These are the greater signs which, according to Muḥammadan traditions, are to precede the Resurrection, but still leave the hour of it uncertain; for the immediate sign of its being come will be the first blast of the trumpet, which they believe will be sounded three times. The first, “the blast of consternation,” at the hearing of which all creatures in heaven and earth shall be struck with terror, except those whom God shall please to exempt from it. The effects attributed to this first sound of the trumpet are very wonderful; for they say the earth will be shaken, and not only all buildings, but the very mountains, levelled; that the heavens shall melt, the sun be darkened, the stars fall on the death of the angels, who, as some imagine, hold them suspended between heaven and earth, and the sea shall be troubled and dried up, or, according to others, turned into flames, the sun, moon, and stars being thrown into it; the Qurʾān, to express the greatness of the terror of that day, adds that women who give suck shall abandon the care of their infants, and even the she-camels which have gone ten months with young (a most valuable part of the substance of that nation) shall be utterly neglected. (Qurʾān, [Sūrah lxxxi].) A further effect of this blast will be that concourse of beasts mentioned in the Qurʾān, though some doubt whether it be to precede the Resurrection or not. They who suppose it will precede, think that all kinds of animals, forgetting their respective natural fierceness and timidity, will run together into one place, being terrified by the sound of the trumpet and the sudden shock of nature.
This first blast will be followed by a second, the “blast of examination,” when all creatures, both in heaven and earth, shall die or be annihilated, except those which God shall please to exempt from the common fate; and this shall happen in the twinkling of an eye, nay, in an instant, nothing surviving except God alone, with Paradise and Hell, and the inhabitants of those two places, and the throne of Glory. The last who shall die will be the angel of death. (Malaku ʾl-Maut.) ([1 Cor. xv. 26].)
Forty years after this will be heard the “blast of resurrection,” when the trumpet shall be sounded the third time by Isrāfīl, who, together with Gabriel and Michael, will be previously restored to life, and, standing on the rock of the temple of Jerusalem (aṣ-Ṣak͟hrah), shall at God’s command call together all the dry and rotten bones, and other dispersed parts of the bodies, and the very hairs, to judgment. This angel having, by the Divine order, set the trumpet to his mouth, and called together all the souls from all parts, will throw them into his trumpet, from whence, on his giving the last sound, at the command of God, they shall fly forth like bees, and fill the whole space between heaven and earth, and then repair to their respective bodies, which the opening earth will suffer to arise; and the first who shall so arise, according to a tradition of Muḥammad, will be himself. For this the earth will be prepared by the rain above-mentioned, which is to fall continually for forty years, and will resemble the seed of a man, and be supplied from the water under the throne of God, which is called living water; by the efficacy and virtue of which the dead bodies shall spring forth from their graves, as they did in their mother’s womb, or as corn sprouts forth by common rain, till they become perfect; after which breath will be breathed into them, and they will sleep in their sepulchres till they are raised to life at the last trump.
As to the length of the Day of Judgment, the Qurʾān in one place ([Sūrah xxxii. 4]) tells us that it will last one thousand years, and in another ([Sūrah lxx. 4]) fifty thousand. To reconcile this apparent contradiction, the commentators use several shifts, some saying they know not what measure of time God intends in those passages; others, that these forms of speaking are figurative, and not to be strictly taken, and were designed only to express the terribleness of that day, it being usual for the Arabs to describe what they dislike as of long continuance, and what they like as the contrary; and others suppose them spoken only in reference to the difficulty of the business of the day, which, if God should commit to any of his creatures, they would not be able to go through it in so many thousand years.
That the resurrection will be general, and extend to all creatures, both angels, genii, men, and animals, is the received opinion, and according to the teaching of the Qurʾān. (See [Sūrah lxxxi].)
In the resurrection those who are destined to be partakers of eternal happiness will arise in honour and security, and those who are doomed to misery, in disgrace and under dismal apprehensions. As to mankind, they will be raised perfect in all their parts and members, and in the same state as they came out of their mothers’ wombs, that is, barefooted, naked, and uncircumcised; which circumstances, when Muḥammad was telling his wife ʿĀyishah, she, fearing the rules of modesty might be thereby violated, objected that it would be very indecent for men and women to look upon one another in that condition; but he answered her, that the business of the day would be too weighty and serious to allow them the making use of that liberty.
Others, however, allege the authority of their Prophet for a contrary opinion as to their nakedness, and say he asserted that the dead should arise dressed in the same clothes in which they died; although some interpret these words, not so much of the outward dress of the body as the inward clothing of the mind; and understand thereby that every person will rise again in the same state as to his faith or infidelity, knowledge or ignorance, his good or bad works.
Muḥammad taught (Mishkāt, book xxiii. ch. x) that mankind shall be assembled at the last day, and shall be distinguished into three classes. The first, those who go on foot; the second, those who ride; and the third, those who creep, grovelling with their faces on the ground. The first class is to consist of those believers whose good works have been few; the second of those who are in greater honour with God, and more acceptable to Him; whence ʿAlī affirmed that the pious, when they come forth from the sepulchres, shall find ready prepared for them white-winged camels, with saddles of gold, wherein are to be observed some footsteps of the doctrine of the ancient Arabians; and the third class will be composed of the infidels, whom God shall cause to make their appearance with their faces on the earth, blind, dumb, and deaf.
But the ungodly will not be thus only distinguished; for, according to the commentator al-Baiẓāwī (vol. ii. p. 480), there will be ten sorts of wicked men on whom God shall on that day fix certain discretory marks. The first will appear in the form of apes; these are the backbiters. The second in that of swine; these they who have been greedy of filthy lucre, and enriched themselves by public oppression. The third will be brought with their heads reversed and their feet distorted; these are the usurers. The fourth will wander about blind; these are unjust judges. The fifth will be deaf, dumb, and blind, understanding nothing; these are they who glory in their works. The sixth will gnaw their tongues, which will hang down upon their breasts, corrupted blood flowing from their mouths like spittle, so that everybody shall detest them; these are the learned men and doctors, whose actions contradict their sayings. The seventh will have their hands and feet cut off; these are they who have injured their neighbours. The eighth will be fixed to the trunks of palm-trees or stakes of wood; these are the false accusers and informers. The ninth will stink worse than a corrupted corpse; these are they who have indulged their passions and voluptuous appetites. The tenth will be clothed with garments daubed with pitch; and these are the proud, the vain-glorious, and the arrogant.
In the Traditions, Muḥammad is related to have said:—