Al-Kahf (The Cave)

60. “And (remember) when Moses said to his young companion: ‘I will not cease until I reach the Junction of the two Seas, though I go on for years.

61. “Then when they reached the Junction, they forgot their fish, and it took its way into the sea, going away.”

The appellation ‘Moses’ has been repeated in the Qur’an for 136 times all of which means the same prophet Moses, the possessor of determination /’ulul‘azm/.¹

The application of the word /fata/ in this verse, which means ‘young’ and ‘gallant’, is used in the sense of ‘lad’ and ‘page’, and it is a sign of courtesy, kindness and ‘good name’. The purpose of the Arabic word /fatah/, hear in this verse, is Joshua-ibn-Nun, who was the companion and attendant of Moses (as) in that journey.²

The verse says:

“And (remember) when Moses said to his young companion: ‘I will not cease until I reach the Junction of the two Seas, though I go on for years.”

The Arabic term /huqb/ means years and years, seventy to eighty years.

The story of Moses and Khidr (as) has been recorded in commentary books and history sources. For instance, in some Sahih-i-Bukhari, it has been narrated from Ibn-‘Abbas, from’Ubayy-ibn-Ka‘b that once the Prophet (S) said that one day, when Moses was orating, he was asked by one of the children of Israel that who the most learned person was.

Moses (as) said:

‘I am’.

Allah addressed Moses saying why he did not say that Allah knows best, and Khidr was more aware than Moses. Moses (as) asked where Khidr was.

Then he was addressed that Khidr was in the site of ‘Junction of the Seas’, and its sign and mystery was that he was to take a fish with him in a basket and he would go forth. The place where Moses was to meet Khidr would be indicated by the fact that the fish would disappear when he got to that place.³

The holy verse says:

“Then when they reached the Junction, they forgot their fish, and it took its way into the sea, going away.”

Moses (as) put the fish in the basket and told his attendant that wherever he did not find the fish in the basket he would inform the matter to Moses. Moses and his attendant started to go forward as far as they reached the sea, where they stayed beside a stone to rest.

While Moses (as) was sleeping, his attendant, who was awake, saw that the fish escaped into the sea. The attendant of Moses did not awaken him from his sleep to tell him the matter, and later, when Moses woke up, he forgot to inform him of the matter either, and they both continued their way.

After one day and night that they walked, Moses said that they became tired from that travel and told his attendant to bring the food for them to eat. He informed Moses that the fish had become alive and jumped into the sea. Moses (as) said that they had to return to the same place that the fish had jumped into the water because their meeting-place was there.

Imam Baqir (as) and Imam Sadiq (a.s) both said:

“The attendant of Moses brought the salted fish by the sea to wash it. The fish moved in his hand and escaped into the sea.”4

Some commentators have rendered the ‘Junction of the Seas’ into the meeting of the two seas of prophethood, (Moses and Khidr). Moses, they believe, was the outward sea of knowledge, and Khidr was the inward sea of knowledge.

In view of the fact that prophets have been inerrant and do not forget, the purpose of ‘forgetting the fish’, mentioned in the verse, is that they put the fish aside and left it. It is like the verses which attribute forgetfulness to Allah. For example, Surah Al-Jathiyah, No.45, verse 34 says:

“…Today We forsake you…”,

and Surah As-Sijdah, No.32, verse 14 says:

“…surely We forsake you…”.

Moreover, those two did not absolutely forget the fish but they had taken it with themselves, and as it was said in the above, the attendant of Moses did not want to awaken Moses and waited. Then, after his wakefulness, he forgot to tell him the event, too.

The Qur’an has repeatedly pointed to the animals as a sign, and an inspiring factor, or an informer, such as the inspiration that the crow led how Abel to be buried, the hoopoe informed of the infidelity of he people of Sheba, the event of the fish in the explanation of the meeting of these two prophets, the function of spider in the protection of the holy Prophet (S) in the Cave, and the function of the dog for ‘the Companions of the Cave’.