273. Spiritualism and Ignorance.

In these (verses 18:60-82) of the Quran we find Prophet Musa’s encounter with a person named Khidir by which he learns a few things.

These verses talk of Khidir having knowledge about things which prophet Musa was unaware of. Some find in this, an acknowledgement of wrong ideologies they follow.

They say though Prophet Musa was a messenger from God, performed miracles etc, he did not possess the secret knowledge that Khidir was aware , and that the knowledge gained by Khidir in spiritual meditation is better than Prophet Musa’s knowledge gained through divine message.

They argue invisible hidden knowledge about things in this world becomes visible with spiritual eyes without expecting divine messages. They call this spiritualism.

Their argument is not acceptable.

Prophet Muhammad has explained the background of the incidents taking place in these verses.

When Prophet Musa got up to make a sermon amidst the people of Israel, he was asked who is the best of the knowledgeable, to which he replied “I Am the best of all the knowledgeable'' instead of “Allah is the All Knower”. Allah was annoyed by these words and declared “ A servant of Mine is at a place where two seas meet, he is much more knowledgeable than you are “. To this Prophet Musa asked God ways to approach him, when he was asked to carry a fish in a container and travel till the fish goes missing at a particular spot, where he will find the person.

Prophet Musa and his associate Yusha bin Noon began their journey with the fish in a container. They found a huge rock during their trip where they decided to take a rest. While doing so the fish slipped out of the container into the sea.

(Hadith Book Bukhari: 122, 3401, 4725, 4726)

Further talking about this incident Prophet Muhammad mentions

Prophet Musa found Khidir at that particular spot and greeted him. Khidir asked Prophet Musa about the ways people greet each other back home, to this Prophet Musa replied “I am Musa”. '' On this khidir asked “whether he was the one sent for the people of Israel” (Hadith Book Bukhari:122, 3401, 4725, 4727) to which Prophet Musa said “Yes”.(Hadith Book Bukhari:122, 3401, 4725, 4727)

Khidir queried why Prophet Musa was present there. To this Prophet Musa replied he was present in that place to find and learn from him things which he was not aware of. Khidir replied to Prophet Musa by saying “ You are getting divine messages and you are in possession of Torah scripture.” (Hadith Book Bukhari :4726)

There is adequate rebuttal in the above cited hadiths for those who argue that Khidir had knowledge of three things through spiritualism, that Prophet Musa was unaware of, and things can be known better by spiritualism than through divine messages.

When Prophet Musa greeted Khidir, he queried Prophet Musa about ways followed by people in greeting each other back home.

This shows Khidir was unaware of the fact the person he encountered was a messenger of God and also a Muslim like himself. 

And only after this was Prophet Musa’s reply “ I am Musa” to which Khidir, unaware the person he encountered is a messenger of God, asks whether he was the one sent to the people of Israel, and again asks for the reason for his presence there.

If Khidir had knowledge of the hidden, he would have without posing questions to Prophet Musa tell him, “Yes I know the reason for your presence here, you have come to learn a few things from me.”

Of the three events cited, the incident of resurrecting a falling wall is one. 

It can be seen from the above cited verses, Prophet Musa and Khidr while on their journey to a certain place requested food from the residents, they were refused, to be provided with. Here we find, Khidir did not have the knowledge, about the residents refusing them food. If indeed he knew about their refusal with his spiritual awareness he would have carried food with him and not asked for it from the residents of the place.

Prophet Musa, after giving assurances to Khidir, he would not raise questions countering him, violated the condition three times. Had Khidir been aware of the violation by Prophet Musa beforehand, he would not have been deceived thrice going by the words of Prophet Musa.

Hence to prove the fact there is nothing known as spiritual awareness in existence to know the hidden, the above incidents are examples. 

The question now is how come only Khidir was aware of the three incidents and not Prophet Musa?

The answer to this question lies in understanding the verses in a better way.

After the three incidents we find the Quran as saying “ I did not make the three incidents to happen on my accord, but with the guidance from Allah”. 

From this it could be understood, Allah wished to teach Prophet Musa a lesson through the three incidents, because of his utterance “ I am the best of the knowledgeable person”

After being revealed to them by God, the ship was damaged to save it from being abducted by the king's men. 

Because of the revelation from God, they set correct the wall that was about to fall over the treasure below, to be inherited by two children.

Since it was not revealed to them by God they were unable to know the residents would refuse them food.

They also commit a murder to save the person from being misled himself and misleading his parents.

Hence God having revealed the three incidents to Khidir alone and not to Prophet Musa with instructions to act in the particular way, they could accomplish them.

There is nothing to term as spiritual knowledge about these incidents.

And moreover from the above cited hadiths it is also confirmed from the words “ I know what was revealed to me by the Almighty, and you know what was revealed to you by Him” uttered by Khidir to Prophet Musa.

During their journey by sea in a boat Prophet Musa and Khidr came across a small bird beating its wings on the surface of the sea, on this Khidir remarked, “Oh Musa, the amount of water that could be taken in by this bird from the sea in its mouth when compared to the extent of knowledge gained by us from Allah is much less”.(Hadith Book Bukhari :122, 3401, 4725).

Khidir has made it crystal clear by these words, nothing known as spiritualism exists regarding gaining knowledge.

Next, we need to pinpoint another mistake committed by some exegesis regarding these incidents. 

Some scholars and translators say the person killed by Khidir was an infant. There are many skeptics who question this concept.

They say Khidir killed him because he would grow up to mislead his parents.

A question now arises, just because a person would commit a crime in future, where is the justification for killing him at an infant stage. These exegetes do not offer a proper explanation for this.

Hence translating not as an infant, but as an adult would render this question redundant. Being an adult, tormenting his parents everyday, and forcing them to become infidels, would justify his killing.

The word used in our translation verse 18:74 as ‘“adult” by us and “child” by others refers to “Ghulam”.This word has many meanings as, slave, servant, child, appropriately aged etc;

Naming a person as an adult and getting him killed for a crime he commited sounds more appropriate, than naming him a child and killing him for a crime he did not commit.

There is evidence in hadiths to make such a conclusion. 

Ibn Umar (RA) narrated “ I was an unmarried (ghulam) adult. (Hadith Book Bukhari: 7031, 3739)

“ I was an adult “ a ghulam quoted by Ibn Umar is registered as Haith 6122 in the book Bukhari.

Abu Bakr’s son was an adult (Hadith Book Bukhari : 5807).

Get this ghulam married to this girl said Prophet Muhammad. Hadith Book Bukhari: 3472.

Harissa was killed in the battle field when he was a ghulam. Hadith Book Bukhari: 3982, 6550. 

The ghulam who was serving Prophet Muhammad reverted to Islam.Hadith Book Bukhari:1356, 5657. 

If the word ghulam is translated as child in all these places , it would be meaningless.

It would be appropriate for the word ghulam to mean as adult in these verses, as can be seen from its usage in the hadiths cited above. 

To know more about things like ordination, owing allegiance to persons, spiritualism, do not find place in Islam please refer to explanation points 81, 182, 334.