His saying, exalted and glorified is He:

﴿And mention in the Book, Idris. Indeed, he was a man of truth and a prophet.﴾ ﴿And We raised him to a high position.﴾ ﴿Those are the ones upon whom Allah has bestowed favor from among the prophets of the descendants of Adam and of those whom We carried with Noah and of the descendants of Abraham and Israel, and of those whom We guided and chose. When the verses of the Most Merciful were recited to them, they fell down in prostration and weeping.﴾

Idris, peace be upon him, is one of the ancestors of Noah. He is the first prophet sent to the people of the earth after Adam, may Allah's blessings be upon him. He is the first one to write with a pen, and he was a tailor. Allah, exalted and glorified is He, described him as truthful. The meaning is that this should be taken generally in the hadiths and actions. Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, said: He is Elias, sent to his people to say, 'There is no god but Allah,' and to do as they wished, but they refused, so they were destroyed.

The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And the more famous view is that he was not sent to destroy a nation, and that he is only a prophet.

People have differed regarding His saying: ﴿And We raised him to a high position.﴾ - A group of scholars said: This is the elevation of prophethood, honor, and status, and he is in the heavens like the other prophets. Another group said: Rather, it is an elevation to the heavens. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with both of them, said: This was by the command of Allah, as He raised Jesus, peace be upon him. There, Idris, peace be upon him, died. Mujahid also said this, except that he said: And he did not die. Wahb ibn Munabbih said likewise. Ka'b al-Ahbar said to Ibn Abbas: He had a companion from the angels who carried him on his wing and ascended with him until he reached the fourth heaven, where he met the Angel of Death. He said to him: It has been said to me: Descend to the fourth heaven and take the soul of Idris, and I marvel how this can be. The ascending angel said to him: This is Idris with me, so he took his soul. It has been narrated that all of this occurred in the sixth heaven, as Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with both of them, said. This is also his rank in the hadith of Isra in some narrations, and the hadith of Anas ibn Malik and Abu Huraira, may Allah be pleased with both of them, in Isra indicates that he is in the fourth heaven.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿Those are the ones upon whom Allah has bestowed favor from among the prophets, from the descendants of Adam﴾. The reference with "Those" is to those mentioned earlier. And His saying: ﴿From the descendants of Adam﴾ means Idris and Nuh, peace be upon them. ﴿And from those whom We carried with Nuh﴾ means Ibrahim, peace be upon him. ﴿And from the descendants of Ibrahim﴾ means Ismail, Ishaq, and Yaqub, peace be upon them. ﴿And Israel﴾ means Musa, Harun, Zakariya, and Yahya, and Isa, son of Maryam, peace be upon them. And His saying: ﴿And from whom We guided and chose﴾ means: We selected and chose. It is as if it is from: "I collected the wealth" when I gathered it, and from it is the collection of wealth, as if the collector chooses it. The majority read: "When it is recited" with a ت from above, while Nafi, Shaiba, and Abu Ja'far read: "When it is recited" with a ي. And "the verses" here refers to the revealed books, and "prostration" is in the accusative case as a state because the essence of prostration is prostration. Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, and the majority read: "and weeping", a group said: it is the plural of one who weeps, just as عاتٍ and جاثٍ are pluralized to عُتِيٍّ and جُثِيٍّ. Another group said: it is a source meaning weeping, the estimation is: and they wept weeping. Al-Tabari and Makki argued for this saying by stating that Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, was reported to have recited Surah Maryam and prostrated, then said: This is the prostration, so where is the weeping? Meaning the crying.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: Their argument with this is invalid; because it is possible that Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, meant: So where are the weepers? So there is no proof in this for that. And what they mentioned about Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, was narrated by Abu Hatim from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him. Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, Yahya, and Al-Amash read: "and weeping" with a kasra on the ب, and it is a source in this reading that does not allow for anything else.