IDRĪS (ادريس). A prophet mentioned twice in the Qurʾān, about whose identity there is some discussion.
[Sūrah xix. 57]: “Commemorate Idrīs in the Book; verily he was a man of truth and a Prophet, and we raised him to a lofty place.”
[Sūrah xxi. 85]: “And Ishmael, and Idrīs, and Ẕū ʾl-kifl—all steadfast in patience.”
Al-Baiẓāwī says Idrīs was of the posterity of Shīs̤ (Seth), and a forefather of Noah, and his name was Uḥnūk͟h (Enoch, Heb. חֲנוֹךְ, Consecrated). He was called Idrīs from dars, “to instruct,” from his knowledge of divine mysteries, and thirty portions of God’s sacred scriptures were revealed to him. He was the first person who learned to write, and he was the inventor of the science of astronomy and arithmetic.
Ḥusain says, “In the Jāmiʿu ʾl-Uṣūl, it is written that Idrīs was born one hundred years after the death of Adam.”
The Jalālān say the meaning of the words in the Qurʾān, “we raised him to a lofty place,” is that he liveth either in the fourth heaven, or in the sixth or seventh heaven, or that he was raised up from the dead and taken to Paradise.
The Kāmālān say, “In the book called the Rauẓatu ʾl-Aḥbāb, Ibn Jarīr relates that Idrīs was the special friend of one of the angels of heaven, and that this angel took him up into the heavens, and when they arrived in the fourth heaven they met the Angel of Death. The angel asked the Angel of Death how many years there were remaining of the life of Idrīs; and the Angel of Death said, ‘Where is Idrīs, for I have received orders to bring death to him?’ Idrīs then remained in the fourth heaven, and he died in the wings of his angel friend who had taken him from earth.”
Some of the Commentators think Idrīs and Elijah (Ilyās) are the same persons. But the accounts given seem to identify him with Enoch.
ʿĪDU ʾL-AẒḤĀ (عيد الاضحى). Vulg. ʿĪd-i-Ẓuḥā, “The feast of sacrifice.” Called also Yaumu ʾn-Naḥr; Qurbān-ʿĪd; Baqarah-ʿĪd (i.e. the cow festival); and in Turkey and Egypt ʿĪdu Bairām. It is also called the ʿĪdu ʾl-kabīr, the great festival, as distinguished from the ʿĪdu ʾl-Fit̤r, which is called the minor festival, or al-ʿĪdu ʾṣ-ṣag͟hīr.
It is celebrated on the tenth day of Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah, and is part of the rites of the Makkan pilgrimage, although it is observed as well in all parts of Islām both as a day of sacrifice and as a great festival. It is founded on an injunction in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xxii. 33–38].