15. Muhammad ibn ’Isma‘il has narrated from al-Fadl ibn Shadhan from Safwan ibn Yahya from Mansur ibn Hazim who has the following.

“I asked Imam abu ‘Abdallah , ‘Allah is the Most Holy, the Most High to be recognized through His creatures. In fact, it is the creature who are recognized through Allah.’” The Imam said you have is very true.” I then said, “One who knows that he has a creator he must also know that his creator becomes with certain things and displeased with certain other things. That the only way to know what is pleases the creator and what displeases Him is through divine revelation or a messengers. One who does not receive Divine revelation must find the messenger and when one would find the messengers and upon finding the messenger one would learn that they are the Divine authorities and obedience to them is obligatory. I say it to people, “Do you not acknowledge that obedience to the holy Prophet possessed Divine authority from Allah over His creatures?” They say, “Yes, it is true.” I then say to them, “When the holy Prophet left this world who possessed Divine authority over the people?” The say, “The holy Quran.” I then looked in the holy Quran and I found out that all kinds of people consider this holy as the basis for their beliefs. The group called al-Murji’a consider it as the basis for whatever it believes. Those who believe in predestination also consider this holy Book as the basis for whatever they believe in. Even the atheists who do not even believe in it at all refer to this holy book to defeat the others. This proves that the holy Quran can not be considered a Divine authority without a guardian whose words about the Quran would be the true ones. I then ask them, “Who is the guardian of the Quran?” They reply, “Ibn Mas‘ud knew the Quran. ‘Umar knew the Quran. Hudhayfa knew the Quran.” I then ask them, “Did these people know all of the Quran?” They say, “No, they did not know all of the Quran.” I do not find anyone who would say that he knows all of the Quran. The only one who says that he knows all of the Quran is Ali, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him. If any question would arise in these people, that one would say that he did not know. The other one would say that he did not know and so on except Ali that would say that he did know. That gives enough proof to say that Ali was the guardian of the Quran. Obedience to Ali was obligatory by the command of Allah and he possessed Divine authority over the people after the holy Prophet (s.a.). Whatever Ali said about the holy Quran is true.” The Imam said, “May Allah’s blessings be with you.” I then said, “Imam Ali did not leave this world without introducing the person who possessed Divine authority over the people after him just as the holy Prophet (s.a.) had done. The person who possessed Divvine authority over the people after Imam Ali _ was Imam al-Hassan . I testify that Imam al-Hassan also did not leave this world without introducing the person who would possess Divine authority over the people after him just as his father and grandfather had done. The person who after Imam al-Hassan possessed Divine authority over the people was Imam al-Husayn . Obedience to him was obligatory by the command of Allah.” The Imam said, “May Allah’s blessings be with you.” I then kissed his head and said, “I testify that Imam al-Husayn did not leave this world without introducing the person who would possess Divine authority over the people after him. That person was Imam ali ibn al-Husayn obedience to whom was obligatory by the command of Allah. The Imam said, “May Allah’s blessings be with you.” I then kissed his head and said, “I testify that Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn did not leave this world without introducing the person who would possess divine authority over the people after him. That person was Imam abu Ja‘far, Muhammad ibn Ali , obedience to whom was obligatory by the commad of Allah. The Imam said, “May Allah’s blessings be with you.” I then said, “Please let me kiss your head again.” The Imam smiled. I then said, may Allah grand you success. I know that your holy father did not leave this world without introducing the person who would possess Divine authrity over the people after him just his father had done. I testify that yourself are the person who possess Divine authrity over the people after your holy father and that obedience to you is obligatory by the command of Allah.” The Imam said, “It is true enough, The Imam said, “May Allah’s blessings be with you.” I then asked for his permission to kiss hiis head and the Imam smiled. I kissed his head. The Imam then said, “Ask whatever you want. I, from this day on, will never deny you anything.”