Overall meaning : Allah, Exalted be He, proceeds to mention Al-Khadhir’s explanation to Moses of the real meaning of the three events that Moses could not fathom: ‘The boat belonged to some poor people who used it to make their living by working at sea,’ he said. ‘I intended to damage it because there was a tyrant king ahead of them who was taking every good ship from its owners by force. As for the boy whom I killed, his parents were believers, and he was—according to your Lord’s foreknowledge—an unbeliever. We feared that, now that Allah had revealed his true nature to me, if he had lived longer, he would have plagued his parents with wickedness and disobedience and would have led them, out of love for him, to follow him in his unbelief. By killing him we hoped that Allah would grant them in his stead a better child, who is more righteous, purer, more dutiful and more affectionate towards them. As for the wall that I had restored, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city; beneath it a treasure of theirs was buried. Their father was a righteous man, and your Lord has willed that when they come of age and attain their full strength they should dig up their treasure, as a mercy from your Lord towards them. I did not do this any of the actions that you witnessed of my own accord. It was all by Allah’s command. That explains the events that you could not bear to watch with patience without objecting to them.