‘And I did not do any of this of my own accord. That is the real meaning of all those events that you were unable to bear with patience.’
If the test is a challenge to keep silence, and if silence is the only positive outcome, then Moses fails miserably, and Khidr is under no obligation to explain his actions.
But if Moses is being tested on his attainment to the status of a highly evolved human being – rational, articulate, compassionate, and strongly motivated to manifest that compassion in the material world as best he can within the compass of his understanding – then Moses has passed the test.
And if that is indeed the test, then Moses has won the prize – Khidr’s explanation. Khidr could very easily have turned his back and walked away, offering no explanation, unwilling to tolerate Moses’ impatience, his outrage, his confusion, and his willingness to express his convictions and his feelings. However, Khidr goes on to impart "something of the consciousness of what is right" that Allah has imparted to him – something of it, not all of it, and only in retrospect. But that is much more than what Moses starts out with. At the end of the story, Moses has been granted a threefold glimpse of the will of Allah manifested in the most horrible and bewildering of circumstances. In retrospect, indeed – but he didn’t have to die first!
So Moses goes his own way, and Khidr his – perhaps they’ll meet again, perhaps not. It’s not a punishment, but a fact of life. Perhaps Moses’ servant will catch another fish that will lead them again to the junction of the two seas – but in order to fulfill its purpose, that fish must be elusive, and there is no guarantee that the next encounter with Khidr will be any longer or less bewildering than the last.
The servant of Moses is a signifier of the physical body; Moses himself the embodiment of reason, conscience, and the drive to seek understanding of our purpose in the world. Khidr carries the light of intuition, the channeled essence of inflowing divine grace, unceasing benevolence, and the overarching knowledge that gives light to our human experience. That light flows through Khidr in retrospect, in a fleeting encounter with Moses, and, inshallah, in fleeting encounters with the rest of humanity in our own prayers, intuitions and dreams.
