Muhammad b. Salih b. Muhammad al-Hamdani al-Wakil al-Dihqan and his father

1. [1/-] Rijal al-Kashshi: One of the trustworthy narrators in Naysabur reported that a Tawqi [signed rescript] came out addressed to Ishaq b. Ismail from Abi Muhammad عليه السلام saying: O Ishaq b. Ismail, may Allah protect both you and us with His protection … so when you reach Baghdad then read it [this Tawqi] to al-Dihqan, our Wakil [agent], our Thiqa [trustworthy one], and the one who receives from our followers [the dues] …

What was that? I grabbed his beard, took hold of him by his legs and dragged him to the middle of the house and began kicking him quite a number of times. His son came out shouting for help from the people of Baghdad saying: A Qummi Rafidhi has killed my father! A large number of them gathered around me so I got on my horse and said [sarcastically]: Well done O people of Baghdad! You side with the oppressor against an oppressed stranger! I am a man from the people of Hamadan and of the Ahl al-Sunnah, this one is ascribing me to the people of Qum and Rafdh as a pretext to usurp my rights and wealth. He said: they [the crowd] turned against him and wanted to enter his shop until I quietened them down. The man whose bill of exchange it was sought me out and swore at the point of divorce that he will return the wealth to me if I could take them away from him.

I wrote to the Master of the Age عليه السلام: the people of my household disturb and rebuke me using the narration narrated on the authority of your forefathers that they said: ‘Our managers [who oversee the wealth i.e. agents] and servants are the worst creatures of Allah’. He wrote: Woe be upon you! have you not read the words of Allah Mighty and Majestic: “and We placed between them and the cities which We had blessed [many] visible cities” (34:18) – We are by Allah the cities that Allah has blessed and you [i.e. our agents] are the cities that are visible.