Prologue
Even though Enoch was rendered to be Hermes/Thoth among the Egyptians and Mercury was Enoch’s appellation among the Greeks, Enoch was also known as Hermes among the Greeks. The Greeks, interestingly enough, identified their Hermes/Mercury with Thoth/Hermes of Egypt, believing he built the pyramids in Egypt.
"Hermes is Enoch, he is Idris, hibr al-ahbar, the first of God's messengers, may God have mercy upon him."and it means "the scholar," as Hermes Trismegistos means "erudite scholar of merit." Hebrews, similar to their Egyptian captors, when Knowledge was a priestly vocation, calling Hibr, that is, "scholar." The word Hermes is an attribute of knowledge, not a name, alike, Idris is also not a name, called Idris due to his great philosophic credentials. His real name is Enoch.
The assumption that Idris is connected with study and knowledge is well grounded in Islamic tradition, as already noted. Hermes, on the other hand, is a Greek, not a Syriac word, derived from hermeneia (interpretation). Muslims were aware of the tasks attributed to Hermes Trismegistos in ancient Egyptian literature: he was a scholar who meditated between heaven and mundane men by announcing heavenly wisdom and knowledge to the world.
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Idris, the prophetʾ
Idrīs (Arabic) is an ancient prophet and patriarch mentioned in the Qur'an. Muslim scholars believe he was the first prophet since Adam. Islamic tradition has consistently identified Idris with apocryphal Enoch. The Qur'an states that he was "exalted to a high status." Because of this and other parallels, Idris has been traditionally identified with the Biblical Enoch, and Islamic tradition usually places Idris in the early Generations of Adam, considering him the most ancient prophets mentioned in the Qur'an, placing him before Noah. Idris' has a unique status that inspired many late traditions and stories about him in Islamic folklore.
The Qur'anic Idris
Idris is mentioned twice in the Qur'an, where he is described as a wise man.
in chapter 19 of the Qur'an, "Also mention in the Book the case of Idris: He was a man of truth (and sincerity), a prophet: and We raised him to a lofty status." --Qur'an, Ch.19 (Surat Mariam), verses 56-57
"Ibn al-Qifti speaks about Hermes in a chapter entitled "Idris." He had learned from Abii Macshar that the figure of Hermes Trismegistos was a conflation of three different Hermes, the first of whom was Idris. Hermes is described as an antediluvian who had warned his people of a flood, but whose warning had fallen on deaf ears. He then built the pyramids in Egypt in order to preserve the sciences for future generations.
He drew pictures of existing tools and wrote down their history. According to one tradition, he is buried in one of the pyramids. Although there is a similarity between Hermes Trismegistos and the Idris of Islamic literature, both in their deeds and semantically speaking, it is difficult to believe that Idris is derived from Hermes, in view of the etymological differences between the two names."-- Yoram Erder
Still there may be something to the idea that there could be a similarity of meaning between the Arabic root d-r-s and the origin of Idris in the foreign language from which the name was taken. There is a semantic and etymological resemblance between the Hebrew root d-r-sh and the Arabic d-r-s, but it is known that Muslims identified Idris with the biblical Hanokh (Enoch), which bears no resemblance whatsoever to d-r-s.
On this point, however, one should note that one of the important figures involved in the eschatological doctrines of the CD was called Dre-sh ha-Torah, "Interpreter of the Torah." The sect apparently identified him with Hermes-Mercury and attributed to him the deeds of Enoch known to us from the Enoch literature. This is the basis on which I infer that it was Dor-esh, which comes from d-r-sh, which as we have seen, was the source of Idris in the ~ur'iin
The Jewish view of Enoch was he was the only pious man of his time, taken away before he would become corrupted. For Rashi, and ben Ezra, Enoch was held to frequently lapse in his piety, and was removed before his time, by a heavenly plague, in order to avoid further lapses. In the Sefer Hekalot, Rabbi Ishmael is described as having visited the 7th Heaven, where he meets Enoch, who claims that earth had, in his time, been corrupted by the demons and Azael, so that Enoch was taken to Heaven to testify assuring that God was not cruel.
Similar traditions are recorded in Ecclesiasticus. Later elaborations of this interpret-ation treated Enoch as having been a pious ascetic, who, called to remix with others, preached repentance, despite the sparsity of people on the earth, he gathered a vast collection of disciples, to the extent that he was proclaimed king. Under his wisdom, peace is said to have reigned on earth, to the extent that he is summoned to Heaven to rule over the sons of God. In a parallel with Elijah, in sight of a vast crowd begging him to stay, he ascends to Heaven on a horse.
Regarding him as a man of truth and a prophet, as well as a model of patience; popular Muslim traditions credit Idris as inventor of astronomy, writing, and arithmetic. Enoch is often described as having been compelled to defend his life with the sword, against the depraved children of earth. Among his lesser inventions, in popular Muslim tradition, were said to be scales, to enable just weights, and tailoring.Islamic literature mentions that Idris' prophetic career started at around 40 years old, in parallels with the prophet's own, living during the time of fire worship.
Exegesis embellishes upon the lifetime of Idris, and states that the prophet divided his time into two . For three days of the week, Idris would preach to his people and four days he would devote solely to the worship of God. Many early commentators, such as Tabari, credited Idris with possessing great wisdom and knowledge. Ibn Ishaq, a commentator narrated that he was the first man to write with a pen and that he was born when Adam was still alive. In his commentary on the Quranic verses 19:56-57, Ibn Kathir wrote "During his Night flight, the Prophet passed by him in the fourth heaven.
Research on the Dead Sea Scrolls and related apocrypha of Enoch literature has become one of the important branches of study dealing with the history and theology of Judaism and Christianity during their formative periods. Nowadays, reference to the Qumran scrolls is indispensable for any serious discussion of Judaism and/or Christianity during the period of the Second Temple and the period following its destruction. Yet, despite Goitein's challenge, studies of the relations between the Qumran Scrolls and Islam have hardly scratched the surface.'
This deficiency is even more striking when one considers the evident influence of the Qumran-Enoch literature on the early Shica, on the one hand, and on Karaism and other Jewish sectarian movements in the eighth and ninth centuries, on the other gfour In this paper. It follows here that had Idris been antediluvian, he would have used the same form of address used by darn.'' P. Casanova and, later, C. C. Torrey both thought that Idris originated from the biblical Ezra, who had come down to the Muslims in Greek as Esdras.
This is somewhat problematic since, in Muslim tradition, 'Uzayr is the biblical Ezra, who-according to the Qur'an (sura 9:29)- was claimed by the Jews to be the son of ~0d.l~ Because Casanova could not find any Jewish myth describing Ezra as the son of God, he assumed that the Qur'anic verse about 'Uzayr referred to the sons of God in Gen. 6:2-4.14 In this myth, embellished by haggadic literature, one of the fallen angels is 'Lza'el. His name was pronounced 'Uzi'el, and he is the source of '~za~r." Muslim exegetes pointed to the similarity of the name Idris and the Arabic root d-r-s, "study."
Indeed, according to tradition, Idris was a scholar who devoted himself to the books revealed to his Adam and Seth and studied God's words. Many of the traditions emphasize the fact that he made decisive contributions to the study of the sciences in order to preserve them for the coming Nevertheless, despite Idris's proclivity for learning, the idea that his name derives from an Arabic root has been ruled out, as already noted. Some have suggested, however, that in the foreign language from which it was borrowed, the word had the same meaning as the Arabic root d-r-s.17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH4JQO8EO1w
