The Second Trial: The Pursuit of Divine Knowledge

The second story, to which the chapter moves on later, comes from verse 60. It is a story of Mūsā (peace be upon him) which is told nowhere else. The story of Mūsā is repeated throughout the Qur'an; but this one is told nowhere else: his particular encounter with Khaḍir, or Khiḍr — whichever the honorific properly is, it may be said either way.

The name comes from the word for greenery: it is related in a hadith that wherever he sat, greenery would sprout. There was a barakah with him, and that may be why he is called Khaḍir or Khiḍr. According to many he may still be alive, having drunk of this water of life; Allah knows best. Some have even claimed to have been visited by him, and helped by him.

A story took place in which someone asked Mūsā (peace be upon him): who is the most knowledgeable? He said: I am — being the prophet, he supposed himself the most knowledgeable, and upon that reasoning said so. Allah (swt) was not best pleased with it, and determined that he should be taught that there was another more knowledgeable than he.

He was told to take a journey. He took with him one of his disciples, Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn, Joshua, who was carrying a fish, which was their food, it appears. And as they stopped somewhere, the fish somehow got out of the basket and disappeared into the ocean, and they went on. And then he said: where is the food? He was told that at the place where they had stopped, that is where the fish had disappeared; it took off. He said: that is exactly the place we are looking for — for he had been told to go and see Khaḍir, or Khiḍr (peace be upon him), at the confluence of the two oceans, where two oceans meet.

Many have tried to work out where this confluence might be. One such confluence, at Cape Point in Cape Town, does not appear to be the one intended; it may be closer to the Red Sea, the sea that in fact opened and swallowed Pharaoh, rather than the Nile as may have been said in an earlier chapter. It is the Red Sea that is the one where Mūsā (peace be upon him) was saved, with the Banū Isrāʾīl, from Pharaoh.

The point is that when they arrived, Mūsā (peace be upon him) found this man who was covered up, and this was the one he sought. Very humbly, Mūsā said: may I stay with you, to benefit from you, to learn of what Allah has given you? He was told: no — you will not be able to be patient with me. He knew him already. You will not be able to be patient with me. Mūsā said: no, let me be with you; I shall ask you nothing. He was told: very well. And so they set out.