The Reason for Moses’ Inability to Bear Khiḍr’s Teaching Method

Khiḍr was aware of the divine status of Moses the Interlocutor (Kalīm), therefore in explaining the reason for his earlier statement that “you cannot bear my teaching method,” he said how can you be patient with something that your knowledge does not encompass and whose mysteries you do not know: “And how can you have patience with that which you have not encompassed in knowledge?”(180) For only one who is expert in acquired or intuitive knowledge can be patient.

With this statement, Khiḍr was in fact explaining the scope of Moses’ action and his capability, making him understand that our actions contradict your previous knowledge and beliefs, and you do not have comprehensive knowledge of them and do not know their secrets, because Moses’ divine mission, which was to implement the law of religious law (sharīʿa), differed from Khiḍr’s divine mission. Indeed! The source of Moses’ objection was his unfamiliarity with the secret of the work; otherwise, a person who knows the secret and mystery of the work does not object.

Regarding khubran there are two possibilities:

1. It is a specification (tamyīz) meaning “your knowledge has not encompassed it” that is “you have not known it.”(181)(182)

2. It is a verbal noun (maṣdar) and its governor is the word tuḥiṭ, because they become one in meaning; as if it was said: “you have not known it with knowledge.”(183)

It should be noted that the expression lam tuḥiṭ bihi khubran refers to the inner secrets of events that will be mentioned in the subsequent verses and is the divine mission of Khiḍr in that domain, and Moses has no mission in that domain, rather he is commissioned with the apparent religious law that he has brought from God, and since it does not align with his apparent religious law, he objects to Khiḍr’s actions.

There are two aspects to encompassing (iḥāṭa): First, encompassing physical bodies, like “I encompassed such and such a place.” Second, encompassing in knowledge, like “He encompasses all things in knowledge.”(184) Encompassing something in knowledge at its highest level means knowing and understanding its existence, genus, measure, quality, and the purpose of its creation, and what is with it and from it, and such knowledge is specific to God. The verse “How can you be patient with that which you have not encompassed in knowledge” indicates that complete patience only comes after encompassing something in knowledge, and this is very difficult except through divine grace.(185)