Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him): The Trumpet of Israfil is a great horn, one end of which is in the heavens and the other end in the earth. It has holes equal to the number of the souls of created beings, and its mouth is as wide as the distance between the earth and the heavens. Israfil blows into it three times: the first blow is [the blast of] terror [and weeping and lamentation], the second blow is [the blast of] death [at which all die], and the third blow is [the blast of] the resurrection of the people. So when the time of this world comes to an end, Allah commands Israfil to blow the blast of terror. When the angels see Israfil descending [to the earth] with the Trumpet, they say: "Allah has given permission for the death of the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth." Israfil descends at Bayt al-Maqdis, stands facing the qibla, and blows the blast of terror [and lamentation] into the Trumpet, as Allah the Exalted says: یَوْمَ یُنْفَخُ فِی الصُّورِ فَفَزِعَ مَنْ فِی السَّماواتِ وَ مَنْ فِی الْأَرْضِ [On the day when the Trumpet is blown, whoever is in the heavens and whoever is in the earth will be terrified], up to His words: مَنْ جاءَ بِالحَسَنَةِ فَلَهُ خَیْرٌ مِنْها وَ هُمْ مِنْ فَزَعٍ یَوْمَئِذٍ آمِنُونَ [Whoever brings a good deed will have better than it, and they will be secure from the terror of that day]. So whoever has done a good deed will be given something better than it, and they will be safe from the panic and terror of that day. On that day the mountains will move and crumble, and the earth will tremble on the day you see it, [such terror will overwhelm everyone that] every nursing mother will forget her nursing child, every pregnant woman will drop her fetus to the ground, and you will see the people as if drunk, though they are not drunk — but the punishment of Allah is severe. (Hajj/2) The black beards of the young men will turn white, and everyone will flee to a corner. Then Allah commands Israfil to sound another blast, and a sound will come out from the end that is toward the earth, and it will leave no one alive except those whom Allah wills to remain alive, such as Jibra'il, Mika'il, Israfil and Izra'il. Then Allah will ask Izra'il: "Who remains?" He will say: "These four angels." Then He commands him to take the souls of the [other] three angels. Then He asks: "Who remains?" Izra'il says: "Your weak servant, Izra'il." The call comes: "You too, die!" At that moment Izra'il gives a cry that, if the people had heard it before their death, all of them would have died. Here Izra'il tastes the bitterness of death and says: "Had I known that death was this bitter, I would have shown greater gentleness to the believers." At this point no one remains alive, and Allah calls out: "O world! Where have the kings and princes gone, and the arrogant and the oppressors, and the wealthy who did not pay their obligatory dues? And to whom does sovereignty belong today?" When no one answers, He Himself says: "Sovereignty belongs to Allah, the One, the Overpowering." Then He rolls up the scroll of the heavens and the stars, and shatters the mountains, and replaces this earth with an earth on which no sin has been committed — an earth on which no blood has been unjustly shed, vast and spread out, with no mountains, hills or vegetation upon it, just as it was in the beginning — and He likewise replaces the heavens; and all the people, by Allah's command, will come to be present before the Truth. And just as before the creation of the heavens and the earth the Throne was upon the water, He returns it to its original state. Then He commands the heavens to rain upon the earth for forty days and nights, until water covers everywhere and the particles of the bodies of the dead are gathered together in the water. Then He brings Jibra'il, Mika'il, Israfil and the bearers of the Throne back to life, and commands Israfil to blow into the Trumpet (the blast of resurrection), and the souls of created beings come out from its holes like ants and locusts and fill the space between the earth and the heavens, and come to the earth and join their bodies that are lying in the graves; and by the command of Allah they come back to life and come out of the graves. As He says in the Qur'an: The day on which they will come out of the graves in haste, as if they were racing towards idols, their eyes cast down from shame and terror, and a veil of humiliation and disgrace will cover them! This is the day which they were promised! (Ma'arij/43-44) Then the people will be brought to the plain of the Gathering, and Allah will command the sun to descend from the fourth heaven to the lowest heaven, so that its heat reaches the people more intensely, so they are tormented by its heat, thirst overcomes them, sweat covers their entire body, and they are raised naked and thirsty, with their tongues hanging out of their mouths. At this point they weep so much that their tears run dry, and then in place of tears they weep blood. Hasan ibn Mahbub narrated from Yunus ibn Abi Fakhita, who said: I saw Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him), when he reached the graveyard, weep bitterly and say: "Alas! Why did I waste my life in other than the obedience of Allah, and why did I not worship Him as He deserves to be worshipped, so that I might be saved from His punishment and reach the highest degrees."