The Wisdom Behind Events That Seem Evil: Knowledge, Patience, and Justice in Moses’ Journey

Author: Berk KÖKSAL
Date: October 25, 2026
Place: Mersin

Summary:

18:65

فَوَجَدَا عَبْدًا مِّنْ عِبَادِنَآ ءَاتَيْنَٰهُ رَحْمَةً مِّنْ عِندِنَا وَعَلَّمْنَٰهُ مِن لَّدُنَّا عِلْمًا

They found one of our servants, whom we blessed with mercy, and bestowed upon him from our own knowledge.

Kendisini merhametle nimetlendirdiğimiz ve kendi bilgimizden ihsan ettiğimiz kullarımızdan birini buldular.

Source: kuranteyit.com

18:68 — “How can you stand that which you do not comprehend?”

18:79 — “As for the ship, it belonged to poor fishermen, and I wanted to render it defective. There was a king coming after them, who was confiscating every ship, forcibly.

18:80 — “As for the boy, his parents were good believers, and we saw that he was going to burden them with his transgression and disbelief.*

18:81 — “We willed that your Lord substitute in his place another son; one who is better in righteousness and kindness.

18:82 — “As for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city. Under it, there was a treasure that belonged to them. Because their father was a righteous man, your Lord wanted them to grow up and attain full strength, then extract their treasure. Such is mercy from your Lord. I did none of that of my own volition. This is the explanation of the things you could not stand.”

2:216 — Fighting may be imposed on you, even though you dislike it. But you may dislike something which is good for you, and you may like something which is bad for you. GOD knows while you do not know.

21:35 — Every soul will taste death, after we put you to the test through adversity and prosperity, then to us you ultimately return.

17:33 — You shall not kill any person—for GOD has made life sacred—except in the course of justice. If one is killed unjustly, then we give his heir authority to enforce justice. Thus, he shall not exceed the limits in avenging the murder, he will be helped.

17:36 — You shall not accept any information, unless you verify it for yourself. I have given you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brain, and you are responsible for using them.

4:40 — GOD does not inflict an atom’s weight of injustice. On the contrary, He multiplies the reward manifold for the righteous work, and grants from Him a great recompense.

12:86 — He said, “I simply complain to GOD about my dilemma and grief, for I know from GOD what you do not know.

21:83 — And Job implored his Lord: “Adversity has befallen me, and, of all the merciful ones, You are the Most Merciful.”

42:41 — Certainly, those who stand up for their rights, when injustice befalls them, are not committing any error.

1. Before Seeking Wisdom, Remember Who Knows

Verse

18:65

Arabic

فَوَجَدَا عَبْدًا مِّنْ عِبَادِنَآ ءَاتَيْنَٰهُ رَحْمَةً مِّنْ عِندِنَا وَعَلَّمْنَٰهُ مِن لَّدُنَّا عِلْمًا

English — Rashad Khalifa’s Authorized English Translation

They found one of our servants, whom we blessed with mercy, and bestowed upon him from our own knowledge.

Turkish — the Turkish translation of the Authorized English Translation

Kendisini merhametle nimetlendirdiğimiz ve kendi bilgimizden ihsan ettiğimiz kullarımızdan birini buldular.

Source: kuranteyit.com

Reflection on the Verse

When someone is hurting, a question is not necessarily a challenge. Sometimes it is simply an attempt to understand. Faced with loss, an interrupted journey, or an unexpected separation, we may wish to see the whole meaning of what is happening immediately. In such a moment, before seeking someone with an explanation, I would seek someone who does not belittle the weight of the experience.

Reading Moses’ journey with his teacher from 18:65, I notice that mercy and knowledge stand together at the beginning. We are not introduced to someone who magnifies himself or turns mystery into authority. The verse introduces him and identifies the knowledge and mercy bestowed upon him. That difference must remain intact throughout the journey.

Trusting that GOD knows is one thing; assuming that a human being knows what GOD knows is another. In the first case, I acknowledge my limits. In the second, I may grant someone an authority for which I have no evidence.

18:65 does not supply this servant’s personal name. Before any fascination with his identity, the source of his knowledge occupies the center. Being a teacher does not cancel his being a servant. Seeking wisdom here should not mean finding another lord.

The question before us also needs care. Can I explain the reason for every sorrow? Or can I learn to trust GOD and remain committed to justice when an explanation is beyond me? The journey between 18:68 and 18:82 holds me especially to the second question.

Verse references: 18:65; 18:68; 18:82.

2. Being Willing to Retrace the Journey

Verse

18:60 — Moses said to his servant, “I will not rest until I reach the point where the two rivers meet, no matter how long it takes.”

18:61 — When they reached the point where they met, they forgot their fish, and it found its way back to the river, sneakily.

18:62 — After they passed that point, he said to his servant, “Let us have lunch. All this traveling has thoroughly exhausted us.”

18:63 — He said, “Remember when we sat by the rock back there? I paid no attention to the fish. It was the devil who made me forget it, and it found its way back to the river, strangely.”

18:64 — (Moses) said, “That was the place we were looking for.” They traced their steps back.

Reflection on the Verse

The journey does not begin as a demonstration by someone who knows everything. There is determination, but there is also exhaustion. The travelers reach the place they seek, overlook something, continue, and then return. The details of 18:60–64 make me think of learning as a journey undertaken with human limitations, not after those limitations have disappeared.

What strikes me most is that turning back is not presented as failure. Sometimes we defend a decision for so long that continuing in the wrong direction starts to seem more honorable than returning. Yet Moses’ retracing his steps is not an abandonment of his search. It is fidelity to it.

I do not infer that everything we forget must lead to a greater good. I cannot make the disappearance of the fish a ready-made explanation for every setback in my life. These are particular details of a particular journey. A more measured lesson is not to be ashamed of looking again when I discover something I have missed.

Acknowledging exhaustion can belong to the same honesty. The human situation in 18:62 does not turn learning into a disembodied, tireless achievement. Needing to pause, rest, or reconsider an earlier step does not mean I have stopped seeking truth.

Sometimes the first movement toward wisdom is not to travel farther, but to look back carefully enough to recognize where I went wrong.

Verse references: 18:60–65.

3. A Person of Knowledge Becoming a Student

Verse

18:66 — Moses said to him, “Can I follow you, that you may teach me some of the knowledge and the guidance bestowed upon you?”

18:67 — He said, “You cannot stand to be with me.

18:68 — “How can you stand that which you do not comprehend?”

Reflection on the Verse

In Moses’ request in 18:66, there is no suggestion that learning diminishes a person. Without denying what he already knows, he wants to learn something he does not know. Possessing knowledge and possessing all knowledge are not the same condition.

Being capable in one field does not prevent me from becoming a student in another. More importantly, learning something from someone does not require treating that person as infallible in everything. The learning described here concerns a share of particular knowledge and guidance. It is not a general contract transferring all human judgment to another person.

18:68 opens the connection between not understanding and not being able to endure. I may see only part of an event while attempting to judge its entirety. Acknowledging this limit, however, does not require ignoring the suffering before me. The problem is not seeing what is in front of me; it is assuming that nothing exists beyond what I can see.

In my earlier reflection on “The Most Argumentative Creature”, I considered the difference between seeking truth and needing to be right. Here the distinction becomes more personal: Am I asking in order to learn, or in order to preserve my first conclusion?

The question must not be directed only at the student. Someone who claims knowledge must also recognize its boundaries. Knowledge bestowed in 18:65 does not erase the distinction between a servant and GOD. Learning to acknowledge where my knowledge ends belongs to the discipline of this journey as much as learning something new.

Verse references: 18:65–68.

4. The Promise of Patience and the Reality of Forgetting

Verse

18:69 — He said, “You will find me, GOD willing, patient. I will not disobey any command you give me.”

18:70 — He said, “If you follow me, then you shall not ask me about anything, unless I choose to tell you about it.”

18:72 — He said, “Did I not say that you cannot stand to be with me?”

18:73 — He said, “I am sorry. Do not punish me for my forgetfulness; do not be too harsh with me.”

Reflection on the Verse

There can be a distance between intending to be patient and remaining patient when tested. The promise in 18:69, followed by the apology for forgetting in 18:73, does not conceal that distance. Both Moses’ determination and his difficulty remain within the account.

This makes me think that honesty and mercy toward myself must stay together. Forgetting a commitment is not something to dismiss, but neither must a moment of difficulty become a verdict that my whole character is worthless. An apology offers the possibility of acknowledging what I did rather than continuing to defend myself.

Detaching the condition about questions in 18:70 from its setting would be a serious mistake. This is a particular encounter in which 18:65 identifies the teacher’s source of knowledge. The journey also reaches a promise of explanation in 18:78. I cannot infer that teachers, religious leaders, or other authorities may keep people indefinitely beyond questioning. My responsibility to verify in 17:36 has not disappeared.

Patience can mean allowing time for an explanation that is not yet complete. But someone who perpetually holds others in uncertainty and uses that uncertainty to control them does not occupy the same position merely by invoking patience.

Rather than imagining myself as the flawless student, I recognize a person who makes commitments, struggles, forgets, and tries to learn again.

Verse references: 18:65; 18:69–73; 18:78; 17:36.

5. The Hole in the Ship: Visible Damage, an Unseen Threat

Verse

18:71 — So they went. When they boarded a ship, he bore a hole in it. He said, “Did you bore a hole in it to drown its people? You have committed something terrible.”

18:79 — “As for the ship, it belonged to poor fishermen, and I wanted to render it defective. There was a king coming after them, who was confiscating every ship, forcibly.

Reflection on the Verse

Making a hole in a ship and drowning its passengers are not the same event. Yet Moses’ question in 18:71 concerns the possibility that the intervention he sees will endanger human life. I do not want to dismiss his response as mere incomprehension. The people aboard are at the center of his concern.

The explanation in 18:79 introduces an element previously unknown: the king who confiscates ships by force. The defect now acquires meaning within an intervention intended to prevent the owners from losing their ship. The damage does not disappear. The frame needed to understand the event expands.

The poor fishermen must not vanish from our reading. Wisdom is not left as an abstract mystery somewhere above human affairs. It concerns the protection of a means of livelihood. A vessel that appears defective may mean something very different in its owners’ lives from the loss of the entire vessel.

But the explanation given in this account and the consolation I construct after one of my own losses do not have the same evidential standing. I cannot say that every missed opportunity certainly saved me from disaster. Perhaps it did; perhaps I will never learn the explanation. I cannot present my possibility as a fact disclosed by GOD.

Nor does the episode authorize me to damage another person’s property and then claim to have performed a hidden kindness. Remove the particular setting of 18:65 and 18:82, and the idea of wisdom can become an excuse for arbitrary interference.

The lesson I take is more limited, but more honest: the harm I initially see does not mean that I understand the whole event. My responsibility toward other people’s lives and labor nevertheless remains.

Verse references: 18:65; 18:71; 18:79; 18:82.

6. The Boy’s Death: Where Easy Consolation Is Not Enough

Verse

18:74 — So they went. When they met a young boy, he killed him. He said, “Why did you kill such an innocent soul, who did not kill another soul? You have committed something horrendous.”

18:80 — “As for the boy, his parents were good believers, and we saw that he was going to burden them with his transgression and disbelief.*

18:81 — “We willed that your Lord substitute in his place another son; one who is better in righteousness and kindness.

Reflection on the Verse

I do not want to hurry here.

Damage to a ship and the killing of a human being do not carry the same weight. Before 18:74, I need to resist transferring the explanation of the earlier event too easily to this one. Moses now faces the death of a young boy. The account preserves the full force of his objection.

18:80–81 identifies the parents’ belief, knowledge of the burden the boy would place upon them, and the son to be given in his place. The presence of an explanation, however, does not mean that I understand every aspect of the event. I have no basis for inventing further judgments about the boy’s personal experience, how the parents lived through the loss, or details not narrated here.

One distinction is essential: the knowledge described in the verse and our predictions about the future are not the same. This text does not authorize ending a person’s life because we think that person will later do wrong. The statement concerning volition in 18:82 and the protection of life in 17:33 block that inference.

Nor can I turn the mention of another son into ready-made consolation for a bereaved parent. A person must not be treated as an interchangeable object filling another person’s emotional absence. The specific explanation in this account is not a promise that every family will receive the same earthly outcome.

This passage teaches me not to make a difficult question lighter merely to appear strong in faith. I can trust GOD and still be shaken before this event. Trust does not require me to exaggerate my capacity to understand. Sometimes the most truthful response is to acknowledge that an explanation is given while admitting that I cannot encompass its full weight.

Verse references: 18:65; 18:74; 18:80–82; 17:33.

7. A Particular Account Does Not Grant a General License to Kill

Verse

17:33 — You shall not kill any person—for GOD has made life sacred—except in the course of justice. If one is killed unjustly, then we give his heir authority to enforce justice. Thus, he shall not exceed the limits in avenging the murder, he will be helped.

7:33 — Say, “My Lord prohibits only evil deeds, be they obvious or hidden, and sins, and unjustifiable aggression, and to set up beside GOD powerless idols, and to say about GOD what you do not know.”

Reflection on the Verse

I do not want to leave 17:33 outside the reading of Moses’ journey. On one side is a particular event narrated within a setting of specifically bestowed knowledge. On the other is an explicit boundary protecting human life. Reading them together prevents me from substituting my prediction for that knowledge.

I must ask myself: How do I know this person’s future? On what grounds am I presenting my intuition, fear, or anger as divine will? 7:33 places limits both on unjustifiable aggression and on saying about GOD what I do not know. An appeal to hidden wisdom therefore requires scrutiny in its claim to knowledge as well as in its action.

This is not only about an extreme case. Consider a person within a family, community, or educational relationship who harms someone and then says, “You do not understand; it is for your own good.” The statement does not prove itself. The harm, the rights involved, and the justification offered need examination. Assigning ourselves the teacher’s exceptional position does not give us that position.

Moses’ objection in 18:74 must also remain in the reader’s memory. An explanation at the end of the journey does not make concern for an innocent life at the beginning worthless. Limited understanding and moral attentiveness can exist together.

Wisdom cannot become the name for secretly granting another person a license to kill that we have no grounds to claim ourselves. Honoring GOD’s knowledge is not the same as sanctifying arbitrary human judgment.

Verse references: 17:33; 7:33; 18:65; 18:74; 18:80–82.

8. The Wall: The Person Before Us Is Not Always the Beneficiary

Verse

18:75 — He said, “Did I not tell you that you cannot stand to be with me?”

18:76 — He said, “If I ask you about anything else, then do not keep me with you. You have seen enough apologies from me.”

18:77 — So they went. When they reached a certain community, they asked the people for food, but they refused to host them. Soon, they found a wall about to collapse, and he fixed it. He said, “You could have demanded a wage for that!”

18:78 — He said, “Now we have to part company. But I will explain to you everything you could not stand.

Reflection on the Verse

In the third event, the visible action is not damage but repair. That change matters. The account does not only explain things that initially appear harmful. It also shows how we can struggle to understand why a good action is performed here, for these people.

Working within a community that refuses hospitality may initially look like misplaced, unrewarded labor. Moses’ remark about payment brings out that tension. When 18:82 identifies the wall’s connection to two orphan boys, however, we realize that the community encountered and the actual beneficiaries cannot simply be treated as one undifferentiated group.

A question for my own life follows: When someone treats me harshly, do I place everyone around that person under the same judgment? Does anger prevent me from seeing people who were not responsible for the conduct? A child’s rights, or the needs of someone vulnerable, can disappear behind my resentment toward somebody else.

Nor does the event establish that requesting payment for work is always wrong. A particular wall is repaired for a particular reason. Deciding the conditions of all human labor from this one scene would again make the text carry a generalization it does not state.

The approaching separation does not make the teaching meaningless either. In 18:78, explanation begins as the companionship ends. The limit of walking together and the value of what has been learned are not identical. An encounter can end without leaving nothing true behind.

Verse references: 18:75–78; 18:82.

9. The Orphans’ Treasure: Delay Is Not Always Deprivation

Verse

18:82 — “As for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city. Under it, there was a treasure that belonged to them. Because their father was a righteous man, your Lord wanted them to grow up and attain full strength, then extract their treasure. Such is mercy from your Lord. I did none of that of my own volition. This is the explanation of the things you could not stand.”

Reflection on the Verse

A treasure’s existence and immediate access to it are not the same thing. In 18:82, not only what is protected but when it is to be received matters. Keeping the wall standing is explained within a timing connected to the orphans’ growth.

This detail helps me consider my impatience differently. Not receiving something today need not mean that it is being withheld against me. Yet I cannot turn that possibility into a guarantee. To say that every delayed wish will eventually become a greater treasure would use one particular event as a contract covering every human life.

The mention of the father’s righteousness also deserves attention. It allows reflection on how a life is connected to others, and on a good whose effects may extend beyond death. But the verse does not say that every righteous person’s children will enjoy material security. A particular act of mercy cannot become a hereditary rule promising the same outcome to everyone.

The introduction through mercy in 18:65 meets mercy again in 18:82. I read that connection through knowledge directed toward lives in need of protection, rather than knowledge as spectacle. The poor fishermen’s livelihood, believing parents, and orphans carry the account’s human weight. It is not simply an exhibition of an extraordinary individual’s power.

The closing statement about volition does not turn the teacher into an independent center of power either. The journey’s destination is not fascination with a servant, but recognition of my limits before GOD’s knowledge and mercy.

Verse references: 18:65; 18:77–82.

10. Remaining a Teacher, Not Becoming a Lord

Verse

9:31 — They have set up their religious leaders and scholars as lords,* instead of GOD. Others deified the Messiah, son of Mary. They were all commanded to worship only one god. There is no god except He. Be He glorified, high above having any partners.

17:36 — You shall not accept any information, unless you verify it for yourself. I have given you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brain, and you are responsible for using them.

Reflection on the Verse

Learning from someone is not the same as taking that person as a lord. Yet the boundary can become indistinct when we stop asking what the relationship is doing to us. Teaching that makes me more careful, truthful, and willing to investigate is not the same relationship as authority that declares all my questions unnecessary.

I do not want to look for the danger involving religious leaders and scholars in 9:31 only in communities distant from my own. When trust in someone prevents me from considering that person’s fallibility, or when the person’s words acquire the same standing as a verse in my mind, I need to examine myself.

In Moses’ encounter, it is 18:65 that identifies the teacher as having received special knowledge. A person’s claim today to superior knowledge does not mean that this verse is speaking about that person. Without that distinction, 18:70 can be placed behind almost any authoritarian demand.

17:36 places hearing, seeing, and thinking before me as responsibilities. My teacher can help me; the teacher cannot choose honesty in my place. Understanding an explanation may require effort, but I am not obliged to assume that everything I cannot understand must embody superior wisdom.

Tawhid has a concrete meaning here for me: not transferring GOD’s ultimate authority to someone whose knowledge I trust. Respect is not a transfer of my devotion. Humility before knowledge need not become unthinking obedience before another human being.

Verse references: 9:31; 17:36; 18:65–66; 18:70; 18:82.

11. Is Dislike a Certain Measure of What Is Bad?

Verse

2:216 — Fighting may be imposed on you, even though you dislike it. But you may dislike something which is good for you, and you may like something which is bad for you. GOD knows while you do not know.

Reflection on the Verse

I should not read only the comforting portion of 2:216. The verse begins with the possibility of an unwelcome obligation to fight. Its setting is therefore not a phrase of easy optimism to attach to every disappointment. Nevertheless, its distinction between liking something and its being good, or disliking something and its being bad, gives me a strong basis for examining my judgments.

The examination runs in both directions. I am not only confronted with the possibility that something unwanted may be good. Something I like may also be bad. The success I imagine, an argument I want to win, or a preference I refuse to relinquish does not become right simply because it pleases me.

Remembering 2:216 only when something unwanted happens would therefore be incomplete. When everything goes exactly as I wish, I still need the same question: Is pleasure sufficient evidence that this is genuinely good?

But I cannot reverse the verse’s language of possibility into the claim that every sorrow is good and every joy suspect. That would merely replace one absolute measure with another while pretending to have escaped the limitations of feeling.

As with the explanation concerning the ship, wider knowledge may sometimes change my first judgment. At other times, I must keep living without that wider knowledge. The distinction in knowledge at the end of 2:216 does not commission me to write a hidden scenario for every event. It first asks me to measure my own claim to certainty.

Verse references: 2:216; 18:71; 18:79.

12. Adversity Does Not Prove Guilt; Prosperity Does Not Prove Innocence

Verse

21:35 — Every soul will taste death, after we put you to the test through adversity and prosperity, then to us you ultimately return.

4:40 — GOD does not inflict an atom’s weight of injustice. On the contrary, He multiplies the reward manifold for the righteous work, and grants from Him a great recompense.

Reflection on the Verse

It can be easy to say that someone’s hardship must reveal a wrongdoing that caused it. Such a judgment may give an observer the comforting impression of having understood the world’s order. Yet 21:35 includes prosperity alongside adversity in the test, disrupting that simple classification.

Not only poverty, loss, or failure, but power, gain, and comfort can provide occasions in which a person’s choices emerge. The verse therefore does not support declaring the sufferer guilty or the successful person righteous. In Moses’ journey too, the poor fishermen, believing parents, and orphans are not devalued because they need protection.

4:40 gives an explicit principle concerning GOD’s justice. I cannot turn that principle into a claim that I know the particular cause of everything that happens to each person. Believing in GOD’s justice does not mean that I can identify someone’s guilt behind every sorrow.

The same care is needed in my own life. Treating success as confirmation that I am faultless, or hardship as proof that I have been entirely abandoned, can be two forms of the same haste.

These verses change my question. Alongside asking why this happened to me, I ask how I will act within it. Can I share in prosperity? Can I stand through loss without wronging someone else? A cause I cannot explain does not remove the question I must answer through my conduct.

Verse references: 21:35; 4:40; 18:79–82.

13. Joseph: A Good Outcome Does Not Excuse an Earlier Wrong

Verse

12:18 — They produced his shirt with fake blood on it. He said, “Indeed, you have conspired with each other to commit a certain scheme. All I can do is resort to a quiet patience. May GOD help me in the face of your conspiracy.”

12:97 — They said, “Our father, pray for our forgiveness; we were wrong indeed.”

12:100 — He raised his parents upon the throne. They fell prostrate before him. He said, “O my father, this is the fulfillment of my old dream. My Lord has made it come true. He has blessed me, delivered me from the prison, and brought you from the desert, after the devil had driven a wedge between me and my brothers. My Lord is Most Kind towards whomever He wills. He is the Knower, the Most Wise.”

Reflection on the Verse

Reading Joseph’s account alongside this subject, I see a distinction between deliverance and the vindication of the past. In 12:100, there is blessing, reunion, and the fulfillment of a dream. But the conspiracy and false blood in 12:18 do not become right because the story reaches that outcome. The brothers’ request for forgiveness in 12:97 preserves the distinction.

I may have gained strength after being wronged. A new path may have opened after a loss. Such developments can help me recognize that life did not end with the harm. But my recovery does not retroactively make the wrongdoer right.

Two positions can coexist: refusing to let what happened consume my entire life, and naming what was done to me accurately. Even the possibility of forgiveness does not require pretending that there was never a wrong to forgive.

Joseph’s perspective in 12:100 makes me think that recognizing blessings is not the same as praising every earlier detail. We may discover dimensions of our story later while preserving responsibility for the action that caused the wound. That is a firmer form of hope than calling evil good.

The explanations in Moses’ journey and Joseph’s retrospective perspective therefore teach a related attentiveness: the whole of events may not be understood at first. But seeking that whole must not dissolve what the perpetrator did, what the sufferer experienced, and whatever good later emerged into a single verdict.

For me, genuine consolation includes being able to remain open to goodness without having to rename wrongdoing as good.

Verse references: 12:18; 12:97–100; 18:79–82.

14. Jacob and Job: Trust Does Not Mean Saying It Does Not Hurt

Verse

12:84 — He turned away from them, saying, “I am grieving over Joseph.” His eyes turned white from grieving so much; he was truly sad.

12:86 — He said, “I simply complain to GOD about my dilemma and grief, for I know from GOD what you do not know.

21:83 — And Job implored his Lord: “Adversity has befallen me, and, of all the merciful ones, You are the Most Merciful.”

21:84 — We responded to him, relieved his adversity, and restored his family for him, even twice as much. That was a mercy from us, and a reminder for the worshipers.

Reflection on the Verse

Jacob’s grief is not hidden within the account as something shameful. 12:84 states his sorrow openly; 12:86 shows that it can be expressed within his turning toward GOD. I want to take seriously the possibility that trust and grief can inhabit the same person.

Sometimes words I offer as consolation reveal how little I can bear another person’s pain. I want the person to find a reason immediately, feel better immediately, appear strong immediately. Before these verses, I need to ask why I demand such speed from someone who is hurting.

Job’s prayer in 21:83 names adversity. The response in 21:84 concerns its relief, not its preservation. Read together, these verses prevent me from equating mercy with the sanctification of pain. Turning toward GOD through suffering is not the same as wanting suffering to continue.

I therefore cannot treat seeking help, protection, or relief as incompatible with submission. Nor can I promise the particular response in Job’s account as the earthly ending every person will receive. I can offer hope; I cannot write another person’s future in GOD’s name.

I want the mercy in 18:65 and 18:82 to shape not only what I say about the events, but how I read them in the presence of another person. Instead of claiming to have discovered a hidden benefit in someone’s life without understanding the wound, I can stand beside that person.

Sometimes the most truthful sentence may not be a long explanation: I do not know why this happened, but your pain matters to me.

Verse references: 12:84; 12:86; 21:83–84; 18:65; 18:82.

15. Known Justice in the Face of Unknown Wisdom

Verse

42:39 — When gross injustice befalls them, they stand up for their rights.

42:40 — Although the just requital for an injustice is an equivalent retribution, those who pardon and maintain righteousness are rewarded by GOD. He does not love the unjust.

42:41 — Certainly, those who stand up for their rights, when injustice befalls them, are not committing any error.

42:42 — The wrong ones are those who treat the people unjustly, and resort to aggression without provocation. These have incurred a painful retribution.

42:43 — Resorting to patience and forgiveness reflects a true strength of character.

4:135 — O you who believe, you shall be absolutely equitable, and observe GOD, when you serve as witnesses, even against yourselves, or your parents, or your relatives. Whether the accused is rich or poor, GOD takes care of both. Therefore, do not be biased by your personal wishes. If you deviate or disregard (this commandment), then GOD is fully Cognizant of everything you do.

Reflection on the Verse

Reading 42:39–43 together unsettles an easy opposition between patience and standing up for one’s rights. Those who defend their rights are not condemned. People who act unjustly are not placed in the same category as those who exercise patience. Forgiveness and strength of character are considered within this framework of justice.

I therefore find no basis here for telling a sufferer that an event may contain hidden wisdom and then demanding acceptance of continuing injustice. I may not know every cause of a harm, but an unknown cause does not require me to support visible aggression. Helping does not first require solving the suffering’s entire meaning within the universe.

4:135 makes the matter harder: What will I do when justice runs against me? When I am the person speaking about wisdom, could I be explaining someone else’s hurt in a way that protects my interests? Dismissing another person’s objection as immaturity could be my way of avoiding accountability.

In my earlier reflection on responding to evil with what is best, I tried not to treat justice and forgiveness as mutually destructive alternatives. The same care is needed here between wisdom and responsibility. Mercy must not become concealment of wrongdoing, or patience a means of silencing the vulnerable.

Even in an event whose wisdom I cannot explain, there are things I can do: refuse to distort facts, keep my testimony honest, decline to join aggression, and take the injured person’s rights seriously. These actions rest not on a claim to know the unseen, but on the call to justice already before us.

I do not have to know every reason. I must not postpone the justice I do know.

Verse references: 42:39–43; 4:135; 18:74; 18:82.

16. How Do I Live Through a Day I Cannot Explain?

Verse

7:33 — Say, “My Lord prohibits only evil deeds, be they obvious or hidden, and sins, and unjustifiable aggression, and to set up beside GOD powerless idols, and to say about GOD what you do not know.”

18:49 — The record will be shown, and you will see the guilty fearful of its contents. They will say, “Woe to us. How come this book leaves nothing, small or large, without counting it?” They will find everything they had done brought forth. Your Lord is never unjust towards anyone.

Reflection on the Verse

Explanations are given in Moses’ journey. Not every chapter of my own life will necessarily conclude with such a conversation. Years may pass without my learning why something happened. When I do not confuse these situations, the search for wisdom becomes less presumptuous and more livable.

I want to learn to keep three statements distinct. I know what I experienced. I am considering possibilities about why it happened. I need to decide what I can do now. Moving from the first statement to the second, and from the second to the third, I must not assume that I have filled every intervening gap with certainty.

7:33 prevents me from closing that gap by speaking in GOD’s name. I may hope that an event protected me from greater harm, but asserting that it certainly did requires more than hope. Equally, I cannot appropriate knowledge I do not have in order to explain someone’s misfortune as punishment for a hidden wrongdoing.

18:49 opens another kind of trust: even when I cannot comprehend every detail, there is a horizon of accountability in which actions do not become insignificant. This can support refusing to make limited human perception the final judge, rather than abandoning the pursuit of justice in this life.

In my earlier reflection on delayed retribution and the time granted to us, I emphasized allowing the wait to turn me toward my own responsibility before speculating about other people’s endings. The same return is needed here. Today I may correct a wrong, help someone, refrain from speaking where I lack knowledge, or continue an honest investigation.

Not seeing the whole picture should not prevent me from doing the small but real good within my reach.

Verse references: 7:33; 18:49; 18:78–82; 42:41; 4:135.

17. Arabic Word Roots: Mercy, Knowledge, Patience, and Explanation

Verse

18:68 — “How can you stand that which you do not comprehend?”

Reflection on the Verse

When considering word roots, I do not want to use them as secret keys detached from the account. Identifying a root does not permit importing every meaning of every related word into one verse. What matters is returning to the sentence in which the word occurs and to the explanation of the events.

Mercy — ر ح م. The word رَحْمَةً in 18:65 belongs to this root; the same word appears again in 18:82. This connection between the introduction and the final explanation invites me to consider mercy alongside wisdom, not outside it. If my interpretation begins treating harshness as a distinction in itself, I need to reread these two ends of the account. Word analysis for 18:65.

Knowledge and teaching — ع ل م. In 18:65, وَعَلَّمْنَٰهُ and عِلْمًا belong to the same root family concerning knowledge and teaching. Knowledge does not enter this account as its possessor’s self-generated claim to greatness. The request to learn in 18:66 also belongs within this context of something bestowed. Possessing knowledge one has received is not the same as being its limitless source. Verb analysis for 18:65.

Patience — ص ب ر. The verb تَصْبِرُ in 18:68 and صَابِرًا in 18:69 share this root. Narrowing it to mere silence, however, would overlook the account’s movement through questions, objections, and explanation. Reading alongside 42:39–43 allows patience to be distinguished from declaring injustice right. That ethical distinction arises from the verses together, not from the root alone. Patience in 18:68.

The limits of comprehension — ح و ط and خ ب ر. The verb تُحِطْ and noun خُبْرًا in 18:68 concern, respectively, encompassing and knowledge or awareness. Rashad Khalifa’s Authorized English Translation frames the question through comprehension, as does the Turkish translation of the Authorized English Translation. What occupies my attention here is the distance between witnessing an event and knowing it in all its dimensions. Verb analysis and noun analysis.

Explanation — أ و ل. تَأْوِيلُ in 18:82 belongs to this root; another form of the same root occurs in 18:78. Here, explanation is given concerning the narrated actions. It is not an invitation for every reader to invent any hidden meaning desired. A reason I imagine afterward does not have the same standing as the explanation the teacher gives. Explanation in 18:82.

Wisdom — ح ك م. The root family associated with the title’s concept of wisdom also appears in ٱلْحَكِيمُ in 12:100. Knowledge and wisdom stand together, but their conjunction does not mean that I know the reason for every outcome. What I hope to gain from studying these words is not a more impressive claim to certainty, but a more careful awareness of the limits of my knowledge. Word analysis for 12:100.

Verse references: 18:65–68; 18:78–82; 12:100; 42:39–43.

18. Other Claims

Verse

18:65 — They found one of our servants, whom we blessed with mercy, and bestowed upon him from our own knowledge.

17:36 — You shall not accept any information, unless you verify it for yourself. I have given you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brain, and you are responsible for using them.

Reflection on the Verse

The identification of Moses’ teacher as Khidr must be kept distinct from the wording of 18:65 itself. For example, the report numbered 122 in Sahih al-Bukhari identifies him by that name. This establishes that the identification occurs in the transmitted tradition; it does not place the name within the verse. A familiar name used when discussing the journey is not the same thing as information supplied by the verse itself. Report: Sahih al-Bukhari 122.

Different interpretations identify him as a prophet, a saint, or an angel. Assessments of whether he remains alive also differ. The Khidr entry in the Türkiye Diyanet Foundation’s Encyclopedia of Islam records these differences. They belong to the history of interpretation and do not provide grounds for constructing a certain biography from the brief introduction in 18:65. TDV Encyclopedia of Islam: Khidr.

Readings that connect special knowledge with a general relationship of unquestioning obedience also require care. In 18:65, GOD bestows the knowledge. The verse does not verify anyone else’s declaration that they possess the same knowledge. Placing 18:70 behind such a declaration requires an additional justification, independently of any tradition or interpretation. The responsibility to verify in 17:36 applies not only to unfamiliar claims, but to interpretations I find attractive.

The explanatory footnote to 18:80 in Rashad Khalifa’s Authorized English Translation, also present in its Turkish translation, uses a historical comparison to argue that there is a good reason behind everything. The note is an interpretation distinct from the verse’s wording. Its invitation to reflection must not be confused with a claim that we know what a particular person will do in the future. Such a hypothetical comparison gives neither knowledge nor authority to harm a young person today. 18:80 and its explanatory footnote.

A sweeping conclusion that every evil is merely apparent also requires caution. The explanations in this account are not a general authorization that dissolves human wrongdoing. I am not claiming to have answered every question raised by suffering. I am trying to consider acknowledgment of unknown details together with fidelity to known moral boundaries. An interpretation’s capacity to comfort does not establish its truth.

Verse references: 18:65; 18:70; 18:80–82; 17:33; 17:36; 7:33.

19. Conclusion: Keeping Mercy and Justice Where Wisdom Is Beyond Me

Verse

18:68 — “How can you stand that which you do not comprehend?”

4:40 — GOD does not inflict an atom’s weight of injustice. On the contrary, He multiplies the reward manifold for the righteous work, and grants from Him a great recompense.

Reflection on the Verse

When I reach the end of Moses’ journey with his teacher, I am not left with one explanation to attach to every sorrow. I am left with a more attentive way of seeing. I need to take more seriously the distance between witnessing and knowing the whole, the difference between trust and transferring authority, and the boundary between patience and accepting injustice.

In the ship’s case, a visible defect is explained through a threat previously unknown. The boy’s death carries a weight that easy phrases cannot bear. The repaired wall brings into view the rights of absent orphans and the importance of timing. I cannot fit all three into a formula in which everything happens for the same reason. The teacher’s explanation is connected to particular knowledge bestowed upon him. My conjectures about my own life do not possess that same clarity.

2:216 challenges the sufficiency of feeling as a measure of truth. 4:40 gives a foundation for trust in GOD’s justice. In Joseph’s account, a good outcome does not make the earlier conspiracy right. Jacob’s grief and Job’s prayer remind me that a wounded person can turn toward GOD. And 42:39–43 does not permit me to blame someone for seeking justice in the name of patience.

Tawhid stands at the center of this reading for me: not appropriating ultimate knowledge, and not putting a teacher, my own interpretation, or a comforting explanation in GOD’s place. Submission does not mean claiming to have solved every event’s reasons. It means remaining truthful where I do not know and continuing to act rightly where I can.

For that reason, I do not want to approach a sufferer as though I know the hidden cause in that person’s life. Sometimes what is needed is not explanation but listening; not a verdict but protection of a right; or simply a little relief from the burden. Not becoming merciless while speaking of mercy is a test within the search for wisdom itself.

I trust that GOD knows. I do not trust that I know everything.

One day I may understand some events better. I may never learn the explanation of others in this life. Nevertheless, today I can do a good that lies before me, refuse to participate in injustice, and refrain from attributing to GOD something I do not know.

The destination I seek in studying wisdom is not indifference to pain. It is humility in knowledge, mercy in relationships, and justice in action.

Verse references: 18:65–82; 2:216; 4:40; 12:18; 12:97–100; 12:84; 12:86; 21:83–84; 42:39–43; 17:36; 7:33.

Note

2:32 — They said, “Be You glorified, we have no knowledge, except that which You have taught us. You are the Omniscient, Most Wise.”

GOD knows best.

Source: kuranteyit.com