Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. To proceed:
It is established in the Sunnah that the Hour will only be established upon the worst of people, after the souls of the believers have been taken, so that no one will remain on earth who says: “Allah, Allah.”
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“The Hour will not be established until it is no longer said on earth: ‘Allah, Allah.’” Narrated by Muslim.
It is also established that Allah will send a pleasant wind that will take the soul of every believer, and then the worst of people will remain. Upon them the Hour will be established.
Allah تعالى says:
﴿And the Trumpet will be blown, and whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth will fall unconscious, except whom Allah wills. Then it will be blown again, and behold, they will be standing, looking on.﴾ [Az-Zumar: 68].
The basic principle is that the Blast of the Thunderbolt will cause all living beings among the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth to die, except those whom Allah تعالى excludes.
After that, the Trumpet will be blown with the Blast of Resurrection, and Allah will bring creation back to life and resurrect them for the reckoning.
Allah’s saying: ﴿then whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth will fall unconscious﴾ does not indicate that the inhabitants of the heavens will die first and then the inhabitants of the earth.
The conjunction “and” (wa) in Arabic does not necessarily indicate chronological order. Rather, it simply indicates conjunction and inclusion. The order in which things are mentioned in the verse does not necessarily mean that the events themselves will occur in that order.
Therefore, it is not correct to build details upon the mere fact that the inhabitants of the heavens are mentioned before the inhabitants of the earth in the verse. Nor is it correct to say that they will be struck down first because they are closer to Israfil or for any other such reason. These are matters of the unseen, and matters of the unseen cannot be established through speculation or analogy.
The scholars differed concerning the identification of those whom Allah excluded when He said:
﴿except whom Allah wills﴾.
It has been said that they are the angels; it has also been said that they are the prophets; others have said that they are the martyrs, and other opinions have also been mentioned.
The scholars have stated that there is no authentic, explicit report establishing exactly who those excluded are. Therefore, it is not correct to definitively identify them as a particular group without evidence.
Among the opinions mentioned is that the martyrs are included among those exempted, because Allah says concerning them:
﴿They are alive with their Lord, receiving provision﴾ [Āl ‘Imrān: 169].
However, it is not permissible to state with certainty that this is what the verse means.
The Hour will be established upon the worst of creation after the people of faith have passed away. Then the Blast of the Thunderbolt will occur, through which whomever Allah wills among creation will die. Then the Blast of Resurrection will take place, and the people will rise for the reckoning.
As for the order in which the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth will be struck down, the details of who will die first, and the identification of all those excluded from being struck down, these are matters of the unseen for which no authentic, explicit text has come specifying their details. Therefore, what is obligatory is to stop at what has been authentically established from Allah and His Messenger and not to delve into matters for which there is no evidence.
And Allah تعالى knows best.