The Wisdom Behind Damaging the Ship

Al-Khiḍr, in explaining the first incident, namely damaging the ship, said that the ship belonged to a group of poor people who earned their living at sea through cargo transport or carrying passengers or both. So he wanted to damage it to prevent it from falling into the hands of an oppressive ruler who was lurking in that region and port, seizing every sound ship by force while they were unaware of him: “As for the ship, it belonged to poor people working at sea, and I wanted to damage it as there was a king behind them who seized every ship by force.”

The poor people were several needy brothers, and according to some exegetes, they numbered ten; five were incapacitated and five worked at sea.(373)