—the spirit—
So he took a fish, placed it in a basket, and said to his attendant, “I ask nothing of you except that you tell me the spot where the fish leaves you.” The attendant replied, “You have not asked anything difficult.” Concerning this the verse says, “And when Moses said to his young companion” (18:60)—that companion was Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn. (This wording is not from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr.)
He went on: While they were sitting in the shade of a rock in a moist place, the fish suddenly jerked about while Moses was asleep. The attendant thought, “I will not wake him,” but when Moses awoke he forgot to inform him. The fish wriggled its way into the sea, and Allah held back the water so that its track looked as though it had been cut into stone. ʿAmr told me, “Its track was like that in stone,” and he formed a circle with his thumb and the two fingers beside it.
“Indeed we have met with weariness on this journey of ours” (18:62)—yet Allah had removed weariness from you. (These words are not from Saʿīd.) The attendant then told him what had happened, and they retraced their steps until they found al-Khiḍr. ʿUthmān ibn Abī Sulaymān said that al-Khiḍr was on a green carpet spread upon the very surface of the sea.
Saʿīd said: He was covered with his cloak, one end tucked under his feet and the other under his head. Moses greeted him with salām. Al-Khiḍr uncovered his face and asked, “Is there such a greeting of peace in this land? Who are you?” He replied, “I am Moses.”
“Are you Moses of the Children of Israel?” “Yes,” he said. “Then what brings you here?” Moses answered, “I have come to you ‘so that you may teach me something of the guidance you have been taught’ (18:66).” Al-Khiḍr replied, “Is it not enough that the Torah is in your hands and that revelation comes to you? O Moses, I possess knowledge that you are not meant to know, and you possess knowledge that I am not meant to know.” Just then a bird dipped its beak into the sea, and al-Khiḍr said, “By Allah, my knowledge and yours, compared with Allah’s knowledge, is only as much as this bird has taken from the sea.”
“When they boarded the boat” (18:71) they found small ferry-boats that carried the people of one shore to the other. The ferrymen recognized him and said, “The righteous servant of Allah.” (We asked Saʿīd, “Was that al-Khiḍr?” He said, “Yes.”) They added, “We will not take payment from him.”
So al-Khiḍr “bored a hole in it” and drove a peg into the hull. Moses said, “Have you made a hole in it to drown its people? You have indeed done a dreadful thing!” (18:71). Mujāhid said: “dreadful” means reprehensible. Al-Khiḍr replied, “Did I not say that you could never show patience with me?” (18:72). The first objection was due to forgetfulness, the second was after a warning, and the third would be deliberate.
Moses pleaded, “Do not take me to task for what I forgot, nor impose on me any hardship in my affair” (18:73). They set out again “until they met a boy, and he killed him” (18:74). Yaʿlā reported that Saʿīd said: They came upon boys playing; al-Khiḍr seized a handsome unbelieving boy, laid him on the ground, and slit his throat with a knife.
Moses exclaimed, “Have you killed an innocent soul…?” (18:74)—that is, one who had committed no evil. Ibn ʿAbbās read it “zakiyyatan,” meaning pure, Muslim, just as one might say “a virtuous boy.”
They went on “until they came to a town where they found a wall about to collapse, and he set it upright” (18:77). Saʿīd illustrated with his hand, lifting it so the wall stood straight; Yaʿlā thought Saʿīd had said that he merely stroked it with his hand and it stood firm. Moses protested, “If you wished, you could surely have taken payment for it” (18:77). Saʿīd remarked: “A payment we could have eaten.”
“And behind them was a king” (18:79)—actually, he was ahead of them; Ibn ʿAbbās read it “ahead of them was a king.” They say—though not on Saʿīd’s authority—that his name was Haddad ibn Baddad, and that the slain boy—so they claim—was called Jīsūr. “A king who seizes every sound ship by force” (18:79). At that point