Title: Khidr is a Man not an Angel! Question/Comments: First, I would like to express my appreciation to your great efforts and blessed work for Islam and educating Muslims and those who are blessed to visit this blessed site. I have a comment on a question was presented to you about who is Khidr, in the answer Brother Siddiq Bukhary suggested that Khidr was an angel and the reason he gave that Khidr was invisible to people and no one could see or hear him but prophet Moses, I think this is not true because Allah says " Then they (Moses and Khidr) proceeded until when they came to the inhabitants of a town, THEY ( Moses and Khidr) asked them for FOOD, but they refused them hospitality, they (moses and Khidr) found there a wall on the point of falling down, but he (Khidr) set it up straight, (Moses) said if thou hadst wished surely thou coulds have exacted some recompense for it" (The Cave 18.77). Now I think it is clear that Khidr can not be an angel for two reasons mentioned in this holy verse, firstly, the fact that both prophet Moses and khidr asked people for food and that means that people have seen both of them and had heard both of them and thus Khidr can not be an angel and prophet Moses was not the only one who had seen and heard him, secondly, prophet Moses suggested to Khidr that he could have asked for a wage or a recompense for his work, and of course prophet Moses could not have asked an angel he knows that no one can see but him only to go and ask people anything since they can not hear or see him. besides there is a Hadith where prophet Muhammad (PBUH) gave some more details about prophet Moses and Khidr, and the prophet said that the people of the ship RECOGNIZED Khidr and that could mean that they knew him from before. I would like to know your opinion about my comment and May Allah bless you and your great work. Yours in Islam, Ashraf Abdel Monaim United States of America Answer: I agree with you that there is no reason to conjecture about the nature of the wise man, generally known as Khidr , mentioned in the referred incident. If we correctly understand the nature and the purpose of the incident [1] , there would remain no reason to determine the exact nature of Khidr . Khidr may have been an ordinary man appointed by God to carry out certain divine directives and decisions; Khidr may have been an angel, appearing in the shape of an ordinary man, for the said purpose; or alternatively the whole incident may have been a spiritual experience of Moses (pbuh). Whatever the exact nature of Khidr , it is clear from the narration of the Qur'an that the said incident was, in fact, a lesson to Moses (pbuh) and through him, the believers to place their trust and reliance on God's knowledge, mercy, wisdom and justice and never to doubt the correctness of God's decisions even in circumstances of extreme distress and disturbance. I hope this helps. Regards, Moiz Amjad August 22, 2003 [1] For details, please refer to one of our earlier responses titled: " Relating to Moses' Experience in Surah Al-Kahaf ".