Category:Enoch in Islam (subject)

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Enoch in Islam

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Overview

There is an ancient tradition in Islam that identifies Enoch with the quite "mysterious" figure of the prophet Idris.

Idris is mentioned twice in the Qu'ran: (a) in sura xix. 57 as a "man of truth and a prophet, raised by Allah to a high place" at the time of Noah, and (b) in sura xxi. 85 as a model of "patience." Nothing in the text actually suggests that Idris was another name (or title) for Enoch. Such an identification however was soon developed in Islamic tradition. The quite obscure reference to the "elevation" of Idris was taken as a reference to the "ascent" of the patriarch to heaven. As in Hermetic circles Enoch was identified with Hermes, so was Idris also. The work of al Tabari (History I 166-179) at the turn of the 10th century provides strong evidence of the antiquity of these traditions.