Prophet Ilyas and Khidr

The two stories of Khidr and Ilyas

As for Khidr, it has already been established that Moussa (peace be upon him) traveled to him seeking the knowledge that is with him, and Allah related of their story in His Mighty Book, in sura al-Kahf: we have expounded it there, and we cite here the mention of the hadith which names Khidr explicitly (peace be upon him), and that the one who traveled to him was Moussa ibn 'Imran, prophet of the Children of Israel, upon whom the Torah was sent down.

The scholars have differed concerning Khidr: over his name, his lineage, his prophethood, and his life until this day, according to sayings I shall mention here, if Allah wills, by His power and strength.

It is said: Khidr is Khidr ibn Adam, of his loins. Muhammad ibn al-Fath al-Qalanisi narrated to us: al-'Abbas ibn Abdallah at-Tarqoufi narrated to us: Rawwad ibn al-Jarrah narrated to us: Mqatil ibn Sulayman narrated to us, from ad-Dahhak: Khidr is a son of Adam through his loins, and his term was extended for him until he belies the Antichrist. And this is an interrupted and strange report. I heard our sheikhs, among them Abu 'Ubayda and others: « The longest-lived of the children of Adam is Khidr, Khadroun ibn Qabil ibn Adam.

» And Ibn Ishaq mentioned that Adam (peace be upon him), when death approached him, informed his sons that the flood would befall the people, and recommended to them, when that occurred, to carry his body with them in the ark, and to bury him in the place he designated for them. When the flood occurred, they carried him with them: when they descended to the earth, Nuh commanded his sons to go with his body and bury him where he had recommended: « The earth has no friend, and upon it is wildness »: so he urged them to it. Adam had prayed for whoever undertook his burial a long life: they were therefore deterred from traveling to that place at that time, and his body remained with them, until Khidr was the one who undertook to bury him: and Allah fulfilled what He had promised him: so he lives as long as Allah wills for him to live. And Ibn Qutayba mentioned in his book, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, that the name of Khidr was Balya.

Ilyas ibn Malkan ibn Falagh ibn 'Abir ibn Shalikh ibn Arfakhchad ibn Sam ibn Nuh (peace be upon him). The name of Khidr, according to what has reached us, and Allah knows best: al-Mou'ammar ibn Malik ibn Abdallah ibn Nasr ibn al-Azd. He is Khadroun ibn 'Ammayil ibn al-Yafz ibn al-'Iyss ibn Ishaq ibn Ibrahim al-Khalil. He is Armiya ibn Halqiya: and Allah knows best.

He was the son of Pharaon, the one of Moussa, king of Egypt: and this is very strange: related by Muhammad ibn Ayyoub, from Ibn Lahi'a: and both are weak. He is the son of Malik, and he is the brother of Ilyas: thus said as-Souddi, as will come. It is said that he was at the head of dhou al-Qarnayn. He was the son of one of those who believed in Ibrahim al-Khalil and emigrated with him.

He was a prophet in the time of Bashtasb ibn Lahrasb. Ibn Jarir said: the correct is that he was earlier, in the time of Afridoun ibn Athfiyan, until Moussa (peace be upon him) met him. And the hafiz Ibn Asakir related: the mother of Khidr was a Roman, and his father a Persian.

There has come what indicates that he was of the Children of Israel in the time of Pharaon as well. Abu Zur'a said in his book: Safwan ibn Salih ad-Dimachqi narrated to us: al-Walid narrated to us: Sa'id ibn Bachir narrated to us, from Qatada, from Mujahid, from Ibn Abbas, from Ubayy ibn Ka'b, from the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): on the night he was taken on the night journey, he smelled a pleasant scent: « O Jibril, what is this pleasant scent? » « It is the scent of the grave of the hairdresser, her two sons and her husband.

» The beginning of that was that Khidr was of the nobles of the Children of Israel: his way passed by a monk in his hermitage: the monk would peer at him and teach him Islam: when Khidr grew up, his father married him to a woman: he taught her Islam and took from her a pledge not to inform anyone: he did not approach women: then he divorced her, and his father married him to another: he taught her Islam and took from her a pledge not to inform anyone: then he divorced her: one of the two kept the secret, and the other divulged it upon him: he departed therefore fleeing, until he came to an island in the sea: two men came cutting firewood, saw him: one of them kept the secret, and the other divulged it: « I have seen Khidr. » It was said: and who saw him with you? Such-and-such. That man was questioned and kept the secret: and it was of their religion that whoever lied was killed: so he was killed.

And the one who had kept the secret had married the woman who concealed her faith: while she was combing the daughter of Pharaon, the comb fell from her hand: « May Pharaon be frustrated. » She informed her father: and the woman had two sons and a husband: he sent for them, solicited the woman and her husband to turn back from their religion: « I will kill you both. » « It is a grace from you toward us that, if you kill us, you place us in one grave. » And I never smelled a scent more pleasant than theirs: and they have entered Paradise.

The story of Mou'ila daughter of Pharaon has already been presented, and this comb, in the affair of Khidr, may have been inserted into the speech of Ubayy ibn Ka'b or of Abdallah ibn Abbas: and Allah knows best. His kunya is Abu al-Abbas. And the most probable, and Allah knows best, is that Khidr is a nickname that prevailed over him.

« Khidr was named so because he sat upon a white herbage, and there it was turning green behind him. »

Related by al-Bukhari, from Abu Hurayra

Al-Bukhari alone related it, and thus Abd ar-Razzaq related it, from Ma'mar. It has been said: « al-farwa » is the white herbage and what resembles it: meaning the dry stubble. And Abu 'Oumar said: « al-farwa » is the white earth without vegetation: it is the dry stubble: he likened it to the farwa, and from that one says the farwa of the head:

« You see the Abyssinian around our houses: elegant when he attains a day of feasting: curly, long-haired, as if the farwa of his head had been sown and had grown on both its sides pepper. »

« Khidr was named Khidr for his beauty and the radiance of his face. »

Related by the scholars of hadith

This does not conflict with what is established in the Sahih: were one obliged to explain it by one of the two, what is established in the Sahih is worthier and stronger: rather, one should not even turn to what exceeds it. And the hafiz Ibn Asakir related this hadith too by the route of Abu Isma'il ibn Hafs ibn 'Oumar al-Ayli: 'Uthman, Abu Jazza' and Hammam ibn Yahya narrated to us, from Qatada, from Abdallah ibn al-Harith ibn Nawfal, from Ibn Abbas: Khidr was named Khidr because he prayed upon a white herbage, and it turned green: and this is strange by this route. Qabisa said, from ath-Thawri, from Mansour, from Mujahid: Khidr was named so because when he prayed, all around him turned green.

It has already been established that Moussa and Yousou' (peace be upon them), when they returned following the trace, found him upon a green carpet in the midst of the sea: he was shrouded in a garment whose two ends had been placed beneath his head and his two feet: Moussa (peace be upon him) greeted him: he uncovered his face: « How comes the peace to you upon this earth! Who are you? » « I am Moussa. » « Moussa of the Children of Israel? » « Yes. » And their affair was what Allah related in His Book concerning them.

« So they found one of Our servants to whom We had given mercy from Us, and had taught him from Us a knowledge. Moussa said to him: may I follow you that you teach me of what you have been taught of sound judgment? He said: you will not be able to have patience with me. And how can you have patience over what you do not encompass in knowledge?

He said: you will find me, if Allah wills, patient, and I will not disobey you in any command. He said: so if you follow me, do not ask me about anything until I myself mention it to you. »

Surat al-Kahf, 65-70

First: were Khidr a friend of Allah and not a prophet, Moussa would not have addressed him with this address, nor would the friend have returned this reply to Moussa: Moussa only asked his company to attain the knowledge Allah had singled him out with over him: were he not a prophet, he would not be preserved from sin: and Moussa, who is a great prophet, a noble messenger, necessarily preserved, would have neither great desire nor immense seeking for the knowledge of a friend of Allah not necessarily preserved.

And when he resolved to go to him, and to seek him out, even were he to traverse epochs of time, eighty years: then when he met him he humbled himself before him, magnified him, and followed him in the form of one gaining knowledge from him: this indicates that he is a prophet like him, to whom revelation comes as it comes to him: and that he was singled out of the knowledges from the divine presence and the prophetic secrets, with what Allah had not made known to Moussa the confident, noble prophet of the Children of Israel: ar-Roumani argued by this very path for the prophethood of Khidr (peace be upon him). Second: that Khidr dared to kill that boy was only by revelation to him from the All-Knowing King: and this is an independent argument for his prophethood, and an evident proof of his preservation from sin: for it is not permitted to the friend of Allah to undertake the killing of souls upon mere thought cast into his heart: for his thought is not necessarily preserved: error is possible for him by consensus.

And when Khidr dared to kill that boy, who had not attained puberty, knowing of him that were he to grow he would disbelieve and carry his parents into disbelief, because of the intensity of their love for him, so that they would follow him into it: in his killing was a great benefit that outweighed the survival of his life-blood: to protect his parents from falling into disbelief and its punishment: that indicates his prophethood, and that he is aided by Allah with His preservation. And I saw the sheikh Abu al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi follow this very path in arguing for the prophethood of Khidr and authenticating it: and ar-Roumani also related the argumentation.

Third: when Khidr explained to Moussa the interpretation of those deeds, and clarified to him the reality of his affair, and declared: « by a mercy from your Lord, and I did not do it of my own initiative »: meaning: I did not do it of my own initiative, but I was commanded to it, and it was revealed to me: these considerations indicate his prophethood: and that does not preclude his having spiritual nearness, nor even his messengerhood, as others have said. As for his being an angel among the angels: it is very strange. And were his prophethood established as we mentioned, there remains for those who claim his spiritual nearness, and that the friend of Allah may perceive the reality of things without the masters of the apparent law, no foundation upon which to lean, nor reliance upon which to depend.

As for the disagreement over his existence until our time: the majority of scholars hold that he is alive until today: because he buried Adam after their emergence from the flood: the prayer of his father Adam for long life thus attained him. And because he drank from the spring of life: so he lived. They mentioned reports they cited as evidence of his survival until now: we shall present them with others, if Allah the Most High wills: and in Him is trust. And this is his recommendation to Moussa when he said: « This is the parting between me and you: I will inform you of the interpretation of that over which you could not hold patience.

» Many interrupted athars have been related concerning that. Abu Sa'id ibn Abi 'Amrou informed us: Abu Abdallah as-Saffar narrated to us: Abu Bakr Ibn Abi ad-Dunya narrated to us: Ishaq ibn Isma'il narrated to us: Jarir narrated to us: Abu Abdallah al-Malti narrated to me: when Moussa intended to part from Khidr: « Recommend me. » « Be of benefit, and be not of harm: be smiling, and be not angry: turn back from obstinacy: and walk only for a need: and laugh only in wonder. O Moussa, the people are punished in this world in measure of their cares for it.

» Moussa said to Khidr: « Recommend me. » « May Allah make His obedience easy for you. » And there has come concerning that a hadith raised to the Prophet, related by Ibn Asakir, by the route of Zakariya ibn Yahya al-Waqar: but he is among the great liars. It was recited before Abdallah ibn Wahb: and I was listening: Mujalid said: Abu al-Waddak said: Abu Sa'id al-Khoudri said: 'Oumar ibn al-Khattab said: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: my brother Moussa said: « O Lord.

» He mentioned a word: Khidr came to him: he was a young man of pleasant scent, of beautiful whiteness of garments, sleeves rolled up: « Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah, O Moussa ibn 'Imran: your Lord conveys to you the greeting of peace: He is the Peace, and to Him is peace, and praise to Allah, Lord of the worlds: I do not enumerate His favors, and I cannot render thanks except by His help. » « I wish you to recommend me a recommendation by which Allah benefits me after you. » « O seeker of knowledge: the speaker wearies less than the listener: so do not weary your sitters when you speak to them. Know that your heart is a vessel: so look what you fill your vessel with.

Turn away from this world and cast it behind you: for it is not for you a home, and you have no place of residence in it: it was only instituted as a passage for the servants, and as provision to draw from it for the day of return. Content yourself with patience: you will be delivered from sin. O Moussa, devote yourself to knowledge if you desire it: for knowledge is only for him who devotes himself to it: and be not verbose in speech and wasteful: for much speech disfigures the scholars and displays the faults of the foolish: but have the taste of economy: for that is of success and rightness. Turn away from the ignorant and their falsehood, and be forbearing with the fools: for that is the deed of the wise and the adornment of the scholars: when the ignorant insults you, be silent about him with forbearance, and avoid him with resolve: for what remains of his ignorance falls upon you: and he will curse you more and greater.

O son of 'Imran, do not think you have been given of knowledge but little: for the washing away and the modesty are of the rushing in and the affectation. O son of 'Imran, do not open a door whose lock you do not know, and do not close a door whose opening you do not know. O son of 'Imran, he whose zeal for this world does not cease, and whose desire for it is not exhausted: how can he be a worshipper? And he who belittles his state and accuses Allah of what He decreed for him: how can he be an ascetic?

Would he abstain from pleasures he whose passion has overcome him? Or benefit him the seeking of knowledge while ignorance contains him: his striving is toward his Hereafter while he turns to his world? O Moussa, learn what you learn to act by it, and do not learn it to speak with it: else its ruin would be yours and its light for another. O Moussa ibn 'Imran: make asceticism and piety your garment, and knowledge and remembrance your speech: and multiply good deeds: for you will surely meet evil deeds: and shake your heart with fear: for that pleases your Lord: and act well: for you are inevitably an actor.

» Khidr departed therefore, and Moussa remained sad, distressed, weeping. This hadith does not hold: and I think it is the fabrication of Zakariya ibn Yahya al-Waqar al-Missri: more than one imam has called him a liar: and the wonder is that the hafiz Ibn Asakir was silent about it.

Sulayman ibn Ahmad ibn Ayyoub at-Tabarani narrated to us: 'Amrou ibn Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn al-'Ala al-Himsi narrated to us: Muhammad ibn al-Fadl ibn 'Imran al-Kindi narrated to us: Baqiyya ibn al-Walid narrated to us, from Muhammad ibn Ziyad, from Abu Umama: he said to his companions: « Shall I not tell you about Khidr? » « Indeed, O messenger of Allah. » « One day, while he was walking in the market of the Children of Israel, a freedman espied him: "Give me charity: may Allah bless you. "I believe in Allah: whatever Allah wills of a matter will be: I have nothing in my possession that I give you.

"I ask you by the face of Allah to give me charity: I have read physiognomy in your face, and hoped for blessing with you. "I believe in Allah: I have nothing in my possession that I give you, except that you take me and sell me. "Can this stand? "Yes: I tell you the truth: you have asked me a great thing: I will not disappoint you by the face of my Lord.

He brought him therefore to the market and sold him for four hundred dirhams: "You have only bought me seeking some good in me: so recommend me a deed. "I dislike making you suffer: you are a very great old man, weak. "You will not make me suffer. "Carry then this stone.

And it was not carried without six men in a day: the man went out for one of his needs, then departed, and the stone had been carried within an hour. "You have done well and made it more beautiful: and you bore what I had not seen you able to bear. I think you trustworthy: succeed me then with my family in good succession. "Recommend me a deed.

"I dislike making you suffer. "You will not make me suffer. "Mold then bricks for my house until I come to you. The man went for his journey: he returned: and his building had been raised.

"I ask you by the face of Allah: what is your way and what is your affair? You asked me by the face of Allah: and the asking by the face of Allah cast me into servitude: I shall inform you who I am: I am Khidr whom you have heard of: a poor man asked me charity: I had nothing in my possession that I give him: he asked me by the face of Allah: so I surrendered my person to him: and he sold me: and I inform you that whoever is asked by the face of Allah and repels his asker while able, will stand on the Day of Resurrection: his skin, having neither flesh nor bone, cracking. "I believe in Allah: I made you suffer, O prophet of Allah, without knowing. "No matter: you did well and made to last.

"May my father and mother be your ransom, O prophet of Allah: judge concerning my family and my wealth as Allah shows you: or I give you the choice and free you. "I love that you free me: that I may worship my Lord. He freed his way therefore: "Praise to Allah who cast me into servitude then delivered me from it. » And this hadith, its attribution is an error: and the more likely is that it be a mawquf report: and among its men are those not known: and Allah knows best.

Ibn al-Jawzi related it in his book by the route of Abd al-Wahhab ibn ad-Dahhak: who is abandoned regarding Baqiyya.

And the hafiz Ibn Asakir related it, with his isnad to as-Souddi, that Khidr and Ilyas were two brothers: and their father was a king: « Your brother Khidr has no desire for kingship: were you to marry him, perhaps there would come from him a child to whom the kingship would belong. » His father married him therefore to a beautiful virgin woman: « I have no need of women: if you wish, I release you: and if you wish, you remain with me: you will worship Allah (exalted is He) and keep my secret. » « Yes. » She remained with him a year: when the year passed: « You are young and my son is young: where is the child?

» « The child is only from Allah: if He wills, he will be: and if He wills not, he will not be. » His father commanded him: he therefore divorced her, and married him to another, a widow who had borne before: when she was conducted to him he said to her what he had said to the one before: she answered that she would stay with him: when the year passed, the king asked her about the child: « Your son has no need of women. » His father sought him: he fled: he sent therefore behind him: they were unable to reach him: it is said that he killed the second woman because she had divulged his secret: he fled because of that: and he freed the other: she remained worshipping Allah in some of the outskirts of that city: a man passed by her one day: « In the name of Allah. » « From where do you have this name?

» « I am of the companions of Khidr. » She married him therefore: she bore him children: then her affair became that she became the hairdresser of the daughter of Pharaon: while one day she was combing her: the comb fell from her hand: « In the name of Allah. » « My father? » « No: my Lord, and your Lord, and the Lord of your father: Allah.

» She informed her father: he commanded a cow of copper: it was heated: then it was commanded that she be brought: she was cast into it: when she beheld that, she flagged at falling into it: « O her mother, be patient: for you are upon the truth. » She cast herself into the fire: she died: may Allah have mercy on her.

And Ibn Asakir related, from Abu Dawud al-A'ma Nufay': who is a lying, profligate man, from Anas ibn Malik: and by the route of Kathir ibn Abdallah ibn 'Amrou ibn 'Awf: who is a liar also, from his father, from his grandfather: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) saying his invocation and saying: « O Allah, aid me against what will deliver me from what You have frightened me with: and provide me the longing of the righteous for that toward which You made them long. » The messenger of Allah sent therefore to him Anas ibn Malik: he greeted him: and he returned his greeting: « Tell him: Allah has favored you over the prophets as He favored the month of Ramadan over the other months: and He favored your community over the communities as He favored the day of Friday over other than it.

» The hadith: and it is fabricated: it holds neither in its chain nor in its text: how would he manifest himself before the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) coming of his own person, submissive and learning, while they relate in their accounts, and attribute to some of their sheikhs, that Khidr comes to them, greets them, knows their names, their dwellings and their places: and that with this he does not know Moussa ibn 'Imran, the confident of Allah, whom Allah chose in that time over all others: until he introduced himself to him saying he is Moussa of the Children of Israel. And the people of hadith are unanimous: it is a hadith of repudiated chain, sick of text: in it appears the trace of fabrication.

As for the hadith related by the hafiz Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi: Abu Abdallah al-Hafiz informed us: Abu Bakr ibn Balawayh informed us: Muhammad ibn Bichr ibn Matr narrated to us: Kamil ibn Talha narrated to us: 'Abbad ibn Abd as-Samad narrated to us, from Anas ibn Malik: when the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was taken back by Allah, his companions were blinded: they wept around him and gathered: a man entered, gray-bearded, stocky, wide-browed: he stepped over their necks: he wept: then turned to the companions of the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): « In Allah is consolation from every affliction: and compensation for every missed thing: and succession to every perishing one: so turn in repentance to Allah: and desire Him: and He looks upon you in the trial: so look: for the afflicted is he who has not been consoled. » Then he departed: « Do you know the man? » Abu Bakr said: « Yes: he is the brother of the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): Khidr.

» And Ibn Abi ad-Dunya related it likewise, from Kamil ibn Talha: with in its text a divergence from the account of al-Bayhaqi. 'Abbad ibn Abd as-Samad is weak: and this is repudiated entirely. This 'Abbad ibn Abd as-Samad is the son of Ma'mar al-Basri: he related from Anas copies most of which are fabricated: a repudiated hadith. Ibn 'Adi said: most of what he relates is in the virtues of Ali: and he is weak: an extremist in partisanship.

And ach-Chafi'i said in his book: al-Qasim ibn Abdallah ibn 'Oumar informed us, from Ja'far ibn Muhammad, from his father, from his grandfather Ali ibn al-Hussein: when the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) died, and the condolence came: « In Allah is consolation from every affliction: and succession to every perishing one: and recovery of every lost thing: trust in Allah: and hope in Him: for the afflicted is he who has been deprived of the reward. » Ali ibn al-Hussein said: « Do you know who this is? This is Khidr. » The sheikh of ach-Chafi'i, al-Qasim al-'Omari, is abandoned: Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: he lies: and he fabricates hadith: and then it is a report without a complete chain: and its like is not relied upon here: and Allah knows best.

It has been related by another weak route, from Ja'far ibn Muhammad, from his father, from his grandfather, from his father, from Ali: and it does not hold.

And Abdallah ibn Wahb related, from the one who narrated to him, from Muhammad ibn 'Ajlan: « Do not precede us: may Allah have mercy on you. » He waited therefore until he joined the row: then he mentioned his supplication for the dead: « If You punish him: You are worthy of praise: and if You forgive him: he is poor of Your mercy. » And when he said: « Happy are you, O man of the grave, should you be neither groom-keeper, nor grass-gatherer, nor treasurer, nor scribe, nor constable. » « Seize this man: let us ask him about his prayer and his speech: who he is. » He concealed himself from them: they looked: and there was the print of his foot a cubit: « By Allah, this is Khidr of whom the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) told us. » And this athar is vague: and in it is an interruption: and its like does not hold.

And the hafiz Ibn Asakir related, from ath-Thawri, from Abdallah ibn al-Mouharrar, from Yazid ibn al-Asamm, from Ali ibn Abi Talib: I entered circumambulation one part of the night: and there was a man clinging to the ropes of the Kaaba: « O He whom hearing upon hearing does not prevent: and O He whom the questions do not confuse: and O He whom the insistence of the insistent and the asking of the askers do not weary: grant me the coolness of Your pardon and the sweetness of Your mercy. » I said: « Repeat to me what you said. » « Did you hear him? » « Yes. » « By He in whose hand is the soul of Khidr, and he was Khidr: a servant who says it behind an obligatory prayer: Allah will not forgive his sins, were they like the foam of the sea, and the leaves of the trees, and the number of the stars: Allah will not forgive them him. » And this is weak from the standpoint of Abdallah ibn al-Mouharrar: for he is abandoned in hadith: and Yazid ibn al-Asamm did not reach Ali: and its like does not hold: and Allah knows best.

Malik ibn Isma'il narrated to us: Salih ibn Abu al-Aswad narrated to us, from Mahfoudh ibn Abdallah al-Hadrami, from Muhammad ibn Yahya: while Ali ibn Abi Talib was circumambulating the Kaaba: there was a man clinging to the ropes of the Kaaba: « O He whom hearing upon hearing does not occupy: and O He whom the askers do not confuse: and O He whom the insistence of the insistent does not burden: make me taste the coolness of Your pardon and the sweetness of Your mercy. » Ali said to him: « O servant of Allah, repeat this supplication: have you heard it? » « Yes. » « Invoke it then behind every prayer: and by He in whose hand is the soul of Khidr: were there upon you of sins the number of the stars of the sky and its rain: and the pebbles and dust of the earth: He would forgive you sooner than the blink of an eye.

» And this too is interrupted: and in its chain are unknowns: and Allah knows best. And Ibn al-Jawzi cited it: Ya'qoub ibn Youssouf narrated to us: Malik ibn Isma'il narrated to us: and he mentioned its like: and it is an unknown, interrupted chain: and in it is nothing indicating the man was Khidr.

Abu al-Qasim ibn al-Hussein informed us: Abu Talib Muhammad ibn Muhammad informed us: Abu Ishaq al-Mouzakki informed us: Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Khuzayma narrated to us: Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Zayd narrated to us: he visited us with 'Abbadan: 'Amrou ibn 'Asim informed us: al-Hasan ibn Razin narrated to us, from Ibn Jurayj, from 'Ata', from Ibn Abbas: and I know it only as raised to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): he said: « Khidr and Ilyas meet every year at the pilgrimage season: each of the two shaves the head of his companion: In the name of Allah: what Allah willed: none conducts good but Allah: what Allah willed: none turns away evil but Allah: what Allah willed: every favor is from Allah: what Allah willed. » And Ibn Abbas said: whoever says them at morning and evening three times: Allah secures him from drowning, from burning, and from theft: and I think he said: and from the devil, and from the ruler, and from the snake, and from the scorpion.

ad-Daraqoutni said in his book: this is a strange hadith, of the hadith of Ibn Jurayj: no sheikh other than this one related it from him: meaning al-Hasan ibn Razin. And Muhammad ibn Kathir al-'Abdi also related it from him: who is not known: unknown: and his hadith is not preserved: it is a weak hadith, by al-Hasan ibn Razin.

And Ibn Asakir related its like, by the route of Ali ibn al-Hasan al-Jahdami: who is a liar: from Damra ibn Habib al-Maqdissi, from his father, from al-'Ala ibn Ziyad al-Qouchayri, from Abdallah ibn al-Hasan, from his father, from his grandfather, from Ali ibn Abi Talib, raised to the Prophet: « They gather every day of 'Arafat at 'Arafat: Jibril, Mikhaïl, Israfil and Khidr. » And he mentioned a long fabricated hadith: we omitted citing it deliberately: to Allah the praise.

And Ibn Asakir related, by the route of Hicham ibn Khalid, from al-Hasan ibn Yahya al-Khouchani, from Ibn Abu Rawwad: Ilyas and Khidr fast the month of Ramadan at Bayt al-Maqdis: and make the pilgrimage every year: and drink of the water of Zamzam one drink that suffices them until its like of the following year.

And Ibn Asakir related that al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, the builder of the mosque of Damascus, loved to worship a night in the mosque: he commanded the keepers therefore to leave it to him: they did: when it was night, he came by the door of the clocks and entered the great mosque: and there was a man standing in prayer between him and the green door: « Had I not commanded you to leave him to me? » « O commander of the believers: this is Khidr who comes every night praying here. »

Abu al-Qasim Isma'il ibn Ahmad informed us: Abu Bakr ibn at-Tabari informed us: Abu al-Hussein ibn al-Fadl informed us: Abdallah ibn Ja'far informed us: Ya'qoub, who is Ibn Soufyan, al-Fasawi narrated to us: Muhammad ibn Abd al-'Aziz narrated to us: Damra narrated to us, from as-Sarri ibn Yahya, from Riyah ibn 'Abida: I saw a man accompanying 'Oumar ibn Abd al-'Aziz, leaning upon his two hands: I said within myself: this man is coarse. When he departed from the prayer: « Who is the man who was leaning upon your hand earlier? » « And have you seen him, O Riyah? » « Yes. » « I thought you nothing but a righteous man. » « That is my brother Khidr: he gave me the good news that I shall be just and equitable. » Ar-Ramli is wounded in the view of the scholars: and Abu al-Hussein ibn al-Mounadi criticized Damra, as-Sarri and Riyah: then he cited other routes, of 'Oumar ibn Abd al-'Aziz, that he met Khidr: and he weakened all of them: and Ibn Asakir also related that he met Ibrahim at-Taymi, and Soufyan ibn 'Ouyayna, and a group whose mention would be long.

These narrations and these accounts are the support of him who adopted his life until today: and all the raised hadiths are very weak: no argument stands for them in religion: and the accounts: most of them are not free of weakness in the chain: and the best one says of them: that they are authentic up to one who is not preserved from sin: a Companion or other: for error is possible for him: and Allah knows best.

Ma'mar informed us, from az-Zouhri: Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn 'Outba informed me that Abu Sa'id reported that the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) related to us a long hadith concerning the Antichrist: « The Antichrist will come: and it has been made unlawful for him to enter the gates of Medina: there will go out to him that day a man: he is the best of the people, or among the best of them: "I bear witness that you are the Antichrist of whom the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) informed us. The Antichrist will say to the people: "What do you think: if I kill this man then bring him to life, will you have any doubt about the matter? They will say: "No. He will kill him then bring him to life: and he will say: "By Allah, I never had more insight about you than I have now.

» He intended then to kill him a second time: but power will not be given him over him. Ma'mar said: it reached me that he carries upon his neck a plate of copper: and it reached me that he is Khidr whom the Antichrist kills then brings to life. And this hadith has been extracted in the Sahih of Muslim, from the hadith of az-Zouhri. And Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Soufyan said: the correct is to say that this man is Khidr: it reached me: he will bring a young man full of youth: and kill him: and this word does not require his immediate presence: but the massive transmission suffices.

And the sheikh Abu al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi devoted himself, in his book, to the hadiths coming concerning that among the raised reports: and made clear that they are fabrications: and among the athars of the Companions, the Followers and those after them: and exposed the weakness of their chains by describing their states and the ignorance of their men: and he excelled in that and critiqued well.

As for those who held that he died, among them al-Boukhari, Ibrahim al-Harbi, Abu al-Hussein Ibn al-Mounadi and the sheikh Abu al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi: they argue for it with many things: among them: « And We made no human being before you immortal » (al-Anbiya, 34): Khidr, were he a human being, is inevitably included in this generality: and his being specified out of it is permitted only by an authentic proof: and the origin is his absence until it is established: and what is mentioned therein was not related as proof of specification from a preserved one whose acceptance is obligatory. And when Allah took the covenant of the prophets: « And when Allah took the covenant of the prophets, saying: what I have given you of Book and wisdom, then there comes to you a messenger confirming what is with you: you must believe in him and support him. He said: do you accept and take My burden upon that? They said: we accept.

He said: then bear witness: and I am with you among the witnesses. » (Al 'Imran, 81) « Allah sent no prophet but that the covenant was taken upon him: were Muhammad sent, and he alive: he would believe in him and support him. » Al-Bukhari related it from him. Khidr, were he a prophet or a friend of Allah, is included in this covenant: were he alive in the time of the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), the noblest of his states would have been to be before him: believing in what Allah sent down upon him and supporting him: rather than any of the enemies reaching him: for were he a friend of Allah: the Truthful is nobler than he: and were he a prophet: Moussa is nobler than he.

« By He in whose hand is my soul: were Moussa alive, he could do none other than follow me. »

Related by Ahmad, from Jabir ibn Abdallah

The imam Ahmad related it in the Musnad: Surayj ibn an-Nou'man narrated to us: Houchaym narrated to us: Mujalid informed us, from ach-Cha'bi, from Jabir ibn Abdallah, that the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: and this is what is decisive: and the knower of the religion knows the knowledge of necessity: and this noble verse has indicated it: that the prophets, all of them, were it supposed that they were living, bound, in the time of the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), would all be his followers: under his commands: and within the generality of his law: as the Prophet (may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), when they were gathered with him the night of the night journey, was raised above all of them: and when they descended with him to Bayt al-Maqdis and the time of prayer came, Jibril commanded him, by Allah's command, to lead them: he prayed therefore at their head, in the place of their spiritual direction and the dwelling of their residence: that indicates that he is the greatest imam, the seal of messengers, honored, given precedence: may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him and upon them all.

When this is known, and it is known to every believer, it is known that Khidr, were he alive, would be of the community of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and of those taking example by his law: he could do none other. Here is Issa ibn Maryam (peace be upon him): when he descends at the end of time: he will judge by this purified law: he will not depart from it nor deviate from it: and he is one of the five possessors of resolve among the messengers: and the seal of the prophets of the Children of Israel. And it is known that it has not been related by an authentic chain nor a good one that reassures the soul that Khidr met the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) a single day: nor that he witnessed with him fighting in any battlefield: and here is the day of Badr: the Truthful, the Confirmed, would say, in what he invoked his Lord with (exalted is He), seeking aid and asking the opening: « O Allah, if You destroy this small band, You will not be worshipped on earth after them.

» And this band had beneath it the notables of the Muslims that day: and the notables of the angels: up to Jibril (peace be upon him): as Hassane ibn Thabit said in a qasida of his: and it is the proudest verse the Arabs ever said:

« And at the well of Badr, when it turned their faces: Jibril beneath our banners, and Muhammad. »

Were Khidr alive: his standing beneath this banner would have been the noblest of his stations: and the greatest of his expeditions.

Certain scholars were asked: « Did he die? » « Yes. » And its like reached me from Abu Tahir ibn al-Ghoubari: he used to argue: were he alive: he would have come to the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): Ibn al-Jawzi related it in his book. Why would it not be said: he was present in all these places: but none saw him?

The answer: the origin is the impossibility of this remote supposition, from which follows the specification of the generalities by mere suppositions: then what carries him to this concealment: his manifestation would be greater in reward: higher in rank: more manifest in miracle: then, were he remaining after him, his relating the prophetic hadiths of the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and the Quranic verses: and his denouncing the lying hadiths: and the inverted traditions: and the heretical opinions: and the partisan passions: and his fighting with the Muslims in their expeditions: and his witnessing their Friday prayers and their gatherings: and his benefit to them: and his warding harm from them from other than them: and his guiding the scholars and the judges: and his confirming the proofs and the judgments: would be better than what is related of his presence in the cities: and his crossing of the wildernesses and the regions: and his meeting worshippers many of whose conditions are unknown: and his being among them like the guide translating for them.

And this that we mentioned: none doubts it after understanding: and Allah guides whom He wills to a straight path. And among that is what is established in the Sahih and other collections, from Abdallah ibn 'Oumar: that the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) prayed one evening the ischa: then said: « What do you think of this night of yours: within a hundred years: there will remain of those upon the face of the earth today none. » The people were therefore troubled by this saying of the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and he intended only the ending of the century.

Abd ar-Razzaq narrated to us: Ma'mar informed us, from az-Zouhri: Salim ibn Abdallah and Abu Bakr ibn Sulayman ibn Abi Hathma informed me: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) prayed one night the ischa at the end of his life: « What do you think of this night of yours: at the head of a hundred years: there will remain none of those upon the earth. » And al-Bukhari and Muslim extracted it, from the hadith of az-Zouhri. Muhammad ibn Abi 'Adi narrated to us, from Sulayman at-Taymi, from Abu Nadra, from Jabir ibn Abdallah: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, shortly before his death or a month: « There is no breathing soul: there is none of you of a living soul today: that a hundred years do not reach, while it is that day alive.

» Moussa ibn Dawoud narrated to us: Ibn Lahi'a narrated to us, from Abu az-Zoubayr, from Jabir, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): « They ask me about the Hour: and its knowledge is only with Allah: I swear by Allah that there is not on earth a living soul today: that a hundred years do not reach. » And thus Muslim related it, by the route of Abu Nadra and Abu az-Zoubayr: both from Jabir ibn Abdallah, the same. Hammad narrated to us: Abu Mou'awiya narrated to us, from al-A'mach, from Abu Soufyan, from Jabir: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « Upon the earth there is no living soul that a hundred years do not reach. » And this too is according to the criterion of Muslim.

These authentic hadiths therefore cut off the root of the claim of the life of Khidr: Khidr, had he not known the time of the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), as is the supposition that rises in strength to certainty: there is no problem: and had he known his time: this hadith requires that he did not live after him a hundred years: so he would today be missing, nonexistent: for he is included in this generality: and the origin is the absence of a specified one for him: until an authentic proof that must be accepted is established: and Allah knows best.

It has been related of al-Boukhari and his sheikh Abu Bakr Ibn al-'Arabi that he knew the life of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): but died after him: because of this hadith: and the fact of al-Boukhari (may the mercy of Allah be upon him) saying this: and that he lived until the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): requires scrutiny: and as-Souhayli favored his survival: and related the opposite.

As for his meeting with the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and his consoling the people of the House after him: it is related by authentic routes: then he mentioned the foregoing that we weakened: and did not cite their chains: and Allah knows best.

The story of Ilyas (peace be upon him)

« And Ilyas is indeed of the messengers. When he said to his people: will you not fear? Do you call upon Ba'l and forsake the best of creators: Allah, your Lord and the Lord of your first forefathers? They denied him therefore: they will surely be brought, except the sincere servants of Allah.

And We left for him among the later ones: peace upon Ilyasine: thus do We recompense the doers of good: he is of Our believing servants. »

Surat as-Saffat, 123-132

He is Ilyas ibn Tasbi. Ilyas ibn Yassin ibn Finhas ibn al-'Azar ibn Haroun. Ilyas ibn al-'Azir ibn al-'Azar ibn Haroun ibn 'Imran. His being sent was toward the people of Baalbek, west of Damascus: he called them to the worship of Allah (exalted is He): and to abandoning the worship of an idol they had: which they called Ba'l: Ba'l was a woman named Ba'l: and the first is sounder. « Will you not fear? Do you call upon Ba'l and forsake the best of creators: Allah, your Lord and the Lord of your first forefathers? » They denied him therefore and opposed him: and intended to kill him: he fled from them: and concealed himself from them.

Abu Ya'qoub al-Adra'i said, from Yazid ibn Abd as-Samad, from Hicham ibn 'Ammar: and I heard him who mentions, from Ka'b al-Ahbar: Ilyas hid from their king in the cave which is beneath ad-Damm ten years: until Allah destroyed the king: and appointed another in his place: Ilyas came therefore to him: offered him Islam: he embraced Islam: and of his people a great number embraced: except ten thousand of them: he commanded concerning them: they were killed, the last of them.

And Ibn Abi ad-Dunya said: Abu Muhammad al-Qasim ibn Hachim narrated to me: 'Oumar ibn Sa'id ad-Dimachqi narrated to us: Sa'id ibn Abd al-'Aziz narrated to us, from some of the sheikhs of Damascus: Ilyas (peace be upon him) remained fleeing his people in a cave of a mountain: twenty nights: forty nights: the crows brought him his provision.

And Muhammad ibn Sa'd said: Hicham ibn Muhammad ibn as-Sa'ib al-Kalbi informed us, from his father: the first prophet sent was Idris: then Nuh: then Ibrahim: then Isma'il and Ishaq: then Ya'qoub: then Youssouf: then Lout: then Hud: then Salih: then Chou'ayb: then Moussa and Haroun, the two sons of 'Imran: then Ilyas ibn Tasbi ibn al-'Azir ibn Haroun ibn 'Imran ibn Yahth ibn Lawi ibn Ya'qoub ibn Ishaq ibn Ibrahim (peace be upon them). Thus he said: and in this order there is scrutiny.

Four prophets alive: Ilyas, Khidr, Idris and Issa: and we have already given the saying of him who mentions that Ilyas and Khidr meet every year in the month of Ramadan at Bayt al-Maqdis: and that they make the pilgrimage every year: and drink of Zamzam water a drink sufficing them until its like of the following year: and we cited the hadith in which is that they meet at 'Arafat every year: and we showed that nothing of that holds: that Khidr died: and likewise Ilyas (peace be upon them). And what Wahb ibn Munabbih and others mentioned: that when he invoked his Lord (exalted is He) to take him to Him, when they denied him and hurt him: a beast of the color of fire came: he rode it: Allah made him feathers: clothed him in light: removed from him the pleasure of food and drink: and he became angelic in the human way: heavenly in the earthly way: and he recommended Ilyasa' ibn Akhtoub: and in this there is scrutiny: and it is of the isra'iliyyat that are neither believed nor disbelieved: rather, it appears that its soundness is remote: and Allah knows best.

Abu Abdallah al-Hafiz informed us: Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Sa'id al-Ma'dani narrated to me at Bukhara: Abdallah ibn Mahmoud narrated to us: 'Abdan ibn Sinan narrated to us: Ahmad ibn Abdallah al-Barqi narrated to me: Yazid ibn Yazid al-Balawi narrated to us: Abu Ishaq al-Fazari narrated to us, from al-Awza'i, from Mak'houl, from Anas ibn Malik: we were with the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) on a journey: we alighted at a halt: « O Allah, make me of the community of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): the community covered in mercy: forgiven: given reward. » I looked toward the valley: and there was a man whose height exceeds three hundred cubits: « Who are you? » « Anas ibn Malik: the servant of the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). » « Where is he?

» « He hears your speech. » « Go then to him and convey him the greeting: your brother Ilyas conveys you the greeting. » I came therefore to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and informed him: he came until he met him: they embraced and greeted: then they sat conversing: « O messenger of Allah: I eat in the year but one day: and this day is my day of breaking the fast: so let us eat, you and I. » A table descended from the heaven to them: with bread: and fish: and celery: they ate and fed me: and we prayed the asr: then he bade him farewell: and I saw him passing in the clouds toward the heaven.

» And this hadith is weak entirely: and the wonder is that the hakim Abu Abdallah an-Nayçabouri extracted it in the Mustadrak: and this is of what one completes over the Sahih: for it is a fabricated hadith: contradicting the authentic hadiths: and its meaning does not hold either: it has already been established in the Sahih that the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « Allah created Adam: his height of sixty cubits » up to his saying: « then the creation has not ceased to diminish: until now »: and in it that he did not come to the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): but that it be he who went to him: and this does not hold: for he was worthier of striving before the seal of the prophets: and in the hadith that he eats once in the year: and it has already been related from Wahb that Allah stripped him the pleasure of food and drink: and in what preceded from some of them that he drinks of Zamzam each year a drink sufficing him until its like of the other year: and these are contradictory things: all of them false: nothing of them holds.

And Ibn Asakir cited this hadith by another route: and he acknowledged its weakness: and this is a wonder from him: that he spoke on it: he brought it by the route of Khayr ibn 'Arafa, from Hani ibn al-Hasan, from Baqiyya, from al-Awza'i, from Mak'houl, from Wathila ibn al-Asqa': and he mentioned its like at length: and in it is that that was at the expedition of Tabouk: and that the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) sent to him Anas ibn Malik and Houdayfa ibn al-Yaman: and he was taller than us by two or three cubits: and he apologized for not coming lest the camels be frightened: and in it that when the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) met him: they ate of the food of Paradise: « I have in every forty days one eating: and on the table: bread: and pomegranates: and grapes: and bananas: and dates: and herbs: except the leek. » And in it that the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) asked him about Khidr: « I saw him a year ago: you will meet him before me: convey him my greeting from me.

» And this indicates that Khidr and Ilyas (peace be upon them), supposing their existence and the soundness of this hadith: would not have met him until the ninth year of the hijra: and this does not stand in law: and this is a fabrication also: and Ibn Asakir cited routes concerning those who met Ilyas of the worshippers: and all of them are not to be rejoiced in: because of the weakness of their chain: or the ignorance of the one related to him in it: and the best of them is what Abu Bakr Ibn Abi ad-Dunya said: Bichr ibn Mou'adh narrated to me: Hammad ibn Waqid narrated to us, from Thabit: we were with Mouss'ab ibn az-Zoubayr in the Sawad of Koufa: I entered a garden to pray two rak'a in it: I opened: Ha-Mim: « The revelation of the Book from Allah, the Mighty, the Knowing: Forgiver of sin: Accepter of repentance: Severe in punishment: Possessor of abundance.

» And there was a man behind me upon a gray mule: upon him Yemeni patched garments: « When you say: Forgiver of sin: say: O Forgiver of sin, forgive my sin: Accepter of repentance: say: O Accepter of repentance, accept my repentance: Severe in punishment: say: O Severe in punishment, punish me not: Possessor of abundance: say: O Possessor of abundance, be generous to me with mercy. » I turned: and there was no one: « Has a man passed by you upon a gray mule: with Yemeni patched garments? » « No one passed by us. » They thought only that it was Ilyas.

« They denied him therefore: they will surely be brought »: that is: to the punishment: either in this world and the Hereafter: or in the Hereafter: and the first is more manifest according to what the exegetes and historians mentioned. « Except the sincere servants of Allah »: that is: except whoever of them believed. « And We left for him among the later ones »: that is: We made to remain after him a good remembrance for him among the worlds: he is mentioned only in good. « Peace upon Ilyasine »: that is: peace upon Ilyas: and the Arabs append the nun in many names: and change it from other than her: Isma'il and Isma'in: and Isra'il and Isra'in: and Ilyas and Ilyasin.

And he who recited the variant with ali: that is: upon the family of Muhammad (may the blessings of Allah and His peace be upon him). And it has been related from him, by the route of Ishaq, from Ubada ibn Rabi'a, from Ibn Mas'oud: « Ilyas: he is Idris. » And ad-Dahhak ibn Mouzahim inclined to that: and Qatada related it: and Muhammad ibn Ishaq: and the correct is that he is other: as has already been established: and Allah the Most High knows best the right.