuclear reaction that would cause exploding and fire. It’s very powerful – it makes a powerful bomb. Imagine this happening to every single atom in the oceans and the sea. [Man, that’s really crazy!] On the Day of Judgment, everything will be blowing up and catching fire around you.
6.4 What will happen to as-samaa` – the Heavens?
The first thing that will happen is that it will start moving and shaking. In an earthquake, when a building starts shaking, the building will begin to crack and form holes. Allah subhaana wa ta’aala says – itha as samaa`un fatarat – “When the heaven is cleft asunder.” (82:1) and “When the heaven is split asunder” (84:1).
The heavens would be moving above your head, and you would see it cracking here and there. Holes will be popping out in the sky; it will crack. Eventually, what will happen is “And the heaven will split asunder, for that Day it (the heaven will be frail (weak), and torn up” (69:16). It will keep on cracking and falling apart until it is frail and weak. Waahiya means frail and weak. And it will start falling apart.
6.5 What will happen to the sun, the moon and the stars?
The sun will kuwirat (81:1) – it will be wrapped together; it will lose its light. The moon will eclipse and fall out of its orbit. The stars would be knocked out of their orbits and falling down around us.
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