Hidden wisdom; patience with what you do not understand
Tonight's story is unlike any we have told so far. It is not about defeating a tyrant or surviving a flood. It is about something harder than all of those: accepting that you do not understand everything, and trusting that there is wisdom in what seems senseless. This is the story of Musa (AS) and the mysterious man known as Khidr.
After all that Musa had been through, Pharaoh, the sea, the mountain, Allah set before him another kind of test. Not a test of courage, but a test of patience and humility. Musa was sent to meet a man who knew things that even Musa did not know.
Musa traveled with his young companion to the junction of two seas. There, they found a man described by the Quran as "a servant from among Our servants to whom We had given mercy from Us and had taught him knowledge from Our presence."
This was Khidr. In Islamic tradition, he is known as one of the most mysterious figures in all of scripture. Some scholars consider him a prophet. Others say he was a wali, a close friend of Allah, given special knowledge. In Shia tradition, Khidr holds a particularly significant place as a figure who possesses hidden knowledge, ilm al-ladunni, knowledge given directly by Allah, beyond what ordinary people can access.
Musa approached him and said: "May I follow you on the condition that you teach me from what you have been taught of sound judgment?"
Khidr's answer was direct: "Indeed, you will never be able to have patience with me. And how can you have patience about what you do not encompass in knowledge?"
Musa promised: "You will find me, if Allah wills, patient, and I will not disobey you in any order."
Khidr set one condition: "If you follow me, do not question me about anything until I myself mention it to you."
And so they set off together. What followed were three events that tested Musa's patience to its absolute limit.
The Ship
They boarded a ship with kind sailors who gave them free passage. Once at sea, Khidr pulled out a tool and made a hole in the bottom of the ship. Water began seeping in.
Musa could not contain himself: "Did you make a hole in it to drown its people? You have certainly done a grave thing!"
Khidr looked at him calmly: "Did I not say that you would never be able to have patience with me?"
Musa apologized. "Do not blame me for what I forgot, and do not cover me in my affair with difficulty."
The Boy
They continued their journey on land. They came upon a young boy playing. Without warning or explanation, Khidr killed him.
Musa was horrified: "Have you killed a pure soul for other than having killed another? You have certainly done a deplorable thing!"
Again Khidr reminded him: "Did I not tell you that you would never be able to have patience with me?"
Musa said: "If I ask you about anything after this, then do not keep me as a companion. You have received from me an excuse."
The Wall
They traveled to a town where they asked the people for food, but the people refused to host them. Not a single person offered them even a morsel. Yet when Khidr saw a wall about to collapse, he stopped and rebuilt it, doing hard labor for people who had shown them nothing but rudeness.
Musa said: "If you wished, you could have taken payment for it."
Khidr said: "This is the parting between me and you. I will inform you of the interpretation of that about which you could not have patience."
And then came the explanations that changed everything.
The ship: "As for the ship, it belonged to poor people working at sea. I intended to cause defect in it because there was after them a king who seized every good ship by force." The hole made the ship imperfect. The king would pass it over, and the poor sailors would keep their livelihood. A small damage to prevent a greater loss.
The boy: "As for the boy, his parents were believers, and we feared that he would overburden them by transgression and disbelief. So we intended that their Lord should substitute for them one better than him in purity and nearer to mercy." This is the hardest one to accept. But Allah, who sees the future that we cannot, knew that this child would grow into someone who would cause immeasurable suffering to his believing parents. Allah replaced that grief with a better child. We do not understand all of Allah's reasoning, and we are not meant to. We are meant to trust.
The wall: "And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city, and there was beneath it a treasure belonging to them. Their father had been a righteous man. So your Lord intended that they reach maturity and extract their treasure as a mercy from your Lord." The treasure hidden beneath the wall would have been exposed if the wall had fallen. Khidr rebuilt it so that the orphans could one day claim what was rightfully theirs. He did this kindness for people who were not even present, because their righteous father had earned Allah's care for his children.
Khidr concluded: "I did it not of my own accord. That is the interpretation of that about which you could not have patience."
Every action that seemed wrong had a deeper reason. Every apparent cruelty was actually mercy. The lesson is not that we should do harmful things and call them good. The lesson is that our view of the world is limited. We see only the surface of the ocean. Allah sees all the way to the bottom.
In the Shia tradition, the story of Khidr is deeply connected to the concept of the Imam's hidden knowledge. Just as Khidr acted on knowledge that was invisible to Musa, the Imams (AS) are believed to possess knowledge from Allah that goes beyond what is apparent. Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said: "Our knowledge is of three kinds: knowledge of the past, knowledge of the future, and knowledge that comes fresh each night and day."
This does not mean we should blindly accept everything that happens without thinking. Rather, it means that after we have done our best to understand, after we have used our reason, our knowledge, and our conscience, we should trust that whatever remains beyond our understanding is held in the hands of the One who knows all.
Qala innaka lan tastatee'a ma'iya sabra, wa kayfa tasbiru 'ala ma lam tuhit bihi khubra "He said: Indeed, you will never be able to have patience with me. And how can you have patience about what you do not encompass in knowledge?" Al-Kahf (18:67-68)