18, Sura al-Kahf
The Quranic text and Ali’s version
The story of the wise man and Moses
وَإِذْ
قَالَ مُوسَى
لِفَتَاهُ...
18: 60. Behold, Moses said to his attendant,
C2404. This episode in the story of Moses is meant to illustrate four points.
1. Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Even so that wisdom did not comprehend everything, even as the whole stock of the knowledge of the present day, in the sciences and the arts, and in literature, (if it could be supposed to be gathered in one individual), does not include all knowledge. Divine knowledge, as far as man is concerned, is unlimited.
Even after Moses received his divine mission, his knowledge was not so perfect that it could not receive further additions.
2. Constant effort is necessary to keep our knowledge square with the march of time, and such effort Moses is shown to be making.
3. The mysterious man he meets (18:65 and n. 2411), to whom Tradition assigns the name of Khidhar (literally, Green), is the type of that knowledge which is ever in contact with life as it is actually lived.
4. There are paradoxes in life;
apparent loss may be real gain;
apparent cruelty may be real mercy; returning good for evil may really be justice and not generosity (18:79-82).
Allah's wisdom transcends all human calculation. (R).
... لَا أَبْرَحُ حَتَّى أَبْلُغَ مَجْمَعَ الْبَحْرَيْنِ ...
"I will not give up until I reach the junction of the two seas
C2405. The most probable geographical location (if any is required in a story that is a parable) is where the two arms of the Red Sea join together, viz., the Gulf of 'Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez.
They enclose the Sinai Peninsula, in which Moses and the Israelites spent many years in their wanderings.
There is also authority (see Baydawi’s note) for interpreting the two seas as the two great streams of knowledge, which were to meet in the persons of Moses and Khidr.
... أَوْ أَمْضِيَ حُقُبًا ﴿٦٠﴾
or (until) I spend years and years in travel."
C2406. Huqub means a long but indefinite space of time. Sometimes it is limited to 80 years.
18: 61. But when they reached the Junction,
C2407. literally, 'the Junction of (the space) between the two,' i.e., the point at which the two seas were united.
... بَيْنِهِمَا نَسِيَا حُوتَهُمَا...
they forgot (about) their Fish,
C2408. Moses was to go and find a servant of Allah, who would instruct him in such knowledge as he had not already got. He was to take a fish with him.
The place where he was to meet his mysterious Teacher would be indicated by the fact that the fish would disappear when he got to that place.
The fish is the emblem of the fruit of secular knowledge, which merges itself in divine knowledge at the point where human intelligence is ready for the junction of the two. But the mere merger of secular knowledge does not in itself produce divine knowledge. the latter has to be sought patiently.
... فَاتَّخَذَ سَبِيلَهُ فِي الْبَحْرِ سَرَبًا ﴿٦١﴾
which took its course through the sea (straight) as in a tunnel.
فَلَمَّا
جَاوَزَا قَالَ
لِفَتَاهُ
آتِنَا غَدَاءنَا...
18: 62. When they had passed on (some distance), Moses said to his attendant:
"Bring us our early meal;
... لَقَدْ لَقِينَا مِن سَفَرِنَا هَذَا نَصَبًا ﴿٦٢﴾
truly we have suffered much fatigue at this (stage of) our journey."
C2409. When they came to the Junction of the Seas, Moses forgot about the fish, and his attendant forgot to tell him of the fact that he had seen the fish escaping into the sea in a marvelous way.
They passed on, but the stages now became heavier and heavier, and more fatiguing to Moses.
So when our old knowledge is exhausted, and we come to the brink of new knowledge, we have a feeling of strangeness, heaviness, and difficulty, especially when we want to pass the new knowledge by and do not make it our own.
Some refreshment, even if it be in our old traditional way, is required to sustain us. But we must retrace our steps, and seek the accredited repository of the knowledge which is our quest. It is our business to seek him out. We shall not find him without efforts.
قَالَ
أَرَأَيْتَ
إِذْ أَوَيْنَا
إِلَى الصَّخْرَةِ
فَإِنِّي نَسِيتُ
الْحُوتَ...
18: 63. He replied:
"Sawest thou (what happened) when we betook ourselves to the rock?
I did indeed forget (about) the Fish:
... وَمَا أَنسَانِيهُ إِلَّا الشَّيْطَانُ أَنْ أَذْكُرَهُ...
none but Satan made me forget to tell (you) about it:
C2410. The attendant actually saw the fish swimming away in the sea, and yet "forgot" to tell his master. In his case the "forgetting" was more than forgetting. Inertia had made him refrain from telling the important news. In such matters inertia is almost as bad as active spite, the suggestion of Satan.
So new knowledge or spiritual knowledge is not only passed by in ignorance, but sometimes by culpable negligence.
... وَاتَّخَذَ سَبِيلَهُ فِي الْبَحْرِ عَجَبًا ﴿٦٣﴾
it took its course through the sea in a marvelous way!"
قَالَ
ذَلِكَ مَا كُنَّا
نَبْغِ...
18: 64. Moses said: "That was what we were seeking after":
... فَارْتَدَّا عَلَى آثَارِهِمَا قَصَصًا ﴿٦٤﴾
so they went back on their footsteps, following (the path they had come).
فَوَجَدَا
عَبْدًا مِّنْ
عِبَادِنَا
آتَيْنَاهُ
رَحْمَةً مِنْ
عِندِنَا...
18: 65. So they found one of Our servants, on whom We had bestowed Mercy from Ourselves
C2411. One of Our servants: his name is not mentioned in the Quran, but Tradition gives it as Khidhr. Round him have gathered a number of picturesque folk tales, with which we are not here concerned.
"Khidhr" means "Green": his knowledge is fresh and green, and drawn out of the living sources of life for it is drawn from Allah's own Knowledge. He is a mysterious being, who has to be sought out. He has the secrets of some of the paradoxes of Life, which ordinary people do not understand, or understand in a wrong sense, as we shall see further on.
The nearest equivalent figure in the literature of the People of the Book is Melchizedek or Melchisedek (the Greek form in the New Testament). In Gen. 14:18-20, he appears as king of Salem, priest of the Most High God: he blesses Abraham, and Abraham gives him tithes.
St. Paul allegorizes him in his Epistle to the Hebrew (5:6-10, 7:1-10):
"he was without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life".
That is to say, he appeared mysteriously: neither his parentage nor his pedigree is known, and he seems to live all time.
These qualities are also attributed to Khidhr in popular Muslim tradition. (R).
... وَعَلَّمْنَاهُ مِن لَّدُنَّا عِلْمًا ﴿٦٥﴾
and whom We had taught knowledge from Our own presence.
C2412. Khidhr had two special gifts from Allah:
- Mercy from Him, and
- Knowledge from Him too.
The first freed him from the ordinary incidents of daily human life; and the second entitled him to interpret the inner meaning and mystery of events, as we shall see further on.
Much could be and has been written about this from the mystic point of view.
18: 66. Moses said to him:
... هَلْ أَتَّبِعُكَ عَلَى أَن تُعَلِّمَنِ مِمَّا عُلِّمْتَ رُشْدًا ﴿٦٦﴾
"May I follow thee, on the footing that thou teach me something of the (Higher) Truth which thou hast been taught?"
C2413. Moses, not understanding the full import of what he was asking, makes a simple request. He wants to learn something of the special Knowledge which Allah had bestowed on Khidhr.
قَالَ
إِنَّكَ لَن
تَسْتَطِيعَ
مَعِيَ صَبْرًا ﴿٦٧﴾
18: 67. (The other) said:
"Verily thou wilt not be able to have patience with me!
C2414. Khidhr smiles, and says that there will be many things which Moses will see with him, which Moses will not completely understand and which will make Moses impatient.
The highest knowledge often seems paradoxical to those who have not the key to it.
وَكَيْفَ
تَصْبِرُ عَلَى
مَا لَمْ تُحِطْ
بِهِ خُبْرًا ﴿٦٨﴾
18: 68. "And how canst thou have patience about things about which thy understanding is not complete?"
C2415. Khidhr does not blame Moses.
Each one of us can only follow our own imperfect lights to the best of our judgment, but if we have Faith, we are saved many false steps.
قَالَ
سَتَجِدُنِي
إِن شَاء اللَّهُ
صَابِرًا ...
18: 69. Moses said:
"Thou wilt find me, if Allah so will, (truly) patient:
... وَلَا أَعْصِي لَكَ أَمْرًا ﴿٦٩﴾
nor shall I disobey thee in aught."
C2416. Moses has Faith. He adopts the true attitude of the learner to the Teacher, and promises to obey in all things, with the help of Allah.
The Teacher is doubtful, but permits him to follow him on condition that he asks no questions about anything until the Teacher himself mentions it first.
قَالَ
فَإِنِ اتَّبَعْتَنِي
فَلَا تَسْأَلْنِي
عَن شَيْءٍ
حَتَّى أُحْدِثَ
لَكَ مِنْهُ
ذِكْرًا ﴿٧٠﴾
18: 70. The other said:
"If then thou wouldst follow me, ask me no questions about anything until I myself speak to thee concerning it."
فَانطَلَقَا
حَتَّى إِذَا
رَكِبَا فِي
السَّفِينَةِ
خَرَقَهَا...
18: 71. So they both proceeded: until, when they were in the boat,
he scuttled it.
C2417. The explanation follows in 18:79.
... قَالَ أَخَرَقْتَهَا لِتُغْرِقَ أَهْلَهَا ...
Said Moses:
"Hast thou scuttled it in order to drown those in it?
... لَقَدْ جِئْتَ شَيْئًا إِمْرًا ﴿٧١﴾
Truly a strange thing hast thou done!"
قَالَ
أَلَمْ أَقُلْ
إِنَّكَ لَن
تَسْتَطِيعَ
مَعِيَ صَبْرًا ﴿٧٢﴾
18: 72. He answered: "Did I not tell thee that thou canst have no patience with me?"
قَالَ
لَا تُؤَاخِذْنِي
بِمَا نَسِيتُ
وَلَا تُرْهِقْنِي
مِنْ أَمْرِي
عُسْرًا ﴿٧٣﴾
18: 73. Moses said: "Rebuke me not for forgetting, nor grieve me by raising difficulties in my case."
فَانطَلَقَا
حَتَّى إِذَا
لَقِيَا غُلَامًا
فَقَتَلَهُ...
18: 74. Then they proceeded: until, when they met a young man,
he slew him.
C2418. The explanation follows in 18:80-81.
... قَالَ أَقَتَلْتَ نَفْسًا زَكِيَّةً بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ ...
Moses said:
"Hast thou slain an innocent person who had slain none?
... لَّقَدْ جِئْتَ شَيْئًا نُّكْرًا ﴿٧٤﴾
Truly a foul (unheard-of) thing hast thou done!"
قَالَ
أَلَمْ أَقُل
لَّكَ إِنَّكَ
لَن تَسْتَطِيعَ
مَعِي صَبْرًا ﴿٧٥﴾
18: 75. He answered: "Did I not tell thee that thou canst have no patience with me?"
قَالَ
إِن سَأَلْتُكَ
عَن شَيْءٍ
بَعْدَهَا فَلَا
تُصَاحِبْنِي...
18: 76. (Moses) said:
"If ever I ask thee about anything after this, keep me not in thy company:
... قَدْ بَلَغْتَ مِن لَّدُنِّي عُذْرًا ﴿٧٦﴾
then wouldst thou have received (full) excuse from my side."
فَانطَلَقَا حَتَّى
إِذَا أَتَيَا
أَهْلَ قَرْيَةٍ...
18: 77. Then they proceeded: until, when they came to the inhabitants of a town,
... اسْتَطْعَمَا أَهْلَهَا فَأَبَوْا أَن يُضَيِّفُوهُمَا...
they asked them for food, but they refused them hospitality.
C2419. The inhabitants were churlish. They broke the universal Eastern rule of hospitality to strangers, and thus showed themselves beyond the pale of ordinary human courtesies.
Note that they would have been expected to offer hospitality of themselves, unasked. Here Moses and his companion actually had to ask for hospitality and were refused point-blank.
... فَوَجَدَا فِيهَا جِدَارًا يُرِيدُ أَنْ يَنقَضَّ فَأَقَامَهُ...
They found there a wall on the point of falling down, but he set it up straight.
... قَالَ لَوْ شِئْتَ لَاتَّخَذْتَ عَلَيْهِ أَجْرًا ﴿٧٧﴾
(Moses) said: "If thou hadst wished, surely thou couldst have exacted some recompense for it!"
C2420. As they were refused hospitality, they should, as self-respecting men, have shaken the dust of the town off their feet, or shown their indignation in some way. Instead of that, Khidhr actually goes and does a benevolent act.
He rebuilds for them a falling wall, and never asks for any compensation for it. Perhaps he employed local workmen for it and paid them wages, thus actually benefiting a town which had treated him and his companion so shabbily!
Moses is naturally surprised and asks, "Could you not at least have asked for the cost?"
قَالَ هَذَا فِرَاقُ
بَيْنِي وَبَيْنِكَ...
18: 78. He answered:
"This is the parting between me and thee:
... سَأُنَبِّئُكَ بِتَأْوِيلِ مَا لَمْ تَسْتَطِع عَّلَيْهِ صَبْرًا ﴿٧٨﴾
now will I tell thee the interpretation of (those things) over which thou wast unable to hold patience.
C2421. The story and the interpretation are given with the greatest economy of words. It would repay us to search for the meaning in terms of our own inner and outer experience.
أَمَّا السَّفِينَةُ
فَكَانَتْ
لِمَسَاكِينَ
يَعْمَلُونَ
فِي الْبَحْرِ...
18: 79. As for the boat, it belonged to certain men in dire want: they plied on the water:
... فَأَرَدتُّ أَنْ أَعِيبَهَا وَكَانَ وَرَاءهُم مَّلِكٌ يَأْخُذُ كُلَّ سَفِينَةٍ غَصْبًا ﴿٧٩﴾
I but wished to render it unserviceable, for there was after them a certain king who seized on every boat by force.
C2422. They went on the boat, which was plying for hire. Its owners were not even ordinary men who plied for trade. They had been reduced to great poverty, perhaps from affluent circumstances, and deserved great commiseration, the more so as they preferred an honest calling to begging for charity.
They did not know, but Khidhr did, that that boat, perhaps a new one, had been marked down to be commandeered by an unjust king who seized on every boat he could get-it may have been, for warlike purposes. If this boat had been taken away from these self-respecting men, they would have been reduced to beggary, with no resources left them.
By a simple act of making it unseaworthy, the boat was saved from seizure. The owners could repair it as soon as the danger was past.
Khidhr probably paid liberally in fares, and what seemed an unaccountably cruel act was the greatest act of kindness he could do in the circumstances.
وَأَمَّا
الْغُلَامُ
فَكَانَ أَبَوَاهُ
مُؤْمِنَيْنِ...
18: 80. "As for the youth, his parents were people of Faith,
... فَخَشِينَا أَن يُرْهِقَهُمَا طُغْيَانًا وَكُفْرًا ﴿٨٠﴾
and we feared that he would grieve them by obstinate rebellion and ingratitude (to Allah and man).
C2423. This seemed at first sight even a more cruel act than scuttling the boat. But the danger was also greater.
Khidhr knew that the youth was a potential parricide. His parents were worthy, pious people, who had brought him up with love.
He had apparently gone wrong. Perhaps he had already been guilty of murders and robberies and had escaped the law by subtleties and fraud.
See next note.
فَأَرَدْنَا
أَن يُبْدِلَهُمَا
رَبُّهُمَا
خَيْرًا مِّنْهُ
زَكَاةً وَأَقْرَبَ
رُحْمًا ﴿٨١﴾
18: 81. "So we desired that their Lord would give them in exchange (a son) better in purity (of conduct) and closer in affection.
C2424. The son was practically an outlaw, -a danger to the public and a particular source of grief to his righteous parents.
Even so, his summary capital punishment would have been unjustified if Khidhr had been acting on his own. But Khidhr was not acting on his own: see the latter part of the next verse.
The plural "we" also implies that he was not acting on his own. He was acting on higher authority and removing a public scourge, who was also a source of extreme sorrow and humiliation to his parents.
His parents are promised a better-behaved son who would love them and be a credit to them.
وَأَمَّا
الْجِدَارُ
فَكَانَ لِغُلَامَيْنِ
يَتِيمَيْنِ
فِي الْمَدِينَةِ...
18: 82. "As for the wall, it belonged to two youths, orphans, in the Town;
... وَكَانَ تَحْتَهُ كَنزٌ لَّهُمَا وَكَانَ أَبُوهُمَا صَالِحًا...
there was, beneath it, a buried treasure, to which they were entitled:
their father had been a righteous man:
C2425. The wall was in a ruinous state. If it had fallen, the treasure buried beneath it would have been exposed and would certainly have been looted, among so churlish and selfish a people.
See n. 2419 above.
The treasure had been collected and buried by a righteous man. It was not, in any sense of the word, ill-gotten gains; it was buried expressly in the interests of the orphans by their father before his death. It was intended that the orphans should grow up and safely take possession of their heritage. It was also expected that they would be righteous men like their father, and use the treasure in good works and in advancing righteousness among an otherwise wicked community.
There was thus both public and private interests involved in all the three incidents. In the second incident Khidhr uses the word "we", showing that he was associating in his act the public authorities of the place, who had been eluded by the outlaw.
... فَأَرَادَ رَبُّكَ أَنْ يَبْلُغَا أَشُدَّهُمَا وَيَسْتَخْرِجَا كَنزَهُمَا رَحْمَةً مِّن رَّبِّكَ...
so thy Lord desired that they should attain their age of full strength and get out their treasure -- a mercy (and favor) from thy Lord.
C2426. Age of full strength: Cf. 17:34 and n. 2218.
... وَمَا فَعَلْتُهُ عَنْ أَمْرِي...
I did it not of my own accord.
C2427. Those who act, not from a whim or a private impulse of their own, but from higher authority, have to bear the blame, for acts of the greatest wisdom and utility.
In human affairs many things are inexplicable, which are things of the highest wisdom in the Universal Plan.
... ذَلِكَ تَأْوِيلُ مَا لَمْ تَسْطِع عَّلَيْهِ صَبْرًا ﴿٨٢﴾
Such is the interpretation of (those things) over which thou wast unable to hold patience
Asad’s version
18:60 AND LO! 67 , [In the course of his wanderings,] Moses said to his servant: 68 "I shall not give up until I reach the junction of the two seas, even if I [have to] spend untold years [in my quest] ! "
18:61. But when they reached the Junction, they forgot [about] their Fish, which
took its course through the sea [straight] as in a tunnel.
18:62. When they had passed on [some distance], Moses said to his attendant: "Bring
us our early meal; truly we have suffered much fatigue at this [stage of] our
journey."
18:63.He replied: "Sawest thou [what happened] when we betook ourselves to the
rock? I did indeed forget [about] the Fish: none but Satan made me forget to
tell [you] about it: it took its course through the sea in a marvellous way!"
64. Moses said: "That was what we were seeking after:" So they went back on
their footsteps, following [the path they had come].
65. So they found one of Our servants, on whom We had bestowed Mercy from
Ourselves and whom We had taught knowledge from Our own Presence.
18:67 [The other] answered: "Behold, thou wilt never be able to have patience with me –
(18:68) for how couldst thou be patient about something that thou canst not comprehend within the compass of (thy] experience?" 74
18:69 Replied [Moses]: "Thou wilt find me patient, if God so wills; and I shall not disobey thee in anything!"
(18:70) Said [the sage]: "Well, then, if thou art to follow me, do not question me about aught [that I may do] until I myself give thee an account thereof."
18:71 And so the two went on their way, till [they reached the seashore; and] when they disembarked from the boat [that had ferried them across], the sage 7S made a hole in it -[whereupon Moses] exclaimed: "Hast thou made a hole in it in order to drown the people who may be [travelling] in it? Indeed, thou hast done a grievous thing!"
18:72 He replied: "Did I not tell thee that thou wilt never be able to have patience with me?"
(18:73) Said [Moses]: "Take me not to task for my having forgotten [myself], and be not hard on me on account of what I have done!"
18:74 And so the two went on, till, when they met a young man, [the sage] slew him - (whereupon Moses] exclaimed: "Hast thou slain an innocent human being without [his having taken] another man's life? Indeed, thou hast done a terrible thing!"
18:75 He replied: "Did I not tell thee that thou wilt never be able to have patience with me?"
(18:76) Said [Moses]: "If, after this, I should ever question thee, keep me not in thy company: [for by] now thou hast heard enough excuses from me."
(18:77) And so the two went on, till, when they came upon some village people, they asked them 76 for food; but those [people] refused them all hospitality. And they saw in that (village] a wall which was on the point of tumbling down, and [the sage] rebuilt it [whereupon Moses] said: "Hadst thou so wished, surely thou couldst [at least] have obtained some payment for it?"
18:78 [The sage] replied: "This is the parting of ways between me and thee. [And now] I shall let thee know the real meaning of all [those events] that thou wert unable to bear with patience:
(18:79) "As for that boat, it belonged to some needy people who toiled upon the sea - and I desired to damage it 77 because (I knew that] behind them was a king who is wont to seize every boat by brute force.
18:80 "And as for that young man, his parents were [true] believers - whereas we had every reason to fear 78 that he would bring bitter grief upon them by [his] overweening wickedness and denial of all truth:
(18:81) and so we desired that their Sustainer grant them in his stead [a child] of greater purity than him, and closer [to them] in loving tenderness.
18:82 "And as for that wall, it belonged to two orphan boys [living] in the town, and beneath it was [buried] a treasure belonging to them [by right]. 79 Now their father had been a righteous man, and so thy Sustainer willed it that when they come of age they should bring forth their treasure by thy Sustainer's grace. "And I did not do (any of] this of my own accord: 80 " this is the real meaning of all [those events] that thou wert unable to bear with patience."
Yuksel
An Angel Teaches Lessons to Moses
18:60 Moses said to his youth: "I will not stop until I reach the junction of the two seas, or I spend a lifetime trying."
18:61 But when they did reach the junction between, they forgot their fish, and it was able to make its way back to the sea in a stream.
18:62 When they had passed further on, he said to his youth: "Bring us our lunch; we have found much fatigue in this journey of ours."
18:63 He said, "Do you remember when we rested upon the rock? I forgot the fish, and it was the devil that made me forget to remember it. It made its way back to the sea amazingly!"
18:64 He said, "That is what we have been seeking!" So they went back retracing their steps.
18:65 So they came upon a servant of Ours whom We had given him compassion from Us and We taught him knowledge from Us.
18:66 Moses said to him: "Can I follow you so that you will teach me from the guidance you have been taught?"
18:67 He said, "You will not be able to have patience with me."
18:68 "How can you be patient about what you have not been given any news?"
18:69 He said, "You will find me, God willing, to be patient. I will not disobey any command of yours."
18:70 He said, "If you follow me, then do not ask about anything until I relate it to you."
18:71 So they ventured forth until they rode in a boat and he made a hole in it. He said, "Did you make a hole in it to drown its people? You have done something dreadful!"
18:72 He said, "Did I not tell you that you will not be able to have patience with me?"
18:73 He said, "Forgive me for what I forgot, and do not be hard upon my request with you."
18:74 So they ventured forth until they came upon a youth, and he killed him. He said, "Have you killed an innocent person without justice? You have truly come with something awful!"
18:75 He said, "Did I not tell you that you will not be able to have patience with me?"
18:76 He said, "If I ask you about anything after this, then do not keep me in your company. You will then have a reason over me."
18:77 So they ventured forth until they came to the people of a town. They requested food from its people but they refused to host them. Then they found a wall which was close to collapsing, so he built it. He said, "If you wished, you could have asked a wage for it!"
18:78 He said, "For this, we will now part ways. I will inform you of the meanings of those things that you could not have patience over."
18:79 "As for the boat, it belonged to some poor people who were working the sea, so I wanted to damage it as there was a king coming who takes every boat by force."
18:80 "As for the youth, his parents were those who acknowledge, so we feared that he would oppress them by his transgression and denial."*
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[[Asad’s notes :-
62 I.e., persevering in his unrighteous behaviour (Razi).
63 Lit., "to guidance".
64 Lit., "He would indeed hasten the punishment for them - the implication being that He invariably allows them time to repent and mend their ways.
65 Cf. somewhat similar passages in 16:61 and 35:45. The "time-limit" (maw'id) signifies, in this context, the end of the sinners' life on earth or - as in the next verse - the "point of no return" beyond which God does not allow them to sin with impunity.
66 Lit., "when [or "after"] they had been doing wrong" - i.e., persistently and for a long time.
67 The particle idh (which usually signifies "when", but is, I believe, properly rendered here as "lo! ") often serves in the Qur'an to draw attention to a sudden turn in the discourse, without, however, involving a break in the continuity of thought. In this instance, it evidently marks a connection with verse 54 above ("many facets have We given in this Qur'an to every kind of lesson [designed] for [the benefit of] mankind"), and introduces an allegory meant to illustrate the fact that knowledge, and particularly spiritual knowledge, is inexhaustible, so that no human being - not even a prophet - can ever claim to possess answers to all the questions that perplex man
throughout his life. (This idea is brought out fully in the last two verses of this surah.) The subsequent parable of Moses and his quest for knowledge (verses 60-82) has become, in the course of time, the nucleus of innumerable legends with which we are not concerned here. We have, however, a Tradition on the authority of Ubayy ibn Ka'b (recorded in several versions by Bukhari, Muslim and Tirmidhi), according to which Moses was rebuked by God for having once asserted that he was the wisest of all men, and was subsequently told through revelation that a "servant of God" who lived at the "junction of the two seas" was far superior to him in wisdom. When Moses expressed his eagerness to find that man, God commanded him to "take a fish in a basket" and to go on and on until the fish would disappear: and its disappearance was to be a sign that the goal had been reached. - There is no doubt that this Tradition is a kind of allegorical introduction to our Qur'anic parable. The "fish" mentioned in the latter as well as in the above-mentioned hadith is an ancient religious symbol, possibly signifying divine knowledge or life eternal. As for the "junction of the two seas", which many of the early commentators endeavoured to "identify" in geographical terms (ranging from the meeting of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean at the Bab al-Mandab to that of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean at the Straits of Gibraltar), Baydawi offers, in his commentary on verse 60, a purely allegorical explanation: the "two seas" represent the two sources or streams of knowledge - the one obtainable through the observation and intellectual coordination of outward phenomena ('ilm az-zahir), and the other through intuitive, mystic insight ('ilm al-batin) - the meeting of which is the real goal of Moses' quest.
68 Lit., "young man" (fata)- a term applied, in early Arabic usage, to one's servant (irrespective of his age). According to tradition, it was Joshua, who was to become the leader of the Israelites after the death of Moses.
69 Lit., "burrowing [into it]". Their forgetting the symbolic "fish" (see last third of note 67) is perhaps an allusion to maris frequently forgetting that God is the ultimate source of all knowledge and life.
70 Lit., "Didst thou see?" Although formulated as a question, this idiomatic phrase often expresses - as does its modern equivalent, "Would you believe it?" - no more than a sudden remembrance of, or surprise at, an unusual or absurd happening.
71 Lit, "made me forget it lest I remember it".
72 I.e., the disappearance of the fish indicated the point at which their quest was to end (see note 67).
73 In the Tradition on the authority of Ubayy ibn Ka'b (referred to in note 67) this mysterious sage is spoken of as Al-Khadir or Al-Khidr, meaning "the Green One". Apparently this is an epithet rather than a name, implying (according to popular legend) that his wisdom was ever-fresh ("green") and imperishable: a notion which bears out the assumption that we have here an allegaric figure symbolizing the utmost depth of mystic insight accessible to man.
74 Lit., "that, thou dost not encompass with [thy] experience (khubran)": according to Razi, an allusion to the fact that even a prophet like Moses did not fully comprehend the inner reality of things (haga'iq at-ashya' kama hiya); and, more generally, to man's lack of equanimity whenever he is faced with something that he has never yet experienced or cannot immediately comprehend. In the last analysis the above verse implies - as is brought out fully in Moses' subsequent experiences - that appearance and reality do not always coincide; beyond that, it touches in a subtle manner upon the profound truth that man cannot really comprehend or even visualize anything that has no counterpart - at least in its component elements - in his own intellectual experience: and this is the reason for the Qur'anic use of metaphor and allegory with regard to "all that is beyond the reach of a created being's perception" (al-ghayb).
75 Lit, "he".
76 Lit., "asked its people".
77 Lit., "to cause a fault in it" - i.e., to make it temporarily unserviceable.
78 Lit., "we feared - but it should be borne in mind that, beyond this primary meaning, the verb khashiya sometimes denotes "he had reason to fear" and, consequently, "he knew", i.e., that something bad would happen (Taj al-'Arus, with specific reference to the above verse): and so we may assume that the sage's expression of "fear" was synonymous with positive "knowledge" gained through outward evidence or through mystic insight (the latter being more probable, as indicated by his statement
in the second paragraph of the next verse, "I did not do [any of] this of my own accord").
79 I.e., left to them as an inheritance. Presumably that treasure would have been exposed to view if the wall had been allowed to tumble down, and would have been stolen by the avaricious village folk, who had shown their true character by refusing all hospitality to weary travellers.
80 Implying that whatever he had done was done under the impulsion of a higher truth - the mystic insight which revealed to him the reality behind the outward appearance of things and made him a conscious particle in God's unfathomable plan: and this explains the use of the plural "we" in verses 80-8 1 , as well as the direct attribution, in the first paragraph of verse 82, of a concrete human action to God's will (Razi).
81 Lit., "I will convey unto you a remembrance [or "mention"] of him" - i.e., something that is worthy of remembrance and mention: which, I believe, is an allusion to the parabolic character of the subsequent story and the fact that is is confined, like the preceding parable of Moses and the unknown sage, to a few fundamental, spiritual truths. - The epithet Dhu'l-Qarnayn signifies "the Two-Horned One" or "He of the Two Epochs", since the noun qarn has the meaning of "horn" as well as of "generation"
or "epoch" or "age" or "century". The classical commentators incline to the first of these meanings ("the Two-Horned"); and in this they appear to have been influenced by the ancient Middle- Eastern imagery of "horns" as symbols of power and greatness, although the Qur'an itself does not offer any warrant for this interpretation. In fact, the term qarn (and its plural qurun) occurs in the Qur'an -apart from the combination Dhu'l-Qarnayn appearing inverses 83, 86 and 94 of this surah - twenty times: and each time it has the meaning of "generation" in the sense of people belonging to one
particular epoch or civilization. However, since the allegory of Dhu'l-Qarnayn is meant to illustrate the qualities of a powerful and just ruler, it is possible to assume that this designation is an echo of the above-mentioned ancient symbolism, which - being familiar to the Arabs from very early times - had acquired idiomatic currency in their language long before the advent of Islam. Within the context of our Qur'anic allegory, the "two horns" may be taken to denote the two sources of power with which Dhu'l-Qarnayn is said to have been endowed: namely, the worldly might and prestige of kingship as well as the spiritual strength resulting from his faith in God. This last point is extremely important - for it is precisely the Qur'anic stress on his faith in God that makes it impossible to identify Dhu '1-Qarnayn, as most of the commentators do, with Alexander the Great (who is represented on some of his coins with two horns on his head) or with one or another of the pre-Islamic, Himyaritic kings of Yemen. All those historic personages were pagans and worshipped a plurality of deities as a matter of course, whereas our Dhu '1-Qarnayn is depicted as a firm believer in the One God: indeed, it is this aspect of his personality that provides the innermost reason
of the Qur'anic allegory. We must, therefore, conclude that the latter has nothing to do with history or even legend, and that its sole purport is a parabolic discourse on faith and ethics, with specific reference to the problem of worldly power (see the concluding passage in the introductory note to this surah).