The righteous father (lessons from the story of Musa and Khidr a.s.)

We now come to the last of the 3 incidents in the story of Nabi Musa and Khidr a.s. The story continues...

So they set out, until when they came to the people of a town, they asked its people for food, but they refused to offer them hospitality. And they found therein a wall about to collapse, so al-Khidr restored it. [Moses] said, "If you wished, you could have taken for it a payment." Al-Kahf 18: 77-78

[Al-Khidh r] said, "This is parting between me and you. I will inform you of the interpretation of that about which you could not have patience.

The first lesson in this incident is: It is the sunnah(way) of righteous people to treat their guests with utmost kindness. It was an unspoken rule in the time of the righteous predecessors that guests to a city/town must be given accommodation and good service for three days, with the most excellent service on the first day. The hadith of the prophet in this regard is as follows:

 Narrated Abu Shuraih Al-Ka'bi: Allah's Apostle said: “Whosoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, should entertain his guest generously. The guest’s reward is to provide him with a superior type of food for a night and a day, and a guest is to be entertained for three days, and whatever is offered beyond that, is regarded as something given in Sadaqa. And it is not lawful for a guest to stay with his host for such a long period as to put him in a critical position.” [Sahih Bukhari]

See how Rasulullah links kindness to guests with belief in Allah and the Day of Judgment. That is how important it is to treat guests with the best service. Unfortunately, in most parts of the world, we have become like the unkind and careless people in the story above whom Musa and Khidr encountered. They refused to even give the two men food, let alone accommodation. May Allah protect us from miserliness and empower us to follow the sunnah of entertaining guests. Ameen.

Back to the story, Musa was confused and perhaps a little bit frustrated at Khidr’s misplaced kindness of repairing the walls which surrounded the city without even asking for a reimbursement from the town’s people. So Khidr now tells Musa, the time for them to part has come. Remember, it was Musa himself who placed the condition that Khidr can dimiss him if he asked another question. But before that of course, Khidr explains all the three events in sequence. We’ve done the first two, so let’s go on to the explanation for this incident. Allah says:

And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city, and there was beneath it a treasure for them, and their father had been righteous. So your Lord intended that they reach maturity and extract their treasure, as a mercy from your Lord. And I did it not of my own accord. That is the interpretation of that about which you could not have patience." Al-Kahf 18:82

The verse is self explanatory I think. Allah wanted Khidr to repair the wall because beneath it was a treasure that a father had kept for his sons who were still very young. If the wall had collapsed completely, the townspeople whom we already know were very miserly, would’ve found it and taken it for themselves. The two poor kids would never have had a chance of defending what was truly theirs. Thus the wall was repaired, so the two kids could take the treasure their father buried for them upon attaining adulthood and full strength with which they would be able to defend their property.

The key point in this story is how Allah described the father. Allah described him as a righteous man (soliha). And so the lesson for us, especially those already with kids, is that, we need not worry too much about the future of our children after our death. I’m not saying we should leave everything in the hands of Allah without doing anything all. This is wrong and contradicts the message in the verse. The father did work hard and saved some money for his children so they could use it in future. But it was his righteousness which was of most benefit to his children, for Allah said it was because of his righteousness that Allah wished to show his children mercy, by restoring the wall through the Prophet Khidr so the townspeople would not find the treasure he hid for his kids. So dear parents and would be parents, if we want our kids to be under the shade of Allah’s mercy, it is imperative for us first to be righteous people. There is no point if we worry too much about their future to the extent that we work and work and work, neglecting our duties towards Allah. There is only loss in this kind of attitude. We lose of our peace due to constant worry for our kids’ future, and we lose Allah’s mercy for them because we neglected His duties. May Allah make us fathers who are righteous, not only for our own benefit, but for the benefit of our progeny as well.

In this story too as in the previous 2 stories, the main theme and message is the importance of patience and tawakkul when facing difficult and inexplicable/strange situations. It is to place our trust in Allah and realize that Allah is in control of EVERYTHING. Let us remember, that often there are things that happen which may seem unfair and puzzling to our minds, given our limited knowledge of how the qadar of Allah works. But Allah in His infinite wisdom decrees such events for a benefit, which may not be apparent immediately or even in this world, but will definitely become manifest in the Hereafter, provided we have patience and tawakkul i.e. we place our trust in Him and pray for the best. (I have a written a separate post on the Pillars of Ibadah which includes a discussion on tawakkul and how it is very closely related and influenced by hope).

With that, we conclude our very limited tafseer of the story of Musa and Khidr a.s. It is hoped that this series has been beneficial insya Allah. 

P/S: Just an interesting aspect of the lingustic miracle for those who know some Arabic. In verse 78, the verb 'not able' is used in its full form (istato'a), but in verse 82, after Khidr had explained all the puzzling events to Musa, the same verb is now used without the letter 'ta' to make the pronunciation easier (isto'a), to suite the context, as if to say, just as Musa's confusion was eased after the explanation, so is the word simplified to make the reciter feel the peace of mind that has been obtained by Musa post-explanation. And Allah knows best.