Category:Enoch in Islam (subject)
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.
The identification of Idris with Enoch allowed Islamic interpreters to use Jewish traditions in the construction of the composite figure of Idris-Enoch; see Enoch in Judaism. In addition, as in Hermetic circles Enoch was identified with Hermes, so was Idris also; see Enoch in Hermeticism.
At the turn of the 10th century Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari's History (I 166-179) and Al-Masuri's Meadows of Gold provide evidence of the antiquity of these traditions. According to Tabari, "some of the Jews say that Enoch, that is Idris, was born to Jared. God made him a prophet after 622 years of Adam's life had passed. Thirty scriptures were revealed to him. He was the first to write after Adam, to exert himself in the path of God, to cut and sew clothes, and the first to enslave some of Cain's descendants. He inherited from his father Jared that which his forefathers had bequeathed upon him, and had bequeathed to one another. All of this he did during the lifetime of Adam."
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 in the Hermetic tradition and the Jewish mystical tradition. According to the Arab geographer Ibn Battuta (14th cent.), Hermes was also known by the name of Khanukh [Enoch], that is, Idris; it was Enoch-Hermes-Idris who introduced the science of astronomy, foretold the deluge, and built the pyramids, "in which he depicted all the practical arts and their tools, and made diagrams of the sciences."
Although traditionally maintained, the identification between Enoch and Idris is questioned by modern Islamic commentators, such as Abdullah Yusuf Ali (1872-1953).
Whether they equate him with Idris or not, Enoch is nonetheless honored by Muslims as one of the earliest prophets.
Bibliography (selected)
- Yoram Erder. The Origin of the Name Idris in the Qur'an: A Study of the Influence of Qumran Literature on Early Islam. In Journal of Near Eastern Studies 49 (1990) 339-350.
- Philip S. Alexander. Jewish Tradition in Early Islam: The Case of Enoch/Idrīs. In Studies in Islamic and Middle Eastern texts and traditions in memory of Norman Calder (2000), 11-29
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