5. Ali ibn Muhammad has narrated from Sahl ibn Ziyad from Ja‘far ibn Muhammad ibn Hamzah who said: “I wrote to the man (the Imam) saying: "Some of your followers have disagreed about the nature of knowledge. Some of them say that Allah has always been knowing before the creation of things, while others say that we should not say that Allah has always been knowing because "knows" implies "acts," and if we affirm knowledge, we are asserting the existence of something alongside Him in eternity. If you see fit, may Allah make me your ransom, please teach me something on this matter that I can firmly hold onto and not deviate from. He wrote in his own hand, "Allah has always been knowing. Blessed and exalted be His mention." (Allamah Al-Majlisi said: The response from Imam was that He has always known, without addressing the fallacies in the argument against it, as they are too obvious to need elaboration.)