Part 16

75 He said: Did I not say to thee that thou couldst not have patience with me?

76 He said: If I ask thee about anything after this, keep not company with me. Thou wilt then indeed have found an excuse in my case.

77 So they went on, until, when they came to the people of a town, they asked its people for food, but they refused to entertain them as guests. Then they found in it a wall which was on the point of falling, so he put it into a right state. (Moses) said: If thou hadst wished, thou couldst have taken a recompense for it.

78 He said: This is the parting between me and thee. Now I will inform thee of the significance of that with which thou couldst not have patience.

79 As for the boat, it belonged to poor people working on the river, and I intended to damage it, for there was behind them a king who seized every boat by force.

80 And as for the boy, his parents were believers and we feared lest he should involve them in wrongdoing and disbelief.

81 So we intended that their Lord might give them in his place one better in purity and nearer to mercy.

82 And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city, and there was beneath it a treasure belonging to them, and their father had been a righteous man. So thy Lord intended that they should attain their maturity and take out their treasure — a mercy from thy Lord — and I did not do it of my own accord. This is the significance of that with which thou couldst not have patience.

83 And they ask thee about Dhu-l-qarnain. Say: I will recite to you an account of him.

84 Truly We established him in the land and granted him means of access to everything;

85 So he followed a course.

86 Until, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it going down into a black sea, and found by it a people. We said: