The Two Blowings

Then there is what is called the nafkhah. Isrāfīl is the angel who is assigned to the resurrection. The first nafkhah — it means literally a blowing — is that all of the souls die. All of them. So there is an idea that life will stop. And the Qurʾān says that just as the universe was expanded, it will be contracted at the end: in scientific terms, kind of like the big crunch, that it all comes back. And there is an idea of heat meltdown as well, because it says the oceans boil over, the mountains melt: there is a heat death. The Qurʾān definitely gives an idea of a heat death at the end of time.

And then the second nafkhah is the resurrection: there is a resurrection of the souls. And everybody is brought to a plain which is similar to ʿArafah. And then the qiyāmah takes place, which is the day of standing.

Now the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that this is a day on which some people will literally be up to here in their own sweat. It is a very intense day of accountability. And everybody says nafsī, nafsī — everybody says: me, me. And there is a hadith that a child will go to the parent and say: help me; and the parent says: me, me. This is a day on which everybody is concerned with their own souls.