As the Divine Majesty had granted infinite benefits to Mûsa, increased his high dignity and exalted station, he was in the habit of daily offering praises and thanksgivings in the congregation; and when he preached to the people, renewed laudations and gratitude for the blessings received emanated from his lips:
Verses: How could I fitly praise the Friend?
No gratitude of mine could suffice.
Every hair is a gift from Him.
How could I thank Him for each hair?
In one of the usual meetings a man arose on a certain occasion, who spoke thus: ‘O prophet of Allah, what thou hast said we have understood, and we consider it a religious duty to be always grateful for the benefits received from the Lord of Unity. We also acknowledge thee to be a prophet and inspired messenger; but tell us whether on the surface of the earth the Lord of Self-existence has a wiser servant than thee?’ Mûsa replied: ‘My opinion is that at present God has on the face of the earth no servant more excellent or more wise than myself; because He has exalted me above the highest degrees of virtue and knowledge, has vouchsafed me the felicity of conversing with His Divine Majesty, and has invested me with the robe of being one of the elect and of the favoured. A servant distinguished by such gifts ought undoubtedly to be the most wise and the most virtuous of the inhabitants of the world.’ Subsequently to these words Jebrâil descended and brought the following allocution of reproof: ‘O Mûsa, knowest thou where we have deposited our knowledge, and how much of this unfathomable ocean we have bestowed upon everyone? Behold, I have a servant wiser than thee. If thou wilt endeavour to meet him, and enter into the sea of his knowledge, thy former supposition will prove to have been erroneous, and it will appear plainly that thy pretensions are akin to folly.’ Mûsa acknowledged the truth of these words, and implored the Lord Omniscient to reveal to him the abode of that exalted servant, as he desired to go in search of him. Thereon the allocution arrived: ‘The habitation of that servant is at the meeting of the two seas, and if thou lookest with a discerning eye, which, like the mind, penetrates into all places, thou wilt find him.’ Mûsa asked: ‘O God, who will convey me to that place, and who will be my guide on the road?’ The reply came: ‘Thy food will show thee the way.’ Accordingly Mûsa and Harûn started towards the meeting of the seas, taking with them a few salted and roasted fishes and bread. They travelled three days, and arrived near a fountain in the vicinity of the meeting of the seas, where they took rest for awhile, and deposited their basket on a stone, but forgot to take it when they started again. They then walked along the sea-shore, when, by the effects of the virtue of Khizer, a fish was at that moment brought back to life, worked itself out of the basket and jumped into the sea. After Mûsa had travelled for awhile he became hungry, and said to Yoshua’: ‘Produce the food, that we may eat.’ The latter replied: ‘Yesterday evening we halted near a rock, and no one caused me to forget and leave it there but Satan. Hast thou seen? When we took up our lodging at the rock, verily I forgot the fish, and none made me forget it except Satan.’* Mûsa, being satisfied with the excuse of Yoshua’, said: ‘It is of no consequence; we will return to the same place.’ They did so, and beheld near the fountain Khizer engaged in adoration. When he had terminated his orisons, he questioned Mûsa, who replied: ‘The object of our journey was to become ennobled by meeting thine exalted person, to regenerate and to refresh the meadow of our expectations by the showers of the fountain-head of thy knowledge, and to see the rosebuds of our hopes opening and smiling from the breeze of thy regard. My Lord has sent me to follow thee and to learn some of thy science, therefore command, and deal with us as thou listest.’
Verses: The basis of their intercourse being laid,
Mûsa took Khizer to be his master;
As it is impossible to travel without a guide,
Therefore a Jebrâil to the prophet came.
Khizer answered: ‘Thy request is granted, but it will be a hard matter to accompany me, because I act according to hidden knowledge, the visible effects of which are often evil, but the consequences beneficent and salutary. As thou hast not patience to wait for the truth and propriety of my acts to appear, thou wilt disapprove of them and blame me. For this reason the knot of our amity will be dissolved, and the path of our association will remain obstructed.’ Mûsa replied: ‘Thou shalt find me patient if Allah pleaseth; neither will I be disobedient unto thee in anything.’* Khizer continued: ‘If thou followest me, ask me not about anything until I myself mention it.’ After that Khizer and Mûsa went to the sea and entered a ship; Yoshua’ having —according to the general opinion of authors—departed by the permission of Mûsa, and again joined his people. On this occasion Khizer removed secretly two or three planks of the ship, threw them into the sea, and exclaimed: ‘O people, make haste to repair the ship or you will all perish!’ The men quickly produced a carpenter, who nailed on various pieces of wood and mended the vessel; but it nevertheless looked faulty, and the owners were distressed. Mûsa, who had seen everything, said to Khizer: ‘What use is there in endangering the lives of so many persons, and of perforating so strong a ship?’ Khizer replied: ‘Did not I tell thee that thou couldst not bear with me?’* Mûsa then revoked the words he had uttered, and attributed them to his obliviousness. When they disembarked they entered a town, and roaming about therein they met a company of children. Khizer picked out one from among them, who was distinguished by the gracefulness of his features, took hold of him, and laying him down, he separated with a knife his head from the body. Mûsa again opened the mouth of reproach and inquisitiveness, saying: ‘How does the taking of a pure life, as yet unsoiled by corporeal desires and lascivious passions, and as yet innocent of any act deserving capital punishment, appear to the eyes of wisdom? According to the requirements of what law can this act be justified?’ Khizer again replied: ‘Have I not told thee that thou couldst not bear with me?’* Mûsa again spread out the carpet of apologies, and promised henceforth no more to question the propriety of similar deeds, because by doing so he would be compelled to submit to separation. Then they again continued their journey, and on a certain night, when cold had overpowered them, they arrived, according to the statement of Ebn A’bbâs, in the town of Antakia [Antiochia], the inhabitants whereof refused either to refresh them with food, or to entertain them. Therefore Khizer turned away from them and sought shelter with Mûsa under an enclosure, the wall of which looked like falling. Khizer, however, made haste to repair it so that it became straight [or safe] again. Theologians differ about the manner in which the wall was repaired; some assert that Khizer so rubbed it with his hands, that it immediately recovered its former consistency; others again state that he removed its foundations and substituted new ones. At any rate, Mûsa said: ‘As the inhabitants of this region have refused us hospitality, they ought to be made to pay the wages for the work, by means of which we might extinguish the flames of hunger.’ Khizer replied: ‘This shall be a separation between thee and me.* Prepare to leave me, and expect my company no longer; hearken, however, for one moment, and glean some information about the justice of my mysterious acts: I disabled the vessel, because it would have passed near the country of a tyrannical oppressor who is according to some called Mandhar, and according to others Halanda, or Badoin. Every sound ship that reaches him falls a prey to his violence, and the owners of it are turned away by him without obtaining any recompense for it. Accordingly I injured the ship that it may remain the property of those poor men, and that no one might take it from them.’ It is also related that the livelihood of those ten indigent men depended on the ship. Khizer continued: ‘The boy was slain by me, because his parents, both of whom are professors of monotheism, have never seen him do any other but infidel, sinful, wicked and rebellious acts. Therefore I feared that his progenitors might suffer fom the effects of his malicious and criminal disposition, and might be captured in the meshes of the wicked. I wished that the Boundless Granter would bestow upon them a pious child instead of a wicked one.’ The Emâm Ja’fer Sâdiq—u. w. b., etc.—relates that after the murder and destruction of the said boy, the Almighty—w. n. b. e.—presented the bereaved parents with a daughter in lieu of him, who became the mother and ancestress of seventy prophets. The utility of repairing the wall consisted in its being the property of two orphan boys, whose names were Haram and Harim. Their father, a pious and devout man, was named Kashah; he had under this wall deposited a treasure for his sons, of which they would have been deprived if the wall had fallen, because in that case others would have discovered the treasure. Accordingly Khizer had, by divine inspiration, repaired it to last until the orphans attained the age of maturity, and could take possession of it. The principal historians inform us that, according to the cubits of that country, the said wall was two hundred cubits high, five hundred long, and fifty broad. There is, however, a variety of opinions concerning the treasure: some say it meant a book containing various sciences, others allege that it was a box full of silver and gold. Abu Muhammad Ja’fer Sadiq states that it was a tablet of pure gold containing the following words [engraved thereon]: ‘I am astonished that he who is certain of fate should grieve. I am astonished that he who is certain of subsistence should toil. I am astonished that he who is certain of death should rejoice. I am astonished that he who is certain of [being obliged to render] an account should be careless. I am astonished that he who knows the world and its changes should be happy therein. There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His prophet!’ In some histories it is recorded that on the reverse of the said tablet the following words occurred: ‘I am Allah, there is no God besides Me. I am one, and have no partner. I have created good and evil, and blessed is he whom I have created for good, and have made it flow from his hands; but woe to him whom I have created for evil, and have made it flow from his hands.’
It is narrated after A’li, the refuge of dominion, that when the time arrived for Mûsa and Khizer to take leave of each other, the speaker [with Allah] besought the latter to give him advice; whereon Khizer spoke as follows: ‘O son of E’mrân, I recommend thee to be profitable and not to be detrimental. Leave off squabbling, and care only for needful things. Laugh not without being astonished. Rejoice not over the failings of sinners, for thou hast thine also. Do not put off the business of to-day till to-morrow.’ After Khizer had finished his exhortation he took leave of Mûsa and returned. It is said that the time they had been together amounted to eighteen days. It is related after his lordship, the seal of prophecy [i.e. Muhammad], that if Mûsa had been bound by the conditions he agreed upon with Khizer, and if he had not broken them, he would certainly have learnt some wonderful and divine mysteries, and would have obtained much information about strange and infinite matters, and the Lord of Magnificence—w. n. b. pr.—would have instructed him about them all. His highness, the axis of divines, Shekh Mahi-ud-din—may his secret be hallowed—has related in the ‘Fatûhât’ as follows: ‘I have accompanied Khizer in some deserts, and incidentally our conversation turned upon his connection with Mûsa, when I made due inquiries on that subject, and he said: “I had prepared one thousand queries for Mûsa, but as he had not patience even for three,* I abstained from bringing forth any more problems, and consequently ceased to associate with him.”’
There is a difference of opinion among the principal chroniclers whether the meeting of Mûsa and Khizer—u. w. b., etc.—took place before or after the wanderings of the children of Esrâil. The most correct opinion, however, is that it happened whilst they were afflicted by the calamity of their migrations; let it, however, not remain unknown that Mûsa, Harûn, Yoshua’ and Kalûb were not subjected to the misfortunes of wandering.