[18].Surah Al-Kahf [The Cave]: Ayat 77-78

 

Ayat 77. Then they both proceeded, till, when they came to the people of a town, they asked them for food, but they refused to entertain them. Then they found therein a wall about to collapse and he (Khidr) set it up straight. [Mûsa (Moses)[PBUH] said: If you had wished, surely, you could have taken wages for it!"

Ayat 78. (Khidr) said: "This is the parting between me and you, I will tell you the interpretation of (those) things over which you were unable to hold patience.

[Tafseer] The inhabitants were churlish. They broke the universal Eastern rule of hospitality to strangers, and thus showed themselves beyond the pale of ordinary human courtesies. Note that they would have been expected to offer hospitality of themselves, unasked. Here Moses and his companion actually had to ask for hospitality and were refused point-blank.  As they were refused hospitality, they should, as self-respecting men, have shaken the dust of the town off their feet, or shown their ndignation in some way. Instead of that, Khidr actually goes and does a benevolent act. He rebuilds for them a falling wall, and never asks for any compensation for it. Perhaps he employed local workman for it and paid them wages, thus actually benefiting a town which had treated him and his companion so shabbily! Moses is naturally surprised and asks, "Could you not at least have asked for the cost?"  The story and the interpretation are given with the greatest economy of words. It would repay us to search for the meaning in terms of our own inner and outer experience.  

Hazrat Laqit bin `Amir (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: I came to the Prophet [SAWW](PBUH) and said: "My father is a very old man and does not have strength to perform Hajj (pilgrimage) or `Umrah or to undertake the journey.'' The Prophet [SAWW](PBUH) said, "Perform Hajj and `Umrah on behalf of your father.''

[Abu Dawud Hadith # 1810 and At-Tirmidhi Hadith # 930]. 

Lesson : This Hadith also stresses permission of Hajj through representative where a person is not capable of doing it. But it is essential that the representative agent must have already performed Hajj.