Transliteration:( Fantalaqaa hattaaa izaaa atayaaa ahla qaryatinis tat'amaaa ahlahaa fa abaw any yudaiyifoohumaa fawajadaa feehaa jidaarany yureedu any yanqadda fa aqaamah; qaala law shi'ta lattakhazta 'alaihi ajraa )
171.That place was called Intakia, which at that time was a large city. From this we learn that in Arabic language even cities, too, are referred to as QARYA. Furthermore, hospitality is not dependent on knowing the guest. Whoever comes to meet us is our guest and as such he has certain rights and privileges.
172. This refers to the rights of a guest, and not that question which is against the status of Prophets. It is for this reason that "refused to entertain them" is used here. From this we learn that a guest can demand his rights of hospitality
173. Tafseer Roohul Bayaan on the authority of Tafseer Kabir states on revelation of this verse that the people of Intakia brought a large amount of gold before the Holy Prophet and requested that the Holy Prophet should change the letter BA of ABWA to letter TA so that the meaning would then become the people of Intakia had carried out their hospitality and thus we would not be put to disrepute and become an object of disgrace. This request was turned down by the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم saying that it would result in distortion of Allah Almighty's words i.e. the Holy QUR'AAN.
174.That wall was hundred feet high, which Hazrat Khizr (On whom be peace) miraculously straightened just by pointing his hand towards it, as this wall had bent and was on the verge of falling. Therefore, Allah Almighty used the singular verb "He set it up". If both of them had repaired it through the use of bricks, then the dual form of the verb AQAMA would have been used.
175.Because one should not show kindness to those who are ungrateful. As we are hungry, money obtained for our would have been useful to us.
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77. Then they both proceeded till when they came to the people of a town, they asked them for food, but they refused to entertain them. Then they found therein a wall about to collapse and he set it up straight. (Musa) said: “If you had wished, surely you could have taken wages for it!†78. He said: “This is the parting between you and I, I will tell you the interpretation of (those) things over which you were not able to be patient.â€
(they both proceeded) after the first two instances,
(till when they came to the people of a town,) Ibn Jarir narrated from Ibn Sirin that this was Al-Aylah. According to the Hadith;
(When they came there, the people of the town were mean.) i.e., miserly
(they asked them for food, but they refused to entertain them. Then they found therein a wall about to collapse and he (Khidr) set it up straight.) means, he fixed it so it was standing upright properly. We have already seen in the Hadith quoted above that he set it up with his own hands, supporting it until it was standing straight again, which is something extraordinary. At this point Musa said to him:
(If you had wished, surely you could have taken wages for it!) meaning, because they did not entertain us as guests, you should not have worked for them for free.
(He said: “This is the parting between you and I) meaning, because you said after the boy was killed that if you asked me anything after that, you would not accompany me any further. So this is the parting of the ways between me and you.
(I will tell you the interpretation) meaning explanation,
(of (those) things over which you were not able to be patient.)
There is no commentary by Abul Maududi available for this verse.
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