If Khidr broke the ship    a hundred good will come, there is khidr(1)

In this story God has shown that Moses did not become Moses on his own and although he was a prophet and had a religion, he was sent to someone to be trained so he can ascend to the highest status. Of course Khidr has no other mission but to guide the seekers of God. This story is about the fact that religion and spirituality needs to be together. God told our prophet : “You are only a warner and for every people, there is a guide.”(2) Now you warn them, but for each tribe after you, there will be a guide. In the time of the prophet he had the title of the warner and the guide. Therefore, after him Imams had that those titles.

But the rules of Judaism were so harsh and tough and their focus on religion was so shallow and superficial that they neglected the faith which means the meaning and the spirit of the Divine Rules. This story was a demonstration that beyond the religious rituals, there is faith; Moses had a teacher; Moses’ guide is a spiritual leader.  Jewish scholars didn’t want people to know that because it would damage their reputation and the truth of Jesus’ words about their words and their deeds which was purely based on shallowness and religious superficiality in other words deed without faith, would have become apparent.

 Dhul-Qarnayn was the same. He had served people under Divine Orders. He had built dams against the people of Gog and Magog advances. He, himself was always busy working and active. It was his serving attitude that could have been the basis for people to object to their religious leaders as to why they do not behave the same way and serving God’s people is not their main focus. But from the spiritual point of view, the story of  Dhul-Qarnayn talks about the third stage of the journey towards God that God dominates His guardian and grants him the guardianship of the world just as He did with  Dhul-Qarnayn. He made  Dhul-Qarnayn a wealthy man and made him the regnant of the West and the East of the world. He took  Dhul-Qarnayn from East to West and from West to East and showed him the ways. He says in Quran: “Indeed we established him upon the Earth; we gave him everything a way. So he followed a way.”(3) We gave him power and wealth and gave him the means and the reason to tenure the Earth. He followed that and he journeyed the path that God showed him.

It is why that these three stories have been kept a secret and the prophet has revealed them to people. Currently, in the holy books none of these stories are mentioned. But the story of The Companions of the Cave has been mentioned in other Christian sources. Of course hiding these stories was mainly out of prudence. They, mainly Jewish scholars, found it beneficial to communicate and reinforce the Divine Orders, which was for their own benefit, not for the benefit of Jewish people, meaning that they had keeping their supremacy and power over people in mind. Because if they considered Jews, many of the attacks and disasters would not have happened to Jewish people. Yet, as it was said before, the current Torah and Bible is respected by Muslims, firstly because they are in the name of the prophets that we believe in and secondly, they are written by people who have been trusted by the prophet of the time. Of course they did not claim that they were speaking or writing on behalf of God and these words are the exact words which have been descended on Jesus because they are fundamentally real stories.

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Here from these three stories, we pay attention to Moses and Khidr story with more details. From the verses of Quran where specifically the necessity of journey and its conditions are the verses related to Moses and the person “Servant from among Our servants(4)”- whom according to commentators is Khidr. It is the consensus among all Muslims that one letter cannot be altered in Quran. In many verses, by altering one letter, in translation no change is apparent or if you replace a V with F the change may be minimal but nevertheless, even a small change is not allowed. If someone does that, they unwittingly have been hostile towards Islam. Therefore, in these stories and everywhere else in Quran every word and letter can be counted on since nothing is deemed useless and in vain, since it says about the communicator of the Divine words, the prophet: “Nor does he speak (from his own) inclination. It is not but revelation revealed (5)”. He does not talk from the air. Whatever he says is revealed to him. As Rumi says:

Although Quran is from the prophet’s lips                 anyone says that it’s not from God is a non-believer

Nevertheless some behave like the Jewish scholars and for reasons they do not want to communicate the mystical truth of this story the way it actually is and therefore, they minimise the mystical points in this story and pass over them.Everyone knows the narrative of the story and for the purpose of mentioning some points we give you a summary of the story.

Majority believe the Moses mentioned in this story is Moses the prophet. One day Moses tells the young man that was accompanying him that he’s been assigned by God that I should go to Majma Al-Bahrein and meet a servant amongst his servants. This is how he took the young man with him. Commentators say that the young man was Joshua a pupil of Moses whom later on he became his successor. In this story he was mentioned as fata (youth). In the story of The Companions in the Cave, those who took refuge in the cave where mentioned as fetieh which is the plural of fata: “Indeed they were youths who believed in their Lord.”(6) In Islam it is said about Ali: “There is no fata (hero) like Ali, There is no sword like Dhu-l-Fiqar”. All these can be evidences for us to understand who youth and hero really is. Anyhow, Joshua accompanied Moses and for food they took dried fish with them. After a while Moses asked Joshua to bring the fish since they were tired and hungry. Joshua apologised and said: “When we rested on the rock, I forgot the fish and the reason for my forgetfulness was Satan. That fish amazingly came to life and went to the sea.” (7)Moses said that we must return as that is the place I was looking for(8).  When they returned, they saw Khidr. Moses asked Khidr to allow him to be his companion and follower. Khidr accepted under a few conditions. Moses accompanied Khidr and from this point there is no mention of fata (Joshua). In one place, Khidr damaged a ship and Moses objected. Later on Khidr explained: “I wanted to damage the ship so that tyrant on the side of the sea would not take over the ship(9).”

Khidr broke the ship so           it can escape from the wicked
If broken escapes, be broken            Safety is in poverty, go to poverty(10)

Then they reached an infant. Khidr killed the infant and Moses objected. Later on Khidr explained:  “That infant was a trouble child and he would have caused his parents infidelity. We wanted to kill him and destroy him so God bestows upon them a righteous child in his place(11).  Here Khidr says “We” wanted to destroy him so God bestows upon them a righteous child, whereas before he said “I” wanted to damage the ship. They went further until they reached a wall. Khidr repaired the wall without asking for payment. Later in his explanation about this deed he said: “God wants this wall to remain intact because this wall belongs to two orphaned children and underneath it there is a treasure and God’s will is until these children reach the age of adolescence, the wall to remain intact. Therefore, I repaired the wall.”

This story is an example of the fact that even prophets have their own faith and they too are evolving spiritually, however, God commands them directly. This is why God commanded Moses directly to go to Majma’ Al-Bahrein and see Our servant (Khidr), accompany him and learn from him. However, God doesn’t talk to us directly. He tells his prophet: “You are only a warner, and for every people is a guide.(12)” You warn and they need to go and find their guide. What is a guide and its aspects? A guide needs to have the same aspect as what God had determined for Khidr. Firstly, he needs to be a servant amongst the servants of God and profess to it. Secondly, he needs to have been trained by Us, meaning he needs to have the wisdom that We have given him not the shallow worldly wisdom. Of course there is no doubt that worldly wisdom is beneficial for this worldly life but there are other wisdoms that are higher than that. Sheikh Najmuddin Kubra is known in mysticism as Sheikh Wali Torash. It is said that no more than twelve dervishes were initiated by him and because of the gravity and the power of his mystical training; each of one of them evolved in a short time and were appointed by Sheikh as guides. This means after their initiation, all twelve people, completed their spiritual journey and found the true wisdom. Therefore, this wisdom cannot be a shallow wisdom since one cannot obtain worldly wisdom in a short time but they rather need to practice and endeavor for a while. But if God wants “We had taught him knowledge from Us.(13)” He would grant the true knowledge in an instant. Another aspect Khidr or guide is to find him in Majma’ Al-Bahrein, a place between material and spirit, this world and after life. One may reach the highest status, meaning fully evolve, but may not be complementary, because a guide or complementary needs to have attention to the exterior as well as the interior of issues. One of these instances is Shari’a which is necessary for everyone whether complete or incomplete to understand and practice.

1-  Masnavi, Rumi, Tofigh Sobhani correction, Tehran, Rozaneh, 1999, First book, Verse 237.
2-  Surah Al-Ra’d, verse 7.
3-  The Holy Quran, Surah Al-Kahf, Verses 84-85.
4-  Surah Al-Kahf, verse 65.
5-  Surah Al-Najm, verses 3-4.t
6-  Surah Al-Kahf, verse 13.
7-  Surah Al-Kahf, verse 63: “Did you see when we retired on the rock? Indeed, I forgot the fish. And none made me forget it except for Satan-that I should mention it. And it took its course into the sea amazingly”
8-  Surah Al-Kahf, verse 64:” [Moses] said, “That is where we are seeking.” So they returned following their footprints.”
9-  Surah Al-Kahf, verse 79: “As for the ship, it belonged to poor people working at sea. So I intended to cause defect in it as there was after them a king who seized every [good] ship by force.”
10-  Masnavi, Rumi, Fourth book, verses 2756-2757
11-  Surah Al-Kahf, verse 81: “So we intended that their Lord should substitute for them one better than him in purity and nearer to mercy.”
12-  Surah Ar-Ra’d, verse 7.
13-  Surah Al-Kahf, verse 65.