عامر بن كثير السراج

Abū Ja’far (Imam Bāqir (a.s.)) asked me, “What is the distance between you and the grave of Ḥusain (a.s.)?” I replied, “One day of riding or over one day of walking.” Imam (a.s.) asked, “Do you go to him once every week?” I replied, “No. I only go to him once in a while.” Imam (a.s.) said, “How negligent you people are!!! Verily if it was (this) close to us we would have migrated to live next to him.” The above Ḥadīth has also been narrated to me through the following chain: All of my scholars, from Aḥmad ibn Idrīs, from Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, from Muḥammad ibn Nājiyah, from Muḥammad ibn ‘Ali, from ‘Āmir ibn Kuthayr Al-Nahadi Al-Sarrāj, from Abil Jārūd, from Abī Ja’far (a.s.).

Surely, Allah has obligated you to obey me, He has prohibited you from disobeying me, and He made it mandatory for you to follow my orders. He has obliged you to obey `Ali after me in the same way that He obliged you to obey me, and He has prohibited you from disobeying him in the same way that He prohibited you from disobeying me. He made him my brother, my vizier, my deputy, and my inheritor. He is from me, and I am from him. Loving him is faith and hating him is disbelief. Loving him is loving me and hating him is hating me. He is the master of anyone that I am a master of, and I am the master of every Muslim man and woman. Him and I are the two fathers of this Nation.

Abū Ja’far (Imam Bāqir (a.s.)) said: Verily our Wilāyah was offered to the inhabitants of different lands but no one accepted it as well as the inhabitants of Kūfah did, and this is because the grave of ‘Ali (a.s.) is located in it. Verily there is another grave close to the grave of the Commander of the Believers (a.s.) – referring to the grave of Ḥusain (a.s.) – to which no one comes, and next to which he prays two or four Rak’ah, and asks Allāh for his needs without Allāh granting it. Verily one thousand angels circulate this grave everyday.