Another point in this story is Joshua’s forgetting to tell Moses (AS) about reviving the fish. The secret is, on his inner path, Joshua had not reached a position to be able to serve Moses and did not deserve to accompany him, so he forgot about the fish reviving. Besides, Joshua did not know that a characteristic of that servant is that he is located in Majma-ul-Bahrayn and it is the confluence of the two seas, one is the sea of life and the other is the sea of non-existence and death. These two never mingle but in Majma-ul-Bahrayn. Here, the fish can go back from the sea of non-existence and death to the sea of life (because it had been dead).Without any doubt, the fish here is the symbol or the secret of the follower’s heart which had been dead before meeting Khidr and when it is provided with the guidance of Khidr, it will come alive and revive.
In this story, the dead fish and its reviving matter is told symbolically and mysteriously. Take what the Quran states for instance: “Acknowledge Allah and his messenger when they call on you to that which gives you life”.1 Apparently we are bodily alive, but heeding this divine call makes us alive spiritually. Because of this, the fish came back to life. About Saint Simon Peter; the successor of Jesus (AS), and his brother Andrew; who also was an apostle, it is told in the Gospel that when Jesus first met them while they were fishing in The Sea of Galilee2. He said to them: “Follow me so I will make you hunters of people”. What Jesus meant was people’s hearts. Jesus (AS) made two spiritual fishermen out of the two simple fishermen so they could revive the hearts of those in need of God.3 Joshua did not know what the purpose of that journey was. He just served Moses and whatever Moses ordered he obeyed. For this reason, he deserved to accompany Moses until theplace where he forgot the fish and left it.
When they came back and Moses followed Khidr, Joshua did not go with them any longer and the Quran mentions only Moses and Khidr from this point. On his spiritual path, Joshua went as far as he found out that Majma-ul-Bahrayn waswhere Khidr was (is) staying at and could (can) revive the dead, and that is Khidr the Guide.Thereafter, Joshua did not have the capability to go further as the ranks are different in the spiritual path. For example, in weightlifting, one can lift weights as heavy as his ability allows.Prophets have different capability levels as well; such as what Khidr says to Moses at the end of this spiritual journey: “He said: This shall be separation between me and you; now I will inform you of the significance of that with which you could not have patience”.4but our Prophet achieved the rank in which when Gabriel accompanied and ushered him in the Ascension and showed him the heavens, they reached someplace where Gabriel pointed out to the Prophet: “Take this way”. The Prophet asked: “Why are not you going with me?” Gabriel answered: “If I take one step further, my wings and feathers will blaze”.5
should I transgress by a strand of hairLight of epiphany burns my entire feather.6 This story indicates that the Prophet’s mental and spiritual power is higher than that of Gabriel’s; the archangel who assisted all prophets and was also revealed to them. Moses (AS) had the capability to accompany Khidr but Joshua did not. However, it was earlier mentioned that in spite of all the efforts Moses (AS) had made, he could not be patient until the end of the journey and Khidr said to Moses (AS): “This shall be separation between me and you”.Accordingly,Joshua could not persist in the journey in the first place. Therefore, it is unclear what happened to Joshua after this point; nothing heard from him. For this reason, he (Joshua)remembered the fish revived after they had passed Majma-ul -Bahrayn. This forgetting is different from other normal ones. So where the Quran quotes from Joshua: “I forgot about the fish”7, there is a meaning in it. Why did not God tell Moses and Joshua that it was Majma-ul Bahrayn in order to prevent them from passing it, while it was God who told Moses to go there? Joshua’s forgetting was because his capability to accompany Moses (AS) had been until Majma-ul-Bahrayn and after that, to walk and cross the worldly and materialistic sea to the sea of spirituality he did not have the capability yet. That was why he forgot about the fish and was notaware of what was happening. So, he took this forgetting for granted. Here, we come to an understanding that none of the Quranic phrases is pointless or aimless.
After Moses and Khidr started their journey, for three times or three stops, the Quran relates all the wrongdoings to men not to God. In the Quran, God states: “(O men!), whatever benefit comes to you, it is from Allah, and whatever misfortune befalls you, it is from yourself”8. It is like someone’s hand is trembling, the hand trembles, but he does not. His spirit is not happy with this trembling but the hand goes against the will of spirit and continues shaking. The same relation is between a sinful man and God, as He states: “Surely Allah is not in need of you (your good deed); and He does not like when blasphemy nears His servants”9, just like when the spirit is not happy with the hand trembling. That is why some sages and mystics say that blasphemy is potentially determined by but not pleasing to God. When Khidr wanted to scuttle the boat, he said: “I decided”. Later, he explained why he had done that damage. He explained: “I did it because I did not want that tyrant to arrest the owners of the ship and commit violence”. When he killed the child, the killing was done by Khidr, but he mentioned himself together with God because God wanted to grant those parents a righteous child instead of that child. Here, he said: “We decided so”. Is it a kind of polytheism to say “God and I decided so”?No, it is not. There is an idiomatic phrase in Farsi which literally says: He takes something in with hand and at the same time pushes it out with leg10. He (God) relates the wrongdoing side to His creature but sends the blessing from His own side. Because of this, this saying so is not polytheism. It is a job-sharing policy managed by God. It is like He orders His servant: “You seemingly do the damage, and then I will fix it”: You go on stuttering and stammering God Almighty will correct everything11 In the end of the journey, when the wall was falling down and they fixed it without expecting anything in return, here Moses protested; Khidr explained later: “There was a treasure under the wall which belonged to two little orphans. God wanted to protect that treasure for them. If the wall had fallen down, the treasure would have been found by people and they would have stolen it”. So he said: “God decided so”. Although, fixing the wall had been done by Khidr and Moses, but Khidr totally negated authority of their own. It was the last level of which Moses did not have the tolerance.
1 The Quran, Al-Anfal (Spoils of War)
2 Also Kinneret, Lake of Gennesaret, or Lake Tiberias
3 Matthew 4: 18-20 & Mark 1: 16-18
4 The Quran, Al-Kahf (The Cave)
5 Bihar al-Anwar, Volume 18, Beirut, Dar-Ol-Ehia El Toras Publishing, 1983, P. 382, Chapter 3
6 Collection of Sa’di, Collected by Mazahir Mosaffa, Tehran, Rozaneh Publishing, 2005, The Bustan (TheOrchard), P 158: 84
7 The Quran, Al-Kahf (The Cave), 63
8 The Quran, An-Nisa (Women), 79
9 The Quran, Az-Zumar (The Troops), 7
10 One pretends he does not have anything to do with the subject matter but at the same time he pretends he does
11 The Masnavi-i Ma’navi of Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi (Mevlana), book 4, 344