He answered, “Did I not tell you that you cannot have patience with me?”
18:75
Moses replied, “If I ever question you about anything after this, then do not keep me in your company, for by then I would have given you enough of an excuse.”
18:76
So they moved on until they came to the people of a town. They asked them for food, but the people refused to give them hospitality. There they found a wall ready to collapse, so the man set it right. Moses protested, “If you wanted, you could have demanded a fee for this.”
18:77
He replied, “This is the parting of our ways. I will explain to you what you could not bear patiently.
18:78
“As for the ship, it belonged to some poor people, working at sea. So I intended to damage it, for there was a ˹tyrant˺ king ahead of them who seizes every ˹good˺ ship by force.
18:79
“And as for the boy, his parents were ˹true˺ believers, and we1 feared that he would pressure them into defiance and disbelief.
18:80
So we hoped that their Lord would give them another, more virtuous and caring in his place.
18:81
“And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city, and under the wall was a treasure that belonged to them, and their father had been a righteous man. So your Lord willed that these children should come of age and retrieve their treasure, as a mercy from your Lord. I did not do it ˹all˺ on my own. This is the explanation of what you could not bear patiently.”1
18:82
They ask you ˹O Prophet˺ about Ⱬul-Qarnain. Say, “I will relate to you something of his narrative.”1
18:83