Subtleties and Allusions

1) The Difference Between Poor (faqīr) and Needy (miskīn)(383)

When poor (faqīr) and needy (miskīn) are mentioned separately, they can be used interchangeably. However, when mentioned together, it is not repetition or synonymity, but rather each has its own specific meaning: “The poor (faqīr) and the needy (miskīn) when mentioned together are different, and when mentioned separately are the same!” Therefore, there is disagreement among exegetes about which of the poor (faqīr) and needy (miskīn) is in a worse condition: some consider the poor to be more destitute than the needy, and others believe the opposite.

Explanation: According to Fakhr al-Rāzī’s report, al-Shāfiʿī argued using the verse under discussion that the need of the poor is more severe than that of the needy, because God called them “needy” (masākīn) even though they owned a ship.(384) Some also consider the poor to be more needy than the destitute because “poor” (faqīr) refers to someone whose backbone is damaged and lacks the strength to stand.(385)

In contrast, some consider the word “needy” (miskīn) to be more expressive of neediness than the word “poor” (faqīr), and accordingly, the needy person is in a worse and more distressed state than the poor person, because they are afflicted with immobility and are incapacitated, unable to move.(386) Some say that if the Qur’an considers the ship to belong to the needy, it is either because they would become needy after losing the ship, or their poverty was so severe that the ship was insignificant in comparison.(387)

A group of Sunni scholars, such as al-Farrāʾ, Thaʿlab(388), and Abū Ḥanīfa(389), and some(390) Shi’i scholars, like Ibn Junayd, Sallār(391), and Shaykh al-Ṭūsī in al-Nihāya(392), also hold this opinion, because the Qur’an says: “or a needy person in misery”(393), meaning someone who sits in dust due to extreme need.(394)

2) Khiḍr’s Main Response to Moses Regarding the Ship Incident

In explaining the piercing of the ship, Moses’s question was why he damaged the ship’s hull and put it at risk of sinking, and Khiḍr responded that he did this to prevent the confiscation of the livelihood of some needy people. It should be noted that the main answer lies in the phrase “And I did not do it of my own accord”(395) and the verse “So do not ask me about anything until I mention it to you”(396); meaning all these actions were under God’s guidance and command. You yourself experienced a similar and even more significant scene in your childhood when your mother, through divine inspiration(397), placed you in a chest and cast it into the sea. Therefore, when Khiḍr said that he did not do this of his own accord but rather by God’s command, Moses became calm, because he knew that the same God who commands the sea to carry Moses’s chest to safety: “Let the sea cast it upon the shore”(398) would also protect this ship.

Accordingly, if Moses was silenced by Khiḍr’s response and did not object that “you endangered everyone aboard to preserve the livelihood of a few workers,” it was because he knew that Khiḍr possessed divine mercy (raḥmat ʿind Allāhī) and divine knowledge (ʿilm ladunī ilāhī), was divinely commissioned, and had performed this act by God’s command. Whatever is done by God’s command, God protects it from danger, just as He protected Moses himself in his childhood.

The purpose is that:

a) The criterion of truth and falsehood lies exclusively with God.

b) Divine systems are different.

c) The subsidiary rulings of each system should be measured against the principles of that system, not against the rules of another system.

d) Khiḍr’s actions were based on the principles of divine knowledge (ʿilm ladunī) and esoteric interpretation (taʾwīl), while Moses’s apparent criticism and questioning were based on the knowledge of religious law (sharīʿa) and the exoteric (ẓāhir).

e) Of course, the prevailing law of human societies is these same established matters of religious law.

3) Divine Guardians’ Support for the Deprived

One of the most important duties of divine prophets, in addition to teaching and general guidance, is special support for the deprived and oppressed (mustaḍʿafīn). In the ship-piercing incident, Khiḍr pierced the ship that was the means of livelihood for a deprived class, so that these deprived people would not face hardship. The support for the deprived and oppressed in this story is a manifestation of Khiḍr’s divine mercy (raḥmat ʿind Allāhī), just as Moses’s tireless struggle against oppressors and his refusal to support them is similar, for he too addressed God saying that in gratitude for the blessings bestowed upon him, he would never support wrongdoers: “My Lord, for the blessings You have bestowed upon me, I will never be a supporter of the wrongdoers.”(399) Those who pray seek from God the path of “those whom You have blessed” (anʿamta ʿalayhim), and Moses the Interlocutor is from that group, and his path, meaning the way of “those blessed” (munʿam ʿalayhim), is to not become a supporter (ẓahīr) of wrongdoers.