Who Was The king who seized ships? Whom al-Khidr outwitted in Islamic History

Before the worldBefore Adam

The first nationsAdam to Shuayb

Egypt and Bani Israilc. 1300–1000 BCE

Bani Israil and Romec. 1000 BCE – 250 CE

Arabia before IslamUp to 570 CE

Enemies of the Prophet ﷺ610–632 CE

After the Prophet ﷺ632–1000 CE

Crusades and conquests1090–1502 CE

The end of timeStill to come

Ten signs before the Hour

Isa ibn Maryam descends
A landslide in the east
A landslide in the west
A landslide in Arabia
The smoke
The sun rises from the west
The Beast of the earth
A fire from Yemen drives people to their gathering

Sahih Muslim lists ten major signs before the Hour without fixing their order. This follows a common order given by the scholars. Sahih Muslim 2901a ↗

Villains of history21 / 76

ملك يأخذ كل سفينة غصبا

The king who seized ships

Whom al-Khidr outwittedTime of Musa

Relied onTaking what was not his

Undone byA hole in a plank

Al-Khidr made a hole in a poor family's boat, and Musa protested. Al-Khidr later explained that a king ahead was seizing every sound ship by force.

How it ended

The damaged boat was passed over, and the poor sailors kept their living.

As for the ship, it belonged to poor people working at sea. So I intended to cause defect in it as there was after them a king who seized every [good] ship by force.
Quran 18:79

The lessonWhat looks like loss can be protection: the boat was saved by its flaw.

In the Quran

18:71 18:79

Stood against: the poor sailors
Source: Named in the QuranThe Quran does not name him. A narration in Sahih al-Bukhari mentions that some called him Hadad ibn Badad; the name is not from the Prophet ﷺ.

Every villain in Islamic history, from Iblis to the Dajjal

Each entry is drawn from the Quran, authentic hadith (with links to sunnah.com), the classical commentators and the historians. Companions who fought Islam and later became Muslim are not included, nor are figures Muslims disagree about.