Who was the teacher who accompanied Moses?
When we read verses 65-82 of Sura 18 we come across a "blessed" servant of God who walked, talked and passed wisdom to Moses. We are not given his name anywhere in the Quran nor any knowledge of his true Identity. The following are the relevant verses:
SURA 18
65. They found one of our servants, whom we blessed with mercy, and bestowed upon him from our own knowledge.
66. Moses said to him, "Can I follow you, that you may teach me some of the knowledge and the guidance bestowed upon you?"
67. He said, "You cannot stand to be with me.
68. "How can you stand that which you do not comprehend?"
69. He said, "You will find me, God willing, patient. I will not disobey any command you give me."
70. He said, "If you follow me, then you shall not ask me about anything, unless I choose to tell you about it."
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."
72. He said, "Did I not say that you cannot stand to be with me?"
73. He said, "I am sorry. Do not punish me for my forgetfulness; do not be too harsh with me."
74. So they went. When they met a young boy, he killed him. He said, "Why did you kill such an innocent person, who did not kill another person? You have committed something horrendous."
75. He said, "Did I not tell you that you cannot stand to be with me?"
76. He said, "If I ask you about anything else, then do not keep me with you. You have seen enough apologies from me."
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!"
78. He said, "Now we have to part company. But I will explain to you everything you could not stand.
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.
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.
81. "We willed that your Lord substitute in his place another son; one who is better in righteousness and kindness.
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"
The traditional scholars have maintained that the servant of God spoken of in these verses was a man named Khidr, where exactly did they get that name from? Certainly not from the Quran! All sorts of tales have ensued as to who exactly this Khidr may be! But the lack of evidence does not allow us to take any of these tales seriously, they are no more than mere speculation.
In contrast, and when we research the above Quranic verses it becomes certain that this servant of God could not have been a human being, he can only be one of God's angels who was commisioned to undertake specific duties at a specific time.
This understanding is based on the following:
1- First, it is significant to note that nowhere in the above verses are we told that this teacher was human nor are we given a name for him.
God refers to him as "one of our servants" and since this would apply to humans as well as to angels (all are servants of the Almighty), then it is possible that he was an angel and not a human.
2- The servant suddenly appears on the scene, tells Moses very significant words:
"you cannot stand to be with me" 18:67
Now the words: "you cannot stand to be with me" have a very important significance. If the servant was human why would Moses not be able to stand with him? This again indicates that this servant was endowed with abilities and knowledge that were beyond human understanding, or that he is altogether from a different plane of existence and that God only deemed it possible for Moses to communicate with him on a temporary basis and for specific reasons.
3- The servant of God was commissioned by God to terminate the life of a young boy. This act bears great significance once again on the identity of the servant. The servant tells Moses the reason he was commanded to terminate the life of the boy:
"As for the boy, his parents were good believers, and we saw that he was going to burden them with his transgression and disbelief" 18:80
The reason this is very significant is that the life of the boy was terminated before he even committed the sin of burdening his parents with transgression and disbelief!
This means that at that point of the boy's life (before committing the sin) he was still innocent. We know that killing an innocent soul is prohibited in the Quran, and thus if any human were to kill him at the time it would have been murder. And God prohibits humans from killing innocent souls. And thus God would not command any human to commit an act which is prohibited by God Himself. However, God terminates the life of all souls at the time God wishes. In this case this would not be murder. It would simply be a case of terminating the life of a soul in accordance with God's will, and it is the angels who are assigned this role and not humans (6:61, 16:28 and 47:27). Once again, this indicates that the servant of God was indeed an angel and not a human being.
4- The servant of God performs a number of acts that imply knowledge of the future and terminating lives. Indeed tasks not given to human, then is never heard of again throughout the Quran. One would expect this servant (had he been human) to have further mention, impact or association with Moses or the events that follow in the life of Moses, but no further mention of him is given in the Quran.