مَجْمَعَ ٱلْبَحْرَيْنِ ( Where the two Oceans meet ) Part 2

In the first part of this article we talked about the underlying meaning of Surah Kahf as a whole. It gave us a rough idea as to why this Surah is used as a shield against the fitna(s) of the end of time by the Muslim Ummah. The word فِتْنةٌ comes from the root letters ف ت ن which means to heat gold to find out if its pure or impure so metaphorically speaking فِتْنةٌ is the kind of trial that checks your sincerity towards the religion by putting you in a difficult position.

Now we are going to talk briefly about the underlying meanings we can derive from the linguistics of the incident where Hazrat Musa AS and Hazrat Khidar AS meet for the first time mentioned in Surah Kahf.

Allah SWT uses the wordفَتَى when he refers to Hazrat Musa’s AS companion meaning the man with him was a نوجوان that was mature in age and character. From the same root letters of this word, comes the word فَتَوَى which means to have a balanced and informed opinion about something. This man was not just any man, in fact he was chosen by Hazrat Musa AS for this particular mission. The word used in the Quran is لِفَتَىٰهُ meaning this man bore a special connection to Hazrat Musa AS and that he was “ hisفَتَى “. This man had one job and that was to keep an eye on this fish that Hazrat Musa AS had told him about; one they carried with them on their journey.

Hazrat Musa AS is quoted by Allah SWT to use the words لَآ أَبْرَحُ in order to negate the possibility of him giving up on his journey until and unless he reaches the point of مَجْمَعَ ٱلْبَحْرَيْنِ. It is arguable that this exact place where he destined to travel had been told to Hazrat Musa AS by way of the وحی ( revelation ) from Allah SWT which is why he had this idea as to where he would go in order to meet this man. لَآ and ماَ are both used for negation but the difference is لَآ is used when you want to negate something that’s related to the future. Hazrat Musa AS knew it was going to be a long journey that he’s going to embark on, hence لَآ. Interestingly enough لَن was used by Yousuf’s AS brother in Surah Yousuf when he wanted to negate going back to his father without having fulfilled his promise and this word had a stricter form of negation as opposed to لَآ. This means that Hazrat Musa AS was adamant about completing this journey but he might not have felt as strongly as Hazrat Yousuf’s AS brother did in fulfilling his purpose, maybe because Hazrat Musa AS had not made a solemn pledge to complete this journey. On the other hand, he did use the word حُقُبًۭا to describe the lengths he would go to to complete this journey, which could either mean eighty years or a very long time, meaning he was in fact adamant about meeting this man.

Their destination, not their final destination but where Hazrat Musa AS had planned to initially travel til was the مَجْمَعَ ٱلْبَحْرَيْنِ. Literally speaking, this means the place where the two seas meet but it could be argued that this was actually the meeting point of the two oceans of knowledge; Hazrat Musa AS and Hazrat Khidr AS. The former possessed great knowledge on the subject of Shariah which he had believed was the ultimate form of knowledge, however the latter had been blessed with the علم ال حقیقہ which was the hidden knowledge. We go on to learn the kinds of things he knew as the incident progresses and the extent of his knowledge caught Hazrat Musa AS by surprise too. Hazrat Musa’s AS willingness to actually go on this journey is in itself a reminder to us, that a student should always be willing to learn, and that he should even go to great lengths to acquire new knowledge. Imam Bukhari RA would travel for days on his camel in harsh conditions to learn the knowledge of the Ahadith.

Allah SWT does not talk about the details of their travel. He does not mention what they were carrying with them, how long their journey was or any other details that may cause us to miss the point of their journey in the first place. Instead, he almost immediately says فَلَمَّا بَلَغَا مَجْمَعَ بَيْنِهِمَا meaning they had reached the point where the two seas meet and their fish slipped away from them making its way into the sea wondrously. There are certain things to note here. Firstly, this is the first time a fish is actually mentioned in the incident and we are given no background about this fish, just that it became alive and slipped away from them. This is where it’s important to mention that sometimes you can not understand or comprehend the Quran without the teachings of the Prophet SAW. It comes in a Hadith that “Allah revealed to Musa As : "A slave, among My slaves at the junction of the two seas, is more knowledgeable than you." So Musa said: "O Lord! How can I meet him?" He said to him: "Carry a fish in a basket, wherever you lose the fish, then he is there." “ ( Jami’ Tirmizi Chapter 19 ) The second thing to note is that Allah SWT is narrating this incident and He says that they both forgot the fish meaning He put the blame on not just the man whose job it was to keep an eye on the fish but on Hazrat Musa AS too. He uses the word نَسِيَا which means to forget. Usually, and even from the example of the Prophet SAW we know that if someone does something or does not do something out of forgetfulness, we tend not to get angry at them. Similarly, Allah SWT must not have been angry at the two for forgetting, He is just stating what happened.

The word that Hazrat Musa AS uses when he asks his فَتَى for food is غَدَآءَنَا meaning that the fish was actually cooked. Interestingly enough, the fish that was their meal had somehow come to life and travelled into the sea wondrously. The fact that he said نَا means the meal was actually for both of them and that they shared a meal. This entire scene was narrated first by Allah SWT directly in His words and then through theفَتَى words. Theفَتَى used the word عَجَباَ to describe the way the fish had travelled whereas Allah SWT used the word سَرَباَ. The former, عَجَباَ is what we call in arabic a مصدر. A مصدر conveys such a powerful meaning that in this context it almost means that if you were to search for the word wonder in the dictionary, you would find this entire scene as the definition. Sticking to this context, it also means something that’s quite out of the ordinary and the فَتَى actually could not place a finger on what he had seen, which is why he used the word عَجَباَ to define it because he was out of words. However, Allah SWT is the all knowledgeable and He knows exactly how to describe any kind of scene which is why He used the word سَرَباَ because for Him what happened was nothing out of the ordinary and He had the words to describe it. سَرَباَ could mean that the fish slipped away from them and created a tunnel like path in which it travelled into the sea, with an opening on either end of it’s path.

Hazrat Musa’s ASفَتَى when asked about the fish had taken the blame initially on himself and then he blamed it on the shaitan for making him forget to tell Hazrat Musa AS what had happened. Perhaps, he was in such awe and wonder that he would have thought that if I tell Hazrat Musa AS what had happened, he would not believe me and eventually he would end up forgetting what he had seen, until he was actually reminded about the food by Hazrat Musa AS. We know the truth is they both had forgotten because that’s what Allah SWT says, but out of the respect theفَتَى had for Hazrat Musa AS, he did not put any blame on him, instead he admitted he alone was at fault.

After he had learnt about what had happened, Hazrat Musa AS said ذَٰلِكَ مَا كُنَّا نَبْغِ ۚ which is proof that they had travelled a far distance otherwise he would have started the sentencen with هَذَا. This means that despite the distance they had covered, he had not given up. ذَٰلِكَ also alludes to something high or grand in nature, meaning Hazrat Musa AS might have meant that that point, the مَجْمَعَ ٱلْبَحْرَيْنِ where the fish had slipped away was significant to him and he held it in high esteem. Similarly, About the مَجْمَعَ ٱلْبَحْرَيْنِ Hazrat Musa AS uses the word نَبْغِ whereas in a parallel we see Hazrat Yousuf’s AS brother using the words يَـٰٓأَبَانَا مَا نَبْغِى. The difference in the two linguistically is that there is a ی at the end of the latter and that ی could mean two things. It could mean that in Hazrat Yousuf’s AS brother’s case they got exactly what they wanted when they came home with the supplies and their money whereas in Hazrat Musa’s AS case the point of مَجْمَعَ ٱلْبَحْرَيْنِ might have been the point that they were journeying towards but it was not exactly what he wanted. Ultimately,he wanted to meet this man that Allah SWT had told him about and that was his goal, not the مَجْمَعَ ٱلْبَحْرَيْنِ. The other thing it could mean is that when Hazrat Musa AS found out the scene with the fish had happened, he was so excited that he did not think he had the time to stretch the ی at the end. He wanted to get back to the point where the fish had departed the two as fast as possible because he was so eager to meet this man.

We find Allah SWT narrating the incident Himself again and this time He says فَٱرْتَدَّا عَلَىٰٓ ءَاثَارِهِمَا قَصَصًۭا meaning they retraced their footsteps and successfully returned to the point the fish had gone missing. The word فَٱرْتَدَّا comes from the root letters ر د which mean to reject. The word قَصَصًۭ is a مصدر meaning it has a very strong meaning and it means to follow a predefined path precisely and to the point for example the path a barber uses with his scissors when they are cutting someone’s hair. Similarly, the word قِصَاصٌ means to punish a criminal in order to seek legal retribution, by following the crime scene leading to the criminal, catching them and then taking action against them. They must have left remnants on the journey, perhaps they were on a beach and left footsteps in the sand or deliberately carried something with them which they kept on dropping so that they could later on accurately retrace their footsteps when the need were to arise.

This particular excerpt is just before Hazrat Musa AS and Hazrat Khidar AS actually meet and if were to look at it aesthetically we would find that Allah SWT used such a great technique to tell this incident to us where He was sort of shifting the camera angle from Himself to the two travellers to back to himself to back to the travellers. He gave us a birds eye view and made us feel like what it may be like to be on the ground when all of this was happening.

In the next part of this article we will talk about the two men meeting for the first time and their journey.