19. Surah [Maryam, mecca 44]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَاذْكُرْ
فِي الْكِتَابِ
إِدْرِيسَ...
19: 56. Also mention in the Book the case of Idris:
C2508. Idris is mentioned twice in the Quran, viz.; here and in 21:85, where he is mentioned among those who patiently persevered.
His identification with the Biblical Enoch, who "'walked with God' (Gen. 5:21-24), may or may not be correct. Nor are we justified in interpreting verse 57 here as meaning the same thing as in Gen. 5:24("God took him"), that he was taken up without passing through the portals of death.
All we are told is that he was a man of truth and sincerity, and a prophet, and that he had a high position among his people. It is this point which brings him in the series of men just mentioned; he kept himself in touch with his people, and was honoured among them.
Spiritual progress need not cut us off from our people, for we have to help and guide them. He kept to truth and piety in the highest station.
...إِنَّهُ كَانَ صِدِّيقًا نَّبِيًّا ﴿٥٦﴾
he was a man of truth (and sincerity), (and) a prophet:
وَرَفَعْنَاهُ
مَكَانًا
عَلِيًّا ﴿٥٧﴾
19: 57. And We raised him to a lofty station.
19: 56
Asad And call to mind, through this divine writ, Idris. Behold he was a man of truth, a prophet,
Pickthall And make mention in the Scripture of Idris. Lo! he was a saint, a Prophet;
Transliteration Wadz kur fil kita_bi idris in nahu_ ka_na shid diqan nabiy ya_
19: 57
Asad whom We exalted onto a lofty station.
Pickthall And We raised him to high station.
Transliteration Wa rafa'na_hu maka_nan 'aliy ya_
[See Asad’s note 41
note 42 As regards my rendering of ‘rafanahu’ as “whom We exalted”, see 3:55 and 4:158, where the same expression is used with reference to Jesus,………..]
Asad And call to mind, through this divine writ, Idris. Behold he was a man of truth, a prophet,
Yusuf Ali Also mention in the Book the case of Idris: he was a man of truth (and sincerity) (and) a prophet:
Pickthall And make mention in the Scripture of Idris. Lo! he was a saint, a Prophet;
Transliteration Wadz kur fil kita_bi idris in nahu_ ka_na shid diqan nabiy ya_
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21. Surah Al Anbiya'
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ
...
21: 85. And (remember) Isma'il,
C2741. Isma'il is mentioned specially, apart from the line which descended through Isaac (21:72), as he was the founder of a separate and greater Ummah.
His sufferings began in infancy (see n. 160 to 2:158 ); but his steady constancy and submission to the will of Allah were specially shown when he earned the title of "Sacrifice to Allah" (see n. 2506 to 19:54). That was the particular quality of his constancy and patience.
... وَإِدْرِيسَ ...
Idris,
C2742. For Idris see n. 2508 to 19:56.
He was in a high station in life, but that did not spoil him. He was sincere and true, and that was the particular quality of his constancy and patience,
... وَذَا الْكِفْلِ...
and Dhu al Kifl,
C2743. Dhu al Kifl would literally mean "possessor of, or giving, a double requital or portion"; or else, "one who used a cloak of double thickness," that being one of the meanings of Kifl.
The Commentators differ in opinion as to who is meant, why the title is applied to him, and the point of his being grouped with Isma'il and Idris for constancy and patience.
I think the best suggestion is that afforded by Karsten Niebuhr in his Reisebeschreibung nach Arabian, Copenhagen, 1778, ii. 264-266, as quoted in the Encyclopaedia of Islam under "Dhul-Kifl".
He visited Meshad 'All in 'Iraq, and also the little town called Kefil, midway between Najaf and Hilla (Babylon). Kefil, he says, is the Arabic form of Ezekiel. The shrine of Ezekiel was there, and the Jews came to it on pilgrimage.
If we accept "Dhul al Kifl" to be not an epithet, but an Arabicised form of "Ezekiel", it fits the context, Ezekiel was a prophet in Israel who was carried away to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar after his second attack on Jerusalem (about B.C. 599). His Book is included in the English Bible (Old Testament). He was chained and bound, and put into prison, and for a time he was dumb (Ezekiel, 3:25-26).
He bore all with patience and constancy, and continued to reprove boldly the evils in Israel.
In a burning passage he denounces false leaders in words which are eternally true: "Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken ...... etc. (Ezekiel, 34:2-4).
Dhu al Kifl is again mentioned in 38:48 along with Isma'il and Elisha.
...كُلٌّ مِّنَ الصَّابِرِينَ ﴿٨٥﴾
all (men) of constancy and patience;
وَأَدْخَلْنَاهُمْ
فِي رَحْمَتِنَا
إِنَّهُم مِّنَ
الصَّالِحِينَ
﴿٨٦﴾
21: 86. We admitted them to Our Mercy: for they were of the Righteous ones.
Asad’s Version:
21:85
AND [remember] Ishmael and Idris, 80 and every one who [like them] has pledged himself [unto God]: " they all were among those who are patient in adversity,
(21:86) and so We admitted them unto Our grace: behold, they were among the righteous!
[[Asad’s note - 80 See surah 19, note 41. ]]
21:85
Arabic Source and Roman Transliteration |
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وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِدْرِيسَ وَذَا الْكِفْلِ ۖ كُلٌّ مِّنَ الصَّابِرِينَ |
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AND [remember] Ishmael and Idris, 80 and every one who [like them] has pledged himself [unto God]: " they all were among those who are patient in adversity,
(21:86) and so We admitted them unto Our grace: behold, they were among the righteous!
[[Asad’s note - 80 See surah 19, note 41. ]]
[[ Asad’s note - 81 Lit., "and him of the pledge". The expression
dhu '1-kifl is derived from the verb kafala and especially the form takaffala - which signifies "he became responsible [for something or someone)" or "pledged himself [to do something]". Although the classical commentators consider dhu '1-kifl to be the epithet or the proper name of a particular prophet - whom they variously, more or less at random, identify with Elijah or Joshua or Zachariah or Ezekiel - 1 fail to see any reason
whatever for such attempts at "identification", the more so since we have not a single authentic hadlth which would mention, or even distantly allude to, a prophet by this name. I am, therefore, of the opinion that we have here (as in the identical expression in 38 : 48) a generic term applying to every one of the prophets, inasmuch as each of them pledged himself unreservedly to God and accepted the responsibility for delivering His message to man. ]]
(21:86) and so We
admitted them unto Our grace: behold, they were among the righteous!
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