Topic: Enoch (Idris(as))

Important Words:

إدریس (Idris) is derived from أدرس which is the transitive form of درس. They say أدرس الکتاب i.e. he read the book or he read it repeatedly so as to remember it; or he made it easy to remember by much reading; or he learned or studied it. درسه الکتاب(darrasahul-kitab) or ادرسه means, he taught him the book (Lane). إدریس which means, one who reads much or teaches much is derived from ادرس as یعقوب is from عقب and اضحاک is from ضحک and یسوع is from ساع and as اسماعیل is the combination of سمع and ایل (meaning God heard) and اسرائیل is the, combination of یسر and ایل (meaning the warrior of God).

Much difference of opinion exists among lexicologists about the origin of the word إدریس. According to Lisan it is a non-Arabic proper noun. According to Asma‘i, Qurtubi and Ibn Hayyan, it is not Arabic. Ibn Sikkit, however, is of the opinion that إدریس (Idris) is an Arabic name. He says that it is derived from أدرس as ابلیس is derived from أبلس. But whatever the difference of opinion the Arabs were familiar with this name even before Islam.

Commentary:

Now who is this Idris? Most of the commentators of the Quran are of the opinion that he is Enoch of the Bible.حنوکand إدریس closely resemble each other in their meanings and significations. Whereas إدریس means one who reads much or instructs much, حنوک means instruction or dedication (Enc. Bib.). Moreover, the account of Enoch given in the Bible and in Jewish religious literature closely resembles that of Idris as given in the Quran. In the Bible we have: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him (Gen. 5:24). In Targum, a famous book of Jewish traditions he has been called a holy man of God whom He gave the titles of "Safra Rabba" and "Metatron"(both words meaning a learned man or religious savant) and took up to heaven (Jew. Enc.). In the Jewish book named "Sefer Hanok" (the book of Hanuk) it is written that inhabitants of the earth became wicked, therefore God took up Hanuk to heaven and made him a guardian of the heavenly treasures and the chief of angels. In another book named "Hayye Hanok" it is written that he was a holy and righteous priest whom God sent to the world for its reformation, but when it became full of sins, God raised him up to heaven (Jew. Enc.). This account of Enoch resembles very much the picture of Idris as given in the Quran in the words: He was a truthful man and a Prophet and We exalted him to a lofty station. These commendatory expressions about Idris serve to demolish the false notions held about Jesus. The godhead of Jesus, more than anything else, rests on the belief that he was taken up to heaven alive. Now if, as Christians believe, God took up Jesus to heaven according to the present verse, Idris too was exalted to a very high station in heaven, and according to the Bible Enoch (Idris) also walked with God and was taken up to heaven (Gen. 5:24). If Jesus could be regarded as Divine and is entitled to a special spiritual status on the assumption of his having been taken up to heaven, then Idris of the Quran or Enoch of the Bible, on that very score is entitled to even a higher spiritual station. If Jesus has been called son of God in the Bible, Enoch has been called the father of the sons of God in Jewish literature. The Book of Enoch which was originally written in Hebrew and later on was translated into Greek and then into Latin contains a full account of Enoch’s life. Its translation in Russian makes very useful and interesting reading.

Ishmael and Idris have been mentioned together in the verse under comment and in 21:86, the only two places where mention has been made of Idris in the Quran. It is so because Ishmael bears a very close resemblance to him. According to the Quran Ishmael was a truthful man and so was Idris. God had raised Idris to a lofty spiritual station and so had He raised Ishmael. About Enoch we read in the Bible that God walked with him (Gen. 5:24) and about Ishmael the Bible says: "Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!" (Gen. 17:18).

2:254; 4:159.

6:87; 38:49.

38:49.

Commentary:

For Ishmael see 2:128, 130; and for Idris 19:58.

The identity of Dhul-Kifl is wrapped in uncertainty. Muslim commentators of the Quran identify him with several persons, chiefly with Biblical Prophets. But the Prophet known by this name appears to be Ezekiel who is called Dhul-Kifl by the Arabs. There seems to exist a close resemblance between the words ذوالکفل and حزقیل (Ezekiel), both in form and meaning, the former word meaning "possessed of an abundant portion" and the latter "God gives strength." Thus the two words seem to possess an identical significance. Rodwell says that Ezekiel is called Dhul-Kifl by the Arabs.

According to Karsten Niebuhr, a little town called Kefil which is situated midway between Najaf and Huila (Babylon) contains the shrine of Ezekiel which is still visited by Jewish pilgrims. He is further of the view that Kifl is the Arabic form of Ezekiel. The Jews too regard Ezekiel as Dhul-Kifl (Enc. of Islam under "Dhul-Kifl" and Carsten Niebuhr’s "Travels through Arabia…" ii, 265). See also 38:49.

Born probably about 622 B.C. in a priestly family Dhul-Kifl had spent the first twenty-five years of his life in Judah. In 592 B.C. at the age of thirty he received the Call and began to preach against idol worship and the injustice and immorality of his people. In the meantime, Babylon had taken the place of Assyria as the dominant power in Western Asia and Judah had acknowledged its over lordship. But Jehoiakim, the King of Judah under the influence of his evil councillors revolted against the authority of Babylon, thus drawing upon himself the vengeance of Nebuchadnezzar who successfully besieged Jerusalem in 597 and carried into exile many of her leading citizens, including Ezekiel and Jehoiachin, a king of three months’ standing—his father Jehoiakim having meanwhile died. Jehoiachin was succeeded by his uncle, Zedekiah, who for a time remained faithful to Babylon, but foolishly depending upon the support of Egypt he renounced his allegiance to Babylon, an act which Ezekiel bitterly resented and denounced as treachery to Yahweh Himself. The result was that Jerusalem was invested by Nebuchadnezzar, and after a siege of eighteen months was destroyed amid horrors untold. The Temple on which such a passion of love had been lavished was reduced to ashes and the people deported to Babylon (586 B.C.).

Such was the situation which confronted Ezekiel. In 592 B.C. five years before the downfall he had foreseen it and with some detail had predicted it and had warned the Jews of the impending disaster. The first terrific blow by Babylon in 597 B.C. had left the Jews unconvinced of the probability of their imminent political extinction—a probability which to Ezekiel was a certainty as clear as noonday. But as Ezekiel foretold the destruction of the Jews so did he predict their restoration. The picture drawn by him of the salvation in store for his people is as gracious and brilliant as his forecast of their downfall had been stern. His prophecy of the restoration and return to Jerusalem was based upon a vision which he had seen (Ezekiel, ch. 37) and to which a reference is to be found in the Quran also (2:260). Ezekiel’s book is full of prophecies. He foretold the destruction and eventual restoration and rehabilitation of the Jews. He also made a prophecy about the great rise of Christian nations of the west and of communism and a prophecy about the equally great decline and downfall of both (chapters 38:39).

But he did not live long to see the return of the Jews to Jerusalem, because he died in captivity in 570 B.C. at the age of 52. From the Book of Ezekiel it appears that he was a great admirer of Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon. According to him Nebuchadnezzar was justified in taking the severe steps that he took against Egypt, Tyre and the Israelites. The destruction and sack of Jerusalem was the result of the Israelites’ own iniquity and wickedness. He, along with the Prophet Jeremiah, was in favour

of supporting the Babylonian government and for this support both these Prophets were condemned as traitors by the Jewish priests of the time, just as Jesus was condemned as a traitor for supporting the Roman government in the time of Titus, and the Promised Messiah in our own time was condemned as a traitor and a sycophant for preferring British rule in India to that of the Sikhs. Ezekiel and Daniel are called the Prophets of the Exile (Holy Bible edited by C.I. Scofield and Peak’s "Commentary of the Bible").