He said, “Did I not tell you that you would never be able to bear patiently with me?” (75) Moses said, “If I ask you about anything after this, then do not keep me in your company. You have obtained from me an excuse.” (76) So they set out, until, when they came to the people of a town, they asked its people for food, but they refused to receive them as guests. There they found a wall about to collapse, so he restored it. Moses said, “If you wished, you could have taken payment for it.” (77)

He said—that is, al-Khidr—“Did I not tell you that you would never be able to bear patiently with me?” It was said that he added the words “to you” because Moses had broken the agreement twice. The account relates that Joshua would say to Moses, “O Prophet of Allah ⦗221/b⦘, remember the covenant to which you are bound.”

Moses said, “If I ask you about anything after this”—that is, after this occasion—“then do not keep me in your company”; rather, part from me. Yaʿqub recited it as, “then do not accompany me,” without the long vowel, from the verb meaning companionship.

“You have obtained from me an excuse.” Abu Jaʿfar, Nafiʿ, and Abu Bakr recited the phrase min ladunī (“from me”) with a single nūn, whereas the others recited it with a doubled nūn. Ibn ʿAbbas said: That is, you have been excused concerning what lies between me and you.

It was also said: You warned me that I would not be able to bear patiently with you. And it was said: Your excuse for parting from me has become clear.

Ismaʿil ibn ʿAbd al-Qahir informed us; ʿAbd al-Ghafir ibn Muhammad informed us; Muhammad ibn ʿIsa informed us; Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Sufyan related to us; Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj related to us; Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Qaysi related to us; al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulayman related to us, from his father, from Ruqayyah, from Abu Ishaq, from Saʿid ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbas, from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “May Allah have mercy upon us and upon Moses.” Whenever he mentioned one of the Prophets, he would begin with himself. “Had he not hastened, he would have seen wonders; but he was overcome by a sense of shame before his companion. (1) He said, ‘If I ask you about anything after this, then do not keep me in your company. You have obtained from me an excuse.’ Had he remained patient, he would have seen wonders.” (2)

His saying, exalted is He: “So they set out, until, when they came to the people of a town”: Ibn ʿAbbas said that it was Antioch. Ibn Sirin said that it was al-Ubulla, which is the furthest land from heaven. It was also said to be Barqah. Abu Hurayrah said: a town in al-Andalus. (3) “They asked its people for food, but they refused to receive them as guests.”