Isrāfīl
Isrāfīl ( Arabic إسرافيل, DMG Isrāfīl ), in English "The Burning One", is one of the four archangels in Islam. Even before Mohammed, the belief in angels was known in Arabia . They have been integrated into the belief system of Islam and in it they come immediately after Allah . So it says in sura 4 , 136: "Who does not believe in God, his angels, his books, his messengers and the last day, he is far astray." Israfil is used as a correspondence to the archangels Raphael and Uriel , but also to the Seraph Saraphiel seen in the Jewish Old Testament tradition.
Israfil is not explicitly mentioned in the Koran . But it is related to sura 39 , verse 68, where it says that a horn will be blown twice on the day of judgment . After the first tone there would be no more life on earth and after the second the dead would rise to give an account before God. The archangel Israfil is considered to be the herald of death and resurrection. The trumpet always rests on his lips, ready to be blown whenever God commands. Accordingly, he is often represented as an angel of music, with an animal horn that has cells like honeycombs in which the souls of the dead rest. It is also said that he glorified Allah with many tongues in a thousand tongues and that he looked to hell day and night, crying so much that his tears would flood the earth if God did not stem its flow. Its huge, hairy body is covered with mouths and tongues and it extends from seventh heaven to the throne of God. In his work Aja 'ib al-Makhluqat ("The Miracles of Creation") Zakariya ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini (1203–1283 ) writes that Israfil is the most beautiful of all angels and has four wings - two that separate east and west, one to cover his body and a fourth to protect his face from the sight of God. It is also said that he introduced Mohammed to his duties as a prophet for three years before he received the Quran.
Individual evidence
- ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica: Israfil
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Gabriel
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Angel of Death
- ↑ Karin Nierlich: Experiencing and understanding the angel phenomenon . Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 978-3896751485 , p. 92f
- ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica: Israfil