Author Israfel

nd upon the holy rock in Jerusalem. The first blow of his trumpet will shatter the world, and the second blow will awaken the dead and summon them to judgement. Israfel has been associated with a number of other angelic names, including Uriel,[4] Sarafiel[5] and Raphael.[6] Certain sources indicate that, created at the beginning of time,[7] Israfel possesses four wings, and is so tall as to be able to reach from the earth to the pillars of Heaven.[2] A beautiful angel who is a master of music, Israfel sings praises to God in a thousand different languages, the breath of which is used to inject life into hosts of angels who add to the songs themselves.[1] According to Sunni traditions reported by Imam Al-Suyuti, the Ghawth or Qutb, who is regarded among Sunni as the highest person in the rank of siddiqun (saints), is someone who has a heart that resembles that of Archangel Israfel, signifying the loftiness of this angel. The next in rank are the saints who are known as the Umdah or Awtad, amongst whom the highest ones have their hearts resembling that of Angel Michael, and the rest of the lower ranking saints having the heart of Jibreel or Gabriel, and that of the previous prophets before the Prophet Muhammad. The earth is believed to always have one of the Qutb.[8] Israfel appears in cabbalistic lore and 19th-century Occultism. He was given specific embodiment in Aleister Crowley's Liber Israfel, formerly Liber Anubis, a ritual designed to invoke the Egyptian god, Thoth,[9] the deity of wisdom, writing, and magic who figures large in the Hermetica attributed to Hermes Trismegistus upon which modern practitioners of magick draw.