They have countless stories of this ilk—too many to narrate—that prove them to be among the most ignorant of people in both transmitted and rational knowledge. Not content with their ignorance of what the prophets brought, they combined it with ignorance of the world’s history, the chronicles of nations, and the very principles of reason.

Plato, the teacher of Aristotle, lived less than four hundred years before Christ, many centuries after Moses. How, then, could Moses have learned from him?

Refutation of the claim that al-Khidr is still alive:

Their statement that al-Khidr was Aristotle is one of the most blatant falsehoods imaginable; in truth, al-Khidr had died long before Aristotle appeared. Those who maintain that he is alive—certain ascetics, some ordinary folk, and many Jews and Christians—are undeniably mistaken.

The root of their error is that, in remote places and elsewhere, they encounter someone whom they take for an ascetic who says, “I am al-Khidr.” In reality, it may be a devil assuming human form.

We know of many such incidents, even in the very location where I am writing these lines, near al-Rabwa.