حمدويه بن نصير بن شاهي

I said to Abi Abdillah عليه السلام: It may happen that we require to ask about something - so whom should we ask? He said: upon you is al-Asadi - meaning by it - Aba Basir.

The Righteous Servant [al-Kadhim] عليه السلام said: O Yunus - be more lenient towards them for your words are hard-hitting on them. I said: but they call me Zindiq! He said to me: What will it harm you if you have in your hands a pearl but the people say to you ‘it is a stone’, and what will it benefit you if you have in your hand a stone but the people say ‘it is a pearl’.

I heard Aba Abdillah عليه السلام saying: Ali b. al-Husayn عليهما السلام used to say: I dislike it for a man to be given good-health all his life in the Dunya and remain untouched by trials. Then he mentioned that Aba Sai’d al-Khudri was upright [on the true path]. He [Abu Sai’d] fell ill for three whole days so his family bathed him and carried him to his prayer-niche wherein he died.

I said to Abi Abdillah عليه السلام: I do sit in the Masjid – and the people come and ask me questions, so if I do not answer them they do not accept from me (i.e. they insist on answers), and I dislike answering them based on your verdicts and according to what has come from you (i.e. since they are not Shia), so he عليه السلام said to me: look at what you know is from their own verdicts and inform them about that (i.e. answer them using their own sources and scholars).

I entered upon Abi Ja’far (i.e. al-Jawad) عليه السلام and with me were letters to him from his father, he began reading them and placing the bigger letters upon his eyes and saying: ‘the handwriting of my father – by Allah’ and crying until his tears reached his cheeks, so I said to him: may I be made your ransom, your father would sometimes say to me, in a single seating, numerous times: ‘may Allah lodge you in Jannah – may Allah make you enter Jannah’, he (Ibrahim) said: so he said: and I also say: ‘may Allah make you enter Jannah’. Then I said: may I be made your ransom, do you guarantee for me from your lord that you will make me enter the Jannah? he said: yes, he (Ibrahim) said: so I took his legs and kissed them.

Abu Abdillah عليه السلام said to me: do you know Mubashir or Bashir – [mistaking the name] – the barley seller? I said: Bashshar? he said: Bashshar! I said: yes I do, he is a neighbor of mine, he (al-Sadiq) said: the Jews said (what they said) but they (still) monothized Allah, and the Christians said (what they said) but they (still) monothized Allah, but Bashshar has said (i.e. professed) a mighty thing! if you reach Kufa go to him and say to him: Ja’far says to you – ‘O Kafir, O Fasiq, O Mushriq, I am disassociated from you’, Murazim said: so when I reached Kufa and had put down my provisions (of the journey) – I came to his place and called the maid servant and said: say to Abi Ismail (Bashshar) that this is Murazim (at the door), so he came out to me, I said to him: Ja’far b. Muhammad says to you – ‘O Kafir, O Fasiq, O Mushriq, I am disassociated from you’, so he (Bashshar) said to me: and has my master mentioned (i.e. remembered) me? he (Murazim) said: I said: yes – he has mentioned you with what I have just said to you! so he said: may Allah reward you with good, and may he do (so and so) for you, and he began supplicating for me!

our companions differed about accepting the narrations of Jabir al-Ju`fi, I said to them: I will ask Aba Abdillah عليه السلام, so when I entered upon him, he عليه السلام began saying [without me asking]: may Allah have mercy on Jabir al-Ju`fi – he used, to tell the truth about us, may Allah curse al-Mughira bin Sa`id, he used to lie about us.

Abu al-Abbas Fadhl al-Baqbaq sought permission for Hariz to enter upon [meet] Abi Abdillah عليه السلام but he was refused, he repeated the request a second time and was not given permission, so he [Fadhl] said: what should the punishment of a man to his slave [who has done wrong] be? He [the Imam] said: in proportion to his crime, he said: you have – by Allah – punished Hariz greater than what he did, he said: woe be upon you! am I the one who did that? Hariz unsheathed the sword [took up arms]! Then he said: if it were Hudhayfa b. Mansur he would not have persisted in the request after I had already said no [once].

I met al-Hasan b. al-Hasan – he said: do we not have a right? do we not have a sanctity? if you were to select from among us [the Ahlulbayt as a whole] a single man he would have been sufficient for you [as an Imam]! I (Sulayman) did not have an answer for him, so I met Aba Abdillah عليه السلام and informed him of his words to me, he [the Imam] said to me: meet him and say to him – we came to you and said: do you have what the rest of the people do not have [do you have anything exclusive over the rest]? so you said: no, we considered you truthful [in your answer] and you became deserving of that [i.e. of nothing], then we came to the sons of your uncle [the descendants of al-Husayn] and said: do you have what the rest of the people do not have? so they said: yes, we considered them truthful and they became deserving of that [the Imama], he (Sulayman) said: so I met him and said to him what he (al-Sadiq) had said to me [to say to him], al-Hasan said to me: but we do have what the people do not have, I did not have anything [to reply to him], so I came to Abi Abdillah عليه السلام and reported to him [what had happened] – he said: meet him and say: Allah – the Mighty and Majestic – says in his book: “provide me with a book (scripture) before this one – or traces of knowledge – if you be truthful” (46:4), so sit down for us [become accessible to us] so that we can ask you [all the questions we have], he (Sulayman) said: I met him and argued against him using that – so he said to me: do you not have anything [to do] other than to humiliate us?!, if so and so [meaning Ja`far] chose to be free [unoccupied by Jihad – and devoted to scholarship] while we are engaged [in revolt – and therefore inept at scholarship] – then that is what takes away our right!

I sought permission for myself and al-Husayn b. Qayama to meet al-Ridha عليه السلام in Surya, he granted it and said: finish all your needs [ask all your questions]. al-Husayn (b. Qayama) said to him: is the earth ever devoid of an Imam? He عليه السلام said: no, he (al-Husayn) said: does it ever happen that there are two Imams (together)? He عليه السلام said: no, except if one is silent and not talking, he (al-Husayn) said: I have come to know that you are not an Imam! He عليه السلام said: and how did you come to know that? he (al-Husayn) said: you do not have a son and it [Imama] is through posterity [lineal descendants], so he عليه السلام said: by Allah, the days and the nights will not pass except a son will be born to me from my loins who will assume the position I have, he will enliven the truth and efface the falsehood.

I entered upon Abi al-Hasan the First عليه السلام and said to him – may I be made your ransom, supplicate to Allah for me that he grants me a house, a wife, a son, a servant, and the ability to perform Hajj every year. He عليه السلام said: O Allah bless Muhammad and the family of Muhammad and grant him a house, a wife, a son, a servant, and the ability to perform Hajj for fifty years. Hammad said: so when he limited it to fifty years I knew that I will not perform the Hajj exceeding fifty. Hammad also said: I have gone to Hajj for forty eight years, and this is my house which I have been granted, and this is my wife behind the veil hearing my voice, and this is my son, and this is my servant, I have been granted all that …

I said to Abi Ja`far عليه السلام: I have made an oath to Allah that I will not depart from Madina until you inform me the answer to what I ask. He said to me: ask. I said: am I of your Shia? He said: yes, in this world and the next.

I entered upon Abi Abdillah عليه السلام so he said to me: if you had come in a little earlier you would have met Hayyan al-Sarraj, he (Burayd) said: and he (al-Sadiq) pointed out a place in the room and said – he (Hayyan) was sat there, then he (Hayyan) brought up Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya and talked about his life (continued existence), and he began praising him and extolling him. So I (al-Sadiq) said to him: O Hayyan! don’t you and others claim and narrate: ‘there is nothing that happened to the Bani Israil except that it is also to occur in this Umma’, he (Hayyan) replied: yes, so I (al-Sadiq) said: then have we or you seen or heard – a Scholar (divine leader) – who died in the estimation of the people (as far as the people were concerned), and his wives were married off, and his inheritance was redistributed, while he was still alive not dead?!, so he (Hayyan) stood up (to leave) and did not answer me anything.

I sent to my master [al-Jawad] eight Dirhams (silver coins) and wrote to him: I have sent your way eight Dirhams which had been gifted to me from Tarsus being silver coins from them [non-Muslims in the Roman empire]. I did not want to refuse to accept them or to do anything with them without your instruction. Do you allow me to accept its like [in the future] or not. [I ask] so that I can know what to do – if Allah wills – and to make sure I obey your order? So he wrote [and I the narrator read it]: accept any amount from them if it is gifted to you whether it be monetary or otherwise, for the messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم never refused a gift whether it be from a Jew or a Christian. He [Khayran] said: I also said: may I be made your ransom … he said: decide on it based on your own discretion, for your decision is my decision, and whoever obeys you has obeyed me.

I said to Abi Abdillah عليه السلام: I was praying the Maghrib in the mosque of the messenger of the Allah صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم [in Madina] when a man behind me said: “What is [the matter] with you [that you are] two groups concerning the hypocrites, while Allah has cast them back (to disbelief) because of what they have earned. Do you want to guide him whom Allah has made to go astray?” (4:88), I realized that he said this with me in mind, so I turned towards him and said: “and certainly the devils do inspire their allies to dispute with you, and if you obey them in doing so then you would indeed be of the polytheists” (6:121), then I recognized that it was Harun bin Sa`d, he (Dawud) said: so Abu Abdillah عليه السلام laughed when he heard this and said: you pre-empted him with the most fitting reply even before engaging in a debate with him – by the permission of Allah. I said: may I be made your ransom, truly by Allah – he did not utter a single word in reply [he was flummoxed], so Abu Abdillah عليه السلام said: no one is more ignorant than them (the Zaydiyya), among the Murjia there exist jurists and scholars, and among the Khawarij there exist jurists and scholars, but no one is more ignorant than these.

I heard Aba Abdillah عليه السلام say: give glad tidings of paradise to the humble: Burayd b. Muawiya al-Ijli, Abu Basir Layth b. al-Bukhtari al-Muradi, Muhammad b. Muslim and Zurara. Four possessors of nobility and the trustees of Allah upon his Halal and Haram, if it wasn’t for them the traces of prophethood would have perished and been destroyed.

a man entrusted me with a written question to ask Aba Abdillah عليه السلام [which was]: what the Jews, Christians, Magians and those who polythesize profess – is that what Allah willed them to believe [or was it of their own volition]? He said: this is a question that behooves the family of A`yan, it does not belong to my religion or the religion of my forefathers. I said: I do not have any other question apart from this.

I entered to meet Abi Abdillah عليه السلام and found Zurara exiting the place. Abu Abdillah عليه السلام said to me: O Walid, don’t you wonder at Zurara? he asks me about [the permissibility of] working for them [the usurping rulers], what did he want? did he want me to say: no [it is not acceptable] so that he can narrate this on my authority? then he reiterated again: O Walid, when did the Shia ever ask about working for them? Rather the Shia used to ask about the permissibility of eating their food, and drinking their drinks, and shading themselves in their shade [living with them], when did the Shia ever ask about that [which Zurara asks]!

Abu Abdillah عليه السلام said to Abd al-Malik b. A`yan: how did you come to name your son Dhurays? he said: how did your father come to name you Ja’far? he said: Ja`far is a river in paradise while Dhurays is a name of a devil!

Abu Abdillah, peace be upon him, said: The one who knows the dispute, he is not a weakened individual.