al-Mughira b. Sai’d

O Aba Muhammad – how stringent you are in the matter of Hadith and how great is your repudiation of what is narrated by our companions – so what leads you to reject the narrations? He [Yunus] said: Hisham b. al-Hakam narrated to me that he heard Aba Abdillah عليه السلام saying: Do not accept a Hadith on our authority except that which agrees with the Qur’an and the Sunna or you find for it a witness [corroboration] from our past narrations, for al-Mughira b. Said – may Allah curse him – has interpolated into the books of the companions of my father [i.e. al-Baqir عليه السلام] narrations which were not narrated by my father. Therefore fear Allah, and do not accept on our authority that which opposes the words of our Lord the Exalted and the Sunna of our prophet صلى الله عليه و آله …

he heard Aba Abdillah عليه السلام saying: al-Mughira b. Sa’id used to lie purposely about my father and take the books of his [al-Baqir’s] companions – and his [Mughira’s] companions were under cover [indistinguishable] among the companions of my father – they would take the books from the companions of my father and send them to al-Mughira – so he used to interpolate into them Kufr [disbelief] and Zanadiqa [heresy] and attribute it to my father, then he would send them [the books] back to his companions and order them to establish them among the Shia, so whatever is in the books of the companions of my father – of Ghulu [exaggeration of the status of the ‘Aimma] – then that is what was interpolated by al-Mughira b. Sa’id in their books.