Al-Khaṭṭābī said:
“He was called al-Khiḍr only because of his beauty and the brilliance of his face.”
I reply: This does not contradict what is established in the Ṣaḥīḥ; and if one must choose between the two explanations, the one affirmed in the authentic report is more deserving and weightier, and everything else is to be set aside.
Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir (1) also transmitted this ḥadīth through the chain of Ismāʿīl ibn Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar al-Aylī (2): “ʿUthmān, Abū Jurayy (3), and Hammām ibn Yaḥyā related to us, from Qatādah, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Nawfal, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said:
‘Al-Khiḍr was called al-Khiḍr only because he prayed upon a white patch of ground which then quivered and turned green.’”
This chain is unique in this form.
Qabīṣah reported from al-Thawrī, from Manṣūr, from Mujāhid who said:
“He was called al-Khiḍr because whenever he prayed, everything around him turned green.” (4)
It was previously mentioned that when Moses and Joshua (peace be upon them) retraced their steps, following the trail, they found him lying on a green carpet spread over the surface of the sea. He was covered with a cloth whose two ends were tucked beneath his head and his feet. Moses greeted him; al-Khiḍr uncovered his face, returned the greeting, and asked, “How has the greeting reached your land? Who are you?”
Moses replied, “I am Moses.”
He asked, “Moses of the Children of Israel?”
He answered, “Yes.”
What followed between them is exactly as Allah has recounted in His Book.
The course of the story indicates his prophethood from several angles:
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Allah’s words: “Then they found one of Our servants to whom We had granted mercy from Us and taught knowledge from Our Own Presence” (al-Kahf 18:65).
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Moses’ statement to him: “May I follow you so that you teach me something of the guidance you have been taught?” — to the end of the verses:
“You will not be able to bear with me… How can you be patient with something you do not encompass in knowledge?… You will find me, if Allah wills, patient and I shall not disobey you in anything… Then if you follow me, do not question me about anything until I myself mention it to you” (al-Kahf 18:66-70).
Had he been merely a friend of Allah (walī) and not a prophet, Moses would not have addressed him in such terms, nor would al-Khiḍr have responded to Moses in this manner. Moses sought his company only to attain the knowledge with which Allah had favored him exclusively. If al-Khiḍr were not a prophet, he would not enjoy divine protection from error, and Moses—a mighty prophet and noble messenger, whose infallibility is obligatory—would have had little earnest desire for the knowledge of a saint who is not protected from error. Nor would he have resolved to set out in search of him—even if it took, as some say, eighty years. Yet when he finally met him, Moses humbled himself, honored him, and followed him in the posture of a student seeking knowledge. All this proves that al-Khiḍr was a prophet like Moses, receiving revelation just as Moses did, while being distinguished with certain divinely bestowed, inner sciences (ʿulūm ladunniyya). (5)