The Quran

Preface

وَأَمَّا الجِدارُ فَكانَ لِغُلامَينِ يَتيمَينِ فِي المَدينَةِ وَكانَ تَحتَهُ كَنزٌ لَهُما وَكانَ أَبوهُما صالِحًا فَأَرادَ رَبُّكَ أَن يَبلُغا أَشُدَّهُما وَيَستَخرِجا كَنزَهُما رَحمَةً مِن رَبِّكَ ۚ وَما فَعَلتُهُ عَن أَمري ۚ ذٰلِكَ تَأويلُ ما لَم تَسطِع عَلَيهِ صَبرًا

Yusuf Ali

“As for the wall, it belonged to two youths, orphans, in the Town; there was, beneath it, a buried treasure, to which they were entitled: their father had been a righteous man:¹ So thy Lord desired that they should attain their age² of full strength and get out their treasure - a mercy (and favour) from thy Lord. I did it not of my own³ accord. Such is the interpretation of (those things) over which thou wast unable to hold patience.”

The wall was in a ruinous state. If it had fallen, the treasure buried beneath it would have been exposed and would certainly have been looted, among so churlish and selfish a people. See n. 2419 above. The treasure had been collected and buried by a righteous man. It was not, in any sense of the word, ill-gotten gains: it was buried expressly in the interests of the orphans by their father before his death. It was intended that the orphans should grow up and safely take possession of their heritage. It was also expected that they would be righteous men like their father, and use the treasure in good works and in advancing righteousness among an otherwise wicked community. There was thus both public and private interests involved in all the three incidents. In the second incident Khidr uses the word “we”, showing that he was associating in his act the public authorities of the place, who had been eluded by the outlaw.
Age of full strength: Cf. 17:34 and n. 2218.
Those who act, not from a whim or a private impulse of” their own, but from higher authority, have to bear the blame, with the vulgar crowd, for acts of the greater wisdom and utility. In human affairs many things are inexplicable, which are things of the highest wisdom in the Universal Plan.