1. Stories of The Prophet [Peace be upon them]
Imam Imaduddin Abul-Fida Isma‘il Ibn Kathir Ad-Dimashqi
The Story of Idris
[Peace be upon him]
Allah the Almighty says:
―And mention in the Book (the Qur‘an) Idris, he was a truthful
Prophet. And We raised him to a high station.‖ Maryam 19:56,
57.
Allah has praised Idris (‘Alayhis-Salam – ―May peace be upon him‖)
in this Verse and described him as Prophet and Truthful. And he is
Enoch. Our Prophet‘s ancestral line meets him, as many of the
genealogists mentioned it.
After Adam and Seth, he was the first man to be sent as
Prophet, peace be upon all of them.
Ibn Ishaq said: He was first man to write with a pen. He was
born while Adam still had three hundred and eight years of his life to
live.
Allah said: ―And We raised him to a high station.‖ This Verse
has been explained in many different ways. In Al-Bukhari and
Muslim, in the Hadith related about the Night Journey of our
Prophet (Salla-Allahu ‘Alayhi wa Sallam – ―Blessings and peace be upon him‖),
it is mentioned: ―The Prophet passed by him on the fourth heaven.‖
Ibn Jarir narrated from Hilal bin Yasaf, saying: Ibn ‗Abbas asked
Ka‘b, while I was present there: ―What it meant when Allah said:
‗And We raised him to a high station.‘ Ka‘b replied: ―Allah revealed to
Idris: ‗I would raise for you every day the same amount of the deeds
of all Adam‘s children‘—perhaps meaning of his time only. So Idris
wanted to increase his deeds and devotion. A friend of his from the

2. angels visited him and Idris said to him: ‗Allah has revealed to me
such and such, so could you please speak to the angel of death, so I
could increase my deeds.‘ The angel carried him on his wings and
went up into the heaven. When it was the fourth heaven, they met
the angel of death, who was descending down to the earth. The angel
spoke to him, about what Idris had spoken to him before. The angel
of death said: ‗But where is Idris?‘ He replied: ‗He is upon my back.‘
The angel of death said: 'How astonishing! I was sent and told to
seize his soul in the fourth heaven. I kept thinking how I could seize
it in the fourth heaven when he was on the earth?‘ Then he took his
soul there out of his body, and that is what is meant in this Verse:
‗And We raised him to a high station.‖
Imam Bukhari says: It is narrated from Ibn Mas‘ud and Ibn
‗Abbas that Elias (Iliyas) was Idris. They apparently take evidence
from the Hadith of Night Journey that: ―When the Prophets (Salla-
Allahu ‘Alayhi wa Sallam – ―Blessings and peace be upon him‖) passed by
him, he said: ‗Welcome to the pious brother and pious Prophet.‘ And
he did not say as Adam and Abraham said: ‗Welcome to the pious
Prophet and pious son‘‖. They say: ―If he were in his lineage, he
should have said as the two of them said.‖
This evidence does not stand strong, because it could be that
the narrator did not remember it properly. Or he may have said that
to show his humility and affection.
(Stories of The Prophet [Peace be upon them] Imam Imaduddin Abul-Fida
Isma‘il Ibn Kathir Ad-Dimashqi 700-774H p. 56 – 57)