Tafsir of Surah Al-Kahf - Verse 79

Interpretations of why the Ship was damaged

This is an explanation of what Musa found so hard to understand, and the appearence of which he condemed. Allah showed Al-Khidr the hidden reasons, so he said, "I damaged the ship to make it faulty, because they used to pass by a king who was one of the oppressors, who

يَأْخُذُ كُلَّ سَفِينَةٍ

(seized every boat), i.e., every good, sound boat

غَصْباً

(by force.) `So I wanted to prevent him from taking this boat by making it appear faulty, so that its poor owners who had nothing else could benefit from it.' It was also said that they were orphans.

Commentary

In the first verse, it was said: أَمَّا السَّفِينَةُ فَكَانَتْ لِمَسَاكِينَ (As for the boat, it belonged to some poor people - 79). About the poor people to whom this boat belonged, it has been reported from Sayyidna Ka'b al-Ahbar ؓ that they were ten brothers. Five of them were handicapped while the other five worked hard to eke out a living for all of them by plying a boat against whatever fare they could collect.

The definition of a Miskin

A miskin has been defined as one who has nothing. But, from this verse, we learn the true definition of a miskin: Anyone who does not have the amount of wealth and property that exceed his need, basic and necessary, to the limit of legal nisab (threshold of zakah). One who has less than that is also included under the definition of miskin. The reason is that people called 'al-masakin' (plural of miskin: poor people) had at least one boat the price of which will not be less than the amount of nisab (threshold). But, as it was engaged in earning what those people needed, basically and necessarily, they were still called 'masakin' (poor people). (Mazhari)

Regarding the last sentence of verse 79: مَّلِكٌ يَأْخُذُ كُلَّ سَفِينَةٍ غَصْبًا ، al-Baghawi has reported from Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas ؓ that the direction in which this boat was sailing, there was a cruel king who used to take boats ferrying people through by force. Al-Khadir (علیہ السلام) found it expedient to pull out a plank from the boat so that the cruel king, seeing this damaged boat, would let it go and thus those poor people would remain safe from the likely mishap. Comments sage Rumi:

گَر خضر در بحر کشتی را شکست صد درستی شکست خضر ہست

Yes, al-Khidr did break the boat while sailing at sea But,

a hundred saving graces in his breaking we see

Khidr had not rendered the boat completely useless; he had only made it defective for the time being. The wisdom behind it was that, farther up the river where the boat was going, there was a king who, perhaps in connection with a war campaign, was forcibly confiscating good boats. So, the boat was made defective so that when the king’s agents saw it, they should treat is as undeserving of attention and leave it. This teaches us that a man should not lose heart if he has to face some untoward incident. He should reconcile with it, hoping that there should be some advantage hidden in whatever God has done, though man is not at that time fully aware of it.