Stories of Prophets: Moses & Khidr - Shady Al-Suleiman

Who is Shady Al-Suleiman?
Shady Alsuleiman (born 1978 in Sydney, Australia) is the president of the Australian National Imams Council. He initially obtained an Ijazah (licence) with Sanad in complete and sound memorization of the Quran at Darul Uloom Al-Husainiah in Sindh, Pakistan. Alsuleiman arrived back to Sydney in early 2001, where he began to be heavily active and involved with the Muslim youth and the second Muslim generation in Australia. He is the founder of one of Australia's largest youth centres known as the UMA in Sydney, and also the founder of Sydney Islamic College that delivers Islamic studies to adults. Alsuleiman operates from various mosques in Australia, and travels to numerous interstate and overseas countries in which he delivers lectures and participates in many different Islamic conferences and events around the world.

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What is a Prophet?
In religion, a prophet is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on that entity's behalf. They claim to be serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the supernatural source to other people. The message that the prophet conveys is called a prophecy. In Islam, all prophetic messengers are prophets (such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad) though not all prophets are prophetic messengers. The primary distinction is that a prophet is required to demonstrate God's law through his actions, character, and behavior without necessarily calling people to follow him, while a prophetic messenger is required to pronounce God's law (i.e. revelation) and call his people to submit and follow him.

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Who was Khidr?
Khidr is a quaranic figure of Islam. He is described in Surah Al-Kahf, as a righteous servant of God possessing great wisdom or mystic knowledge. In various Islamic and non-Islamic traditions, Khidr is described as an angel, prophet, or wali who guards the sea, teaches secret knowledge and aids those in distress. He prominently figures as patron of the Islamic saint ibn Arabi. The figure of al-Khidr has been syncretized over time with various other figures including Duraosa and Sorush in Iran, Sargis the General and Saint George in Asia Minor and the Levant, Elijah and Samael (the divine prosecutor) in Judaism, Elijah among the Druze, John the Baptist in Armenia, and Jhulelal in Sindh and Punjab in South Asia. Though not mentioned by name in the Quran, he is named by Islamic scholars as the figure described in Quran 18:65-82 as a servant of God who has been given 'knowledge' and who is accompanied and questioned by the prophet Musa (Moses) about the many seemingly unfair or inappropriate actions he (Al-Khidr) takes (damaging a ship, killing a young man, repaying inhospitality by repairing a wall). At the end of the story Khidr explains the circumstances unknown to Moses that made each of the actions fair and appropriate.

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