قالَ أَلَم أَقُل لَكَ إِنَّكَ لَن تَستَطيعَ مَعِيَ صَبرًا

He said: ‘Did I not tell you, indeed you cannot have patience with me?’

EXEGESIS

This verse is the same as 72, but with the addition of laka (to you). This addition lays more emphasis on the rhetorical question and gives it the flavour of rebuke.

EXPOSITION

Khiḍr (a) replied to Moses (a) in the same nonchalant and stoic manner, simply reminding him of what he had predicted from the onset, and offering no other explanation or rebuttal.