Surah Al-Kahf · سُوْرَةُ الْكَهْفِ · Juz 16
Q 18:79
أَمَّا ٱلسَّفِينَةُ فَكَانَتْ لِمَسَـٰكِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ فِى ٱلْبَحْرِ فَأَرَدتُّ أَنْ أَعِيبَهَا وَكَانَ وَرَآءَهُم مَّلِكٌ يَأْخُذُ كُلَّ سَفِينَةٍ غَصْبًا
Translations
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.Pour ce qui est du bateau, il appartenait à des pauvres gens qui travaillaient en mer. Je voulais donc le rendre défectueux, car il y avait derrière eux un roi qui saisissait de force tout bateau.Tafsir
As for the ship which you criticised me for breaking, it belonged to some weak people who worked on the sea and who were unable to protect it. So I wanted to make it defective by what I did to it, so that it would not be taken by a king who was ahead of them and who would forcefully take possession of every good ship from its owners but leave every defective ship.
Read Ibn Kathir (Ibn Kathir (abridged, English))
"As for the boat, it belonged to poor people working in the sea. So I wished to make a defective damage in it, as there was a king behind them who seized every boat by force. (79)
Interpretations of why the Ship was damaged
This is an explanation of what Musa found so hard to understand, and the appearence of which he condemed. Allah showed Al-Khidr the hidden reasons, so he said, "I damaged the ship to make it faulty, because they used to pass by a king who was one of the oppressors, who
يَأْخُذُ كُلَّ سَفِينَةٍ
(seized every boat), i.e., every good, sound boat
غَصْبًا
(by force.) 'So I wanted to prevent him from taking this boat by making it appear faulty, so that its poor owners who had nothing else could benefit from it.' It was also said that they were orphans.
Arabic text: Tanzil (Uthmani). Translations: Sahih International (en), Muhammad Hamidullah (fr). tanzil.net