Imām Aḥmad said(1): “Mūsā ibn Dāwūd narrated to us; Ibn Lahīʿah narrated to us; from Abū al-Zubayr, from Jābir, that the Prophet ﷺ said about a month before he passed away:

‘You are asking me about the Hour, while its knowledge lies only with Allah. I swear by Allah, there is not a single living soul on earth today but that a hundred years will pass over it—and it will be gone.’”

Muslim likewise recorded it(2) through the routes of Abū Naḍrah and Abū al-Zubayr, each of them from Jābir ibn ʿAbdullāh, with wording to the same effect(3).

Al-Tirmidhī said(4): “Hunnād narrated to us; Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us; from al-Aʿmash, from Abū Sufyān(5), from Jābir, who said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘There is not a single living soul upon the earth but that a hundred years will pass over it.’” This report too meets the criteria of Muslim(6).

Ibn al-Jawzī said: “These sound ḥadiths completely cut off the claim that al-Khiḍr ﵇ is still alive.”

They say: If al-Khiḍr did not reach the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—as is the strongly supported view, virtually to the point of certainty—then there is no problem. But if he did live into that era, this ḥadith entails that he did not remain alive a hundred years after it, so he would now be nonexistent, not living, for he falls under this general statement. The default is that there is no exception to it unless a sound proof, which must be accepted, establishes otherwise. Allah knows best.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim al-Suhaylī relates in his book “al-Taʿrīf wa’l-Iʿlām”(7) that al-Bukhārī and his teacher Abū Bakr ibn al-ʿArabī held that al-Khiḍr lived during the Prophet’s lifetime but died afterwards in light of this ḥadith. Whether Imām al-Bukhārī(﵀) actually affirmed this, and whether al-Khiḍr survived until the Prophet’s time, is open to examination. Al-Suhaylī favored the view that al-Khiḍr remained alive and cited it as the opinion of most scholars.

He said: “As for his meeting with the Prophet ﷺ and his offering condolences to the Prophet’s family after his death, this is transmitted through sound chains(8).” He then mentioned the reports we have previously judged weak, without producing their isnāds. Allah knows best.