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Recordings › The Story Explained: Did Musa & Khidr (a.s.) Kill a Child? -Mufti Abu Layth · 24 Dec 2018 › Segment 3 of 3

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Why did Khidr kill the boy in Surah al-Kahf?

muftis sura soorah surat suwar soora chapter

The three events of the vision mirror Musa's own mission

LessonRecorded 24 Dec 2018Ponderings on the Holy QuranSegment 3 of 3 in the recording2018-12-24-S03

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This segment11:22 to 16:40 · 5 min 18 sGeneral teaching

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Mufti Abu Layth reads the ship, the boy and the wall as a vision mirroring Musa's mission; no child was really killed, since God would never allow that.

In more detail

Mufti Abu Layth says Musa was shown the vision to reinforce his own mission, since its three events are tied to his life. Mufti reads the damaged ship as the damaged Israelites, whom Musa was leading out of calamity towards a greater good. He says the boy was not killed in reality, since God would never allow a child to be murdered and the 'greater good' argument would justify killing every child who might grow up a disbeliever; instead it recalls Musa's accidental killing of an Egyptian, which led to his flight and so to his prophethood and the salvation of the Israelites. The wall repaired for inhospitable villagers reflects Musa's frustration with the Israelites, who built the golden calf, and shows him that, though he died before they reached Jerusalem, the orphans' hidden treasure would become the kingdom of Dawud and Sulayman.

Position stated

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Mufti Abu Layth says the boy was not killed in reality, since God would never allow anybody to murder a child.

In his words

“the fact that murders this this child he didn't murder him in real life God would never allow anybody to murder a child that would be absurd”

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Transcript

machine11:22 to 16:40 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
10:42

king that there was a king that was snatching every uh ship now the reason for this was that you see the reason for all of this was that there was a moral why did he do these things why did he kill the boy why did God allow him to commit murder and they said well oh this was to save the family later on because the family were going to uh the family were going to later on uh really suffer at the hands of this child so God was going to replace him so you have all of these kind of thing and some people obviously challenged this whole thing the truth is that this was all a vision

11:21

it was all in a dream um and the reason mam was shown those that dream um was not that Vision was not really it was to reinforce his own mission you see because the three events that took place in that dream were deeply connected to the life and mission of Moses alisam you see Moses in this particular dream you will see that uh they they

11:59

they Embark upon this ship and they damage this ship so something being very damaged okay uh but yet it has a a greater good that will come out of this you see the Israelites the way they had been damaged the way Moses had to lead them out of their kind of Calamity this was to reinforce his mission that can these Israelites actually make it these people who are constantly pestering and annoying the prophet these people that have been damaged for Generations

12:39

now that that even though they've undergone this damage and they're trying to go back to this kingdom of God on Earth they want they're trying to head back to Jerusalem that this will that this has some hidden in it the fact that murders this this child he didn't murder him in real life God would never allow anybody to murder a child that would be absurd because if you're going to say well it was for a greater good then why not murder all the other children right that doesn't make any sense right because if you're going to

13:17

say well God murdered this child because the child was going to grow up and turn them into a cafir well then what about all the other cafir on Earth why didn't God murder their children that what a what an absurd thing that that belief would never you see in Moses in his life he had committed accidentally murder he had murdered a person in a fight so it got into a fight with an uh with one of the Egyptian uh Pharaoh soldiers and he had hit him resulting in his death from which Moses had fled now this thing was always bothering

13:55

Moses that you know I accidentally killed that person and this incident or in the vision where he was to witness that actually that did happen yes but there was a greater good that because of that you fled and because of you fleeing a a a great journey of prophet prophethood and the salvation of the Israelites was began to unfold so this was to to do with Moses witnessing this murder of this child in his

14:33

vision not in reality and as to building this wall and Moses Getting being like kind of frustrated why didn't you charge them this was because Moses was fed up with the behavior of the Israelites to because they were pestering him they even when when he goes to Mount Si comes back they've built a golden Cal what is this about you know

15:02

that Moses comes back and he's angry he threw the kind of tablets that he was so angry that what what on Earth is wrong with you people but Allah was showing in this Vision that look yes these people the village villagers disrespected them they didn't host them well they didn't because Moses you see Moses Moes dies before the Israelites reach Jerusalem they don't actually enter Moses does not enter Jerusalem he dies before the Israelites actually make it across the

15:40

Jordan River and into Jerusalem he never sees the fruits of his whole mission but God shows him in this Vision that yes the wall right now is dilapidated but these orphans will grow up and beneath it is a treasure which will manifest in the great magnificent Kingdom of David and Solomon serving and playing out to be one of the most powerful kingdoms on Earth in its

16:17

time that this was a manifestation so this all of these three incidents related deeply to the life and mission of Moses mes so this is what was he was part of that vision

Paragraphs overlapping 11:22 to 16:40. Full text on the recording page.

Cite this segment

Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2018-12-24-S03, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/drosectl_tq/s/3/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2018, December 24). Why did Khidr kill the boy in Surah al-Kahf? [Video, segment 2018-12-24-S03, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/drosectl_tq/s/3/
Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2018. "Why did Khidr kill the boy in Surah al-Kahf?" Video, segment 2018-12-24-S03, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded December 24, 2018. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/drosectl_tq/s/3/
BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2018-12-24-S03,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{Why did Khidr kill the boy in Surah al-Kahf?}},
  year = {2018},
  month = {12},
  date = {2018-12-24},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/drosectl_tq/s/3/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/drosectl_tq/s/3/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Segment 2018-12-24-S03, auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}
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