18. Surah Al-Kahf

He answered, “Did I not tell you that you cannot have patience with me?”

Moses replied, “If I ever question you about anything after this, then do not keep me in your company, for by then I would have given you enough of an excuse.”

So they moved on until they came to the people of a town. They asked them for food, but the people refused to give them hospitality. There they found a wall ready to collapse, so the man set it right. Moses protested, “If you wanted, you could have demanded a fee for this.”

He replied, “This is the parting of our ways. I will explain to you what you could not bear patiently.

“As for the ship, it belonged to some poor people, working at sea. So I intended to damage it, for there was a ˹tyrant˺ king ahead of them who seizes every ˹good˺ ship by force.

“And as for the boy, his parents were ˹true˺ believers, and we¹ feared that he would pressure them into defiance and disbelief.

So we hoped that their Lord would give them another, more virtuous and caring in his place.

“And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city, and under the wall was a treasure that belonged to them, and their father had been a righteous man. So your Lord willed that these children should come of age and retrieve their treasure, as a mercy from your Lord. I did not do it ˹all˺ on my own. This is the explanation of what you could not bear patiently.”¹ 

They ask you ˹O Prophet˺ about Ⱬul-Qarnain. Say, “I will relate to you something of his narrative.”¹