Ibn ʿAbbās said: “Allah never sent a prophet without taking from him the covenant that, should Muḥammad be raised while that prophet was alive, he would certainly believe in him and support him; and He further commanded that prophet to bind his own community with the same covenant—that if Muḥammad were sent while they were alive, they would surely believe in him and aid him.” Al-Bukhārī transmitted this from him. Hence, if al-Khiḍr were a prophet or a saint, he too would be included in that covenant. Thus, had he been alive during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the loftiest thing he could have done would have been to stand before him, affirm what Allah had revealed to him, and defend him from any enemy. For if al-Khiḍr were merely a saint, Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq is superior to him; and if he were a prophet, Moses is superior to him.

Imām Aḥmad records in his Musnad: Shurayḥ ibn al-Nuʿmān narrated to us; Hushaym narrated to us; from Mujālid, from al-Shaʿbī, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“By Him in whose hand is my soul, were Moses alive he would have no choice but to follow me.”(1)

This is a decisive matter, known necessarily as part of the religion.

The noble verse also indicates that, if all the prophets were hypothetically alive and legally responsible during the era of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, they would all have been his followers, under his command and encompassed by his law. Indeed, when he met them on the night of the Ascension, he was raised above them all, and when they descended with him to Jerusalem and the time for prayer arrived, Gabriel—by Allah’s command—told him to lead them. He led them in their own dwelling and sphere of authority, showing that he is the supreme Imām, the honored Seal of the Messengers, given precedence—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him and upon them all.

Once this is understood—and every believer knows it—it follows that, had al-Khiḍr been alive, he would have been a member of the community of Muḥammad ﷺ, obliged to follow his sacred law; nothing else would have sufficed him. Even Jesus son of Mary ﷺ, when he descends at the end of time, will judge by this purified Sharīʿah and will not deviate from it in the slightest, though he is one of the five elite messengers of firm resolve and the last prophet sent to the Children of Israel. Moreover, no sound or even fair chain—one that brings satisfaction to the heart—has ever reported that al-Khiḍr met the Messenger of Allah ﷺ even for a single day, nor that he fought alongside him in any battle. Consider the day of Badr, when the Truthful, utterly Truthful one implored his Lord ﷿, seeking His aid and victory over the disbelievers:

“O Allah, if this small band is destroyed, You will not be worshipped on earth after it.”(2)

Beneath that banner stood the leaders of the Muslims that day and the leaders of the angels—even Gabriel ﷺ himself, as Ḥassān ibn Thābit said in a poem whose line is considered the most glorious verse ever spoken by the Arabs:

At Badr’s well, when they turned their faces back,
Gabriel was beneath our banner, and Muḥammad.(3)

Had al-Khiḍr been alive, standing beneath that banner would have been his highest station and his greatest campaign.

Judge Abū Yaʿlā Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Farrāʾ al-Ḥanbalī said: Some of our scholars were asked whether al-Khiḍr has died, and one of them replied, “Yes.” He added, “I have also heard the same from Abū Ṭāhir ibn al-Ghabbārī,” who reasoned, “If al-Khiḍr were alive, he would have come to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” Ibn al-Jawzī conveyed this in al-ʿUjālah.