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," who lived in the generations of Adam, and was "raised to a high place"; 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. At the turn of the 10th century Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari's (I 166-179) and Al-Masuri's Meadows of Gold provide strong evidence of the antiquity of these traditions.

By the time of Abdallah ibn Omar al-Baidawi in the 13th cent. the character of Idris/Enoch had taken many of the features already attributed to Enoch by the Jewish mystical tradition.

Although traditionally maintained, the identification between Enoch and Idris is questioned by modern Islamic commentators, such as Abdullah Yusuf Ali (1872-1953).

Regardless of such an identification, Enoch is nonetheless honored by Muslims as one of the earliest prophets.