Moses said to him, "May I follow you on that you teach me from what you have been taught of sound judgement?"
He said, "Indeed, with me you will never be able to have patience.
And how can you have patience for what you do not encompass in knowledge?" [Moses] said, "You will find me, if Allah wills, patient, and I will not disobey you in [any] order."
He said, "Then if you follow me, do not ask me about anything until I myself mention of it to you ."
So they set out, until when they had embarked on the ship, al-Khidhr tore it open. [Moses] said, "Have you torn it open to drown its people? You have certainly done a grave thing."al-Kahf (18): 66-71
The first few verses above demonstrate to us the manners required from a student of knowledge when seeking knowledge from a teacher. Musa a.s. did not demand, but instead asked for permission to follow Khidr a.s. in his travels so he may learn something of the knowledge that Khidr a.s. possessed. And we also learn here that the best way to acquire knowledge is to be in the company of one's teacher, which has been the main mode of transmission of knowledge in Islamic scholarship since the time of the Prophet SAW. Unfortunately, in this era of 'Shaykh Google', many of us, myself included have beguiled ourselves into thinking that we can possess great knowledge without a teacher to lead and guide us, from whom we can learn not just new things but adaab as well. We must appreciate the fact that the best and most effective way to gain knowledge is to be with a teacher who not only imparts what he knows, but also teaches us how to use that knowledge wisely, either directly through instruction, or by our own observation.
Ok, moving on. Khidr tells Musa that he will not be able to bear with the things that he will do on his journey, for he does not posses the knowledge of the unseen that Khidr a.s. has. Musa a.s. however insists and says he will be patient, Insya Allah i.e. If Allah Wills (One of this surah's main lessons is the importance of saying insya Allah which deserves a whole separate post). Khidr gives in but places a condition upon Musa, that is he shall not ask anything about the events that wil transpire, until Khidr himself elucidates the matter.
So the first of the three incidents is the story of the ship, which is the main point of this post. Musa and Khidr were offered a boat ride by some fisherman who perhaps knew Khidr. This is not mentioned in the verses, but scholars of tafseer mention its likelihood. In any case, even if they did not know the two prophets, they offered both of them a ride for free, which shows the kindness of these fishermen. Upon embarking the ship, while the fishermen were busy perhaps, Khidr damaged the boat by creating a small hole that would cause the boat to sink slowly. The fishermen would have no choice but to turn back in order to save themselves. Musa seeing this very unjust act blows up and asks Khidr in an angry tone as to why he would do such a terrible thing? Did Khidr want to drown the people of this boat?? Notice in the verse quoted above, Musa does not say "Have you torn it down to drown us??" Instead he says "Have you torn in down to drown its people??" Such are the hearts of the prophets. They always think about the well being of others before their own. And if we wish to be successful callers to Islam, then we must adorn ourselves with this virtue of placing the needs of others before our own.
Khidr reminds Musa of his promise of being patient, not asking any questions. Musa quickly regains control of his emotions and realizes his mistake and apologizes. Here we learn an important lesson, that is to humbly admit one's mistakes and apologize. If we were onlookers to this situation, and certainly if we were in Musa's position, we would feel it justified to react in such a way, and that an apology is not warranted because it is impossible for our judgment of the situation to be wrong, that Khidr had committed a great evil and should be scolded. But we have to realize, that often there is more than meets the eye, and so it is best not to jump to conclusions so very quickly before looking at the bigger picture of things, or at least inquiring about why such an act was carried out.
Now let us fast forward to a few verses ahead where Khidr explains why he damaged the boat.
"As for the ship, it belonged to poor people working at sea. So I intended to cause defect in it as there was after them a king who seized every [good] ship by force."
See, there is indeed an explanation for Khidr's doing! He damaged the ship because Allah had informed him of a King who would seize the property of these poor fishermen by force. By causing a defect to the ship, Khidr had saved the means of livelihood of the fishermen, as the King would not take anything that would be of no benefit to him. The fishermen on the other hand could repair it and then use it again later for fishing, rather than having the whole ship taken away.
So the lesson here and also in the other two incidents in the chronicles of Musa and Khidr which we will discuss in due course insya Allah, is that there is wisdom behind everything that happens to us. We may feel frustrated and angry when something bad happens to us, but Allah has used that incident to prevent a greater harm from happening to us, which we may not be able to perceive now, but maybe later in future. The key is to be patient and place our trust in Allah, the Best Disposer of Affairs.
The other main lesson of this incident is the preservation of wealth that is used for the sake of Allah. Owing to the fact that these fishermen were generous with their ship, Allah preserved it for them. And so it is for us. When we spend our wealth in charity, Allah will preserve that wealth even if to our eyes it may seem like a loss. This is especially difficult in the case of money, because how can money leaving our pocket be preserved?? It's gone! Gone now, but will be replaced with much more insya Allah. The key again is to be sincere and place our trust in Allah, the Best of Providers.
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