The Esoteric Meaning of Killing the Youth

After explaining the esoteric meaning of the ship incident, Khiḍr explained the incident of killing the youth by saying that the killing of the adolescent or youth was because he had believing parents while he himself was a disbeliever. We were concerned that in the future, he would either lead them to transgression and disbelief through evil influence and corrupt inclinations, causing them to fall into misguidance and error, or he would harm them through his own transgression and disbelief.(405) Both dangers from him could affect his parents: “As for the youth, his parents were believers, and we feared that he would overwhelm them with transgression and disbelief.” Both these aspects may also be combined.

It should be noted that the two possible meanings explained for the verse are based on the grammatical point of whether the verb “overwhelm” (yurhiq) takes two objects or one object. If it takes two objects, with “them” (humā) as the first object and “transgression” (ṭughyānan) as the second object, the verse means that the youth would lead his parents to transgression and disbelief through evil influence and corrupt inclinations. However, if “overwhelm” takes one object and “transgression” is the object of reason (mafʿūl li-ajlihi), the verse means that the youth would transgress and harm his parents due to his transgression and disbelief. Perhaps both meanings are intended (allowing for certain hidden grammatical points).