Appearance

Fakhr Rāzī’s Objections to the Evidence for Khiḍr’s Prophethood ​

Fakhr Rāzī cites six pieces of evidence from exegetes regarding the prophethood of Khiḍr and then critiques them:

  1. The meaning of mercy in the phrase “We had given him mercy from Our presence.”

God the Glorious, who is the architect and engineer of the universe, arranged it scientifically on the basis of truth and practically on the foundation of mercy. The creation of the universe is truth: “We did not create the heavens and the earth and what is between them except in truth” (Sūrah al-Aḥqāf, verse 3), meaning there is no place in it for falsehood or futility, and the building materials of the universe, from the highest heaven to earth, are truth. Whoever tries to go astray or block someone’s path and accomplish something through deceit and trickery will not reach their goal, because the entire universe is God’s army and command center: “None knows the forces of your Lord except Him” (Sūrah al-Muddaththir, verse 31). Thus, the universe was created with truth from a theoretical and scientific perspective, and with mercy from a practical, emotional, and attractive perspective: “My mercy encompasses all things” (Sūrah al-Aʿrāf, verse 156). “And by Your mercy which encompasses all things” (Miṣbāḥ al-Mutahajjid, vol. 1, p. 131; Mafātīḥ al-Jinān, “Supplication of Kumayl”). Therefore, if God wishes to exercise His wrath, divine mercy engineers that wrath: “His mercy precedes His anger” (Ṣaḥīfa Sajjādiyya, supplication 16). Even the punishment of the disbeliever and hypocrite is God’s mercy for society. Divine mercy moves ahead and is responsible for delineating, designing, and planning both mercy and wrath. This absolute mercy has no opposite, because it is the engineer, architect, and planner; mercy that has an opposite is special and temporary mercy. For example, paradise is the place of mercy and hell is the place of wrath, or this blessing is mercy and that punishment is wrath—these are specific cases and have opposites.

The blessing of prophethood, as evidenced by verses such as “Do they distribute the mercy of your Lord?”(97) and “You did not expect that the Book would be conveyed to you, except as a mercy from your Lord”(98), where “mercy” refers to prophethood.

Fakhr Rāzī objects to this argument, saying that someone might say we accept that prophethood is mercy; however, its converse is not correct—that every mercy is prophethood.(99)

  1. The implication of the phrase “And We taught him knowledge from Our presence”(100) is that God the Exalted taught him without the intermediary of a teacher or guidance of a guide, and whoever God teaches without human intermediary is a prophet.

Fakhr Rāzī writes about the weakness of this argument that necessary knowledge [such as our conception of pain and pleasure, existence and non-existence, and our affirmation that negation and affirmation neither combine nor lift in one place, and that one is half of two] also initially comes from God without intermediary, while this does not indicate anyone’s prophethood.(101)

  1. Moses requested to learn from Khiḍr and said: “May I follow you on condition that you teach me”(102) while a prophet does not follow a non-prophet in knowledge. He considers this argument weak as well, because a prophet only does not follow a non-prophet in the sciences by virtue of which he became a prophet, not in other sciences.(103)

  2. The verse “How can you have patience for what you do not encompass in knowledge”(104) shows Khiḍr’s intellectual superiority over Moses, and Moses’s response saying “I will not disobey you in anything”(105) shows Moses’s humility toward Khiḍr, and these two verses indicate that scholar was more knowledgeable than Moses, therefore he must also have been a prophet.

In Fakhr Rāzī’s view, this argument is also weak, because in sciences that are not related to a prophet’s prophethood, it is permissible for a non-prophet to be above a prophet and this does not cause aversion, just as Moses’s mission to learn from Khiḍr after the revelation of the Torah to him and God’s speaking with him does not cause aversion.(106)

  1. Some have argued using the verse “And I did not do it of my own accord”(107) during the story, interpreting it to mean “everything I have done was through divine revelation,” and this meaning indicates his prophethood.(108)

Fakhr Rāzī considers the weakness of this argument to be obvious and clear.(109)

  1. According to a narration, when Moses met Khiḍr, he greeted him and Khiḍr replied: “And peace be upon you, O prophet of the Children of Israel.” Then Moses asked who told him that he was the prophet of the Children of Israel, and Khiḍr responded that it was the same One who sent Moses to him. This narration indicates that Khiḍr recognized Moses through revelation, and revelation accompanies prophethood.

Fakhr Rāzī, in critiquing this aspect, writes that someone might say this was due to miraculous gifts (karāmāt) and divine inspirations (ilhāmāt), not revelation.(110)

Note: The proof of prophethood for Khiḍr cannot be established through the arguments that were critiqued above, just as denying his prophethood is not easy. What can be fully established is the common element between these stations, which is spiritual authority (wilāya).