Khiḍr as God’s Agent and Instrument

Replacement (ibdāl), which is God’s action, is not caused by Khiḍr’s will. That is why He says: “that their Lord should give them in exchange,” and the use of the plural in “we desired” means myself and God. This means that the Sublime God accomplishes His work through someone to whom He has given mercy from His presence and knowledge from His side: “Then they found one of Our servants to whom We had given mercy from Us and had taught him knowledge from Our presence”(411), similar to “And you did not throw when you threw, but it was God who threw.”(412)

Sometimes the Sublime God accomplishes His works through the hands of believers. However, the main axis of influence is solely God’s will, and humans are His instruments. As He commands to fight against the enemies of Islam, saying that God wants to punish them through your hands: “Fight them; God will punish them by your hands.”(413) In the verse under discussion, Khiḍr also said that we prepared the preliminaries, but it is the Sublime God who grants the righteous child. The essence is from God and we are the instruments; will (irāda) is one of the actions of God.

It should be noted that the shift from the first person plural pronoun in “we desired” to the explicit noun “Lord” in the phrase “that their Lord should give them in exchange” demonstrates Khiḍr’s monotheistic etiquette, as he uses the singular form and attributes exclusively to God the stage of perfection, kindness, and beneficence, which is the granting of a righteous and affectionate child. This is because God alone is their managing owner, and out of His special mercy, He wanted to reward the believing and righteous parents by giving them a good and righteous child.

Note: Regarding the question “Could not God, through His grace and kindness, have transformed and changed that boy to become a faithful and pure person, thus eliminating the need for his killing?” it must be said that forced reformation is neither expedient nor beneficial. The naive wish for God’s gratuitous grace to transform disbelief into faith and discord into harmony would not align with the best of all possible moral systems, which is based on a person’s effort. Of course, exceptional cases should not be taken as universal and general criteria.