Texts of Islam

IDRIS, OR ENOCH.

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This is a religious narrative text in the Islamic storytelling tradition, specifically a retelling of the story of Idris (the Quranic name for the Biblical Enoch). The text recounts how Idris, a prophet and scholar, was sent to preach righteousness to the sinful descendants of Cain, and is credited with several civilizational "firsts": warfare in God's cause, inventing the balance scale, sewing garments, and writing. The central episode is a test administered by the Angel of Death disguised as a beautiful woman, through which Idris demonstrates perfect moral integrity — refusing theft, resisting temptation, and accepting hunger and thirst — before his identity is revealed. Distinctively, the narrative dramatizes Idris voluntarily requesting to taste death, then asking to see both Hell and Paradise, ultimately entering Paradise alive through a clever ruse involving a miraculous tree. A closing footnote grounds the tale in comparative religious context, noting that while the Bible simply says God "took" Enoch, the Jewish Midrash similarly lists nine humans admitted to Paradise alive, suggesting the text is attentive to parallels across Islamic, Biblical, and rabbinic traditions.

IDRIS, OR ENOCH.

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