Chezer – the Green Prophet Cover Image

Chezr – Zielony Prorok
Chezer – the Green Prophet

Author(s): Elżbieta Wnuk-Lisowska
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: Green Prophet; immortality; Sura 18; the cave; fountain of life; fish; water; Sufi; initiator

Summary/Abstract: Khadir, or Khwaja Khadir (Khizr, Khezr, Arabic: “green”, “greenish”), Green Prophet (green symbolising “freshness” and new life) is a popular and familiar fi gure across Arabic countries, Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, India and the Far East. The complex and mysterious fi gure of Khezr is connected with Idris, Elijah, Enoch, Saint George, and Skanda, and is associated with the water, cave, and immortality (he lives on an island or upon a green carpet in the heart of the sea, or else in the far northern country called Yuh, which seems to be an earthly paradise). Khezr is reputedly the only soul who has gained life immortal from tasting the Fountain of Life. He is still alive and continues to guide those who invoke his name. In popular Islamic lore Green Prophet is also the mysterious guide, an angel, the immortal saint and the hidden initiator of those who walk the mystical path. He appears in Sura 18, 66 (Al Kalf, “The Cave”) where together with Moses he goes on a long journey to a point where two rivers met. But his wisdom surpasses that of Moses, and has rather a tinge of gnosis, the character of divine wisdom imparted by God to the Prophet Muhammad and the Prophet Khidr.

  • Issue Year: 45/2012
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 301-310
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Polish
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