Surah Taha, Ayah 103

The Blowing of the Sur and the Day of Resurrection

It has been confirmed in a Hadith that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was asked about the Sur and he replied,

«قَرْنٌ يُنْفَخُ فِيه»

(It is a horn that will be blown into.) It has been related in a Hadith about the Sur, on the authority of Abu Hurayrah that it is a huge horn that has a circumference as large as the heavens and the earth. The angel Israfil will blow into it. Another Hadith has been related which states that the Prophet said,

«كَيْفَ أَنْعَمُ وَصَاحِبُ الْقَرْنِ قَدِ الْتقَمَ الْقَرْنَ وَحَنَى جَبْهَتَهُ، وَانْتَظَرَ أَنْ يُؤْذَنَ لَه»

(How can I be comfortable when the one with the horn is holding it in his lips and his forehead is leaning forward, waiting to be given permission (to blow it).) The people said, "O Messenger of Allah, what should we say" He said,

يُنفَخُ فِي الصُّورِ‌ (رضی The Day when the Horn الصُّورِ‌ [ Sur ] will be blown - 20:102) According to Sayyidna Ibn ` Umar اللہ تعالیٰ عنہما ، a Bedouin الصُّورِ‌ asked the Holy Prophet ﷺ about صُور (the Horn) to which he replied that it is something like a horn which will be blown, meaning thereby that when the angel will blow into it all those who had lain dead for centuries will return to life. Only Allah knows the true nature of the Sur (the Horn).

When Moses came to know that Samiri was the leader behind this episode, he made enquiries of him. Samiri cunningly made excuses and said that whatever he had done was done under the influence of divine inspiration (kashf) and that some earth taken from the footprint of the Prophet Moses himself had been included in the idol as being auspicious. Samiri’s attempt to deceive Moses and at the same time win cheap popularity in his community cast a more serious light upon his crime. For his sins, God punished him (according to the Bible) with the disease of leucoderma, with additional punishment to be meted out to him in the life hereafter. His body became so obnoxious that people used to shun him. He became the most hated person in his community. In order to cleanse the Israelites’ minds of the false impression they had formed of the greatness of the calf deity, Moses burnt it before their eyes and floated the ashes in the sea.