Israfil (ʾIsrāfīl)

The Quranic text alludes to the trumpet-blower at the end of time but does not name this figure; later Islamic tradition and secondary works identify that trumpet-blower as Israfil. Traditional compilations (including the Kitab Aḥwāl al-Qiyāma and hadith summaries cited in the assembled sources) place Israfil among the principal archangels (alongside Jibril, Mikail and the Angel of Death) and present him as the angel who awaits God's command to enact the eschatological trumpet blast.

Traditional accounts provide several descriptive motifs. A quoted passage from Kitab Aḥwāl al-Qiyāma describes Israfil as bearing four wings—"one in the East, one in the West, one covering his legs and one shielding his head and face in fear of God"—and inclining his head toward the Throne; other variant narrations in the collected material record twelve wings. These sources depict him standing with the trumpet (ṣūr) placed on his right thigh and its head at his mouth until God commands him to bring it to his face, fold his wings, and blow. Some traditions add that he carries a pen (qalam) with a wing and covers his face with another wing when before God.

In the assembled traditions Israfil's primary function is eschatological: he will blow the trumpet that precipitates resurrection and judgment. Secondary traditional attributions include mediating divine commands to other archangels (a status described in hadith/traditional summaries) and, in some accounts, serving as a scribe who carries a pen and writes divine commands or destiny. He is also described in the sources as having a notably beautiful voice and serving as the Muʾadhdhin for the inhabitants of Heaven. Variant traditions (not uniform across sources) sometimes ascribe other episodic acts to him, such as a role in certain creation narratives, but these are recorded as less widely attested variants.