8. My father said: Sa`d ibn `Abd Allah said, on the authority of Ahmad ibn Muhammad, on the authority of his father, on the authority of `Abd Allah ibn al-Mughirah, on the authority of Ibn Muskan, on the authority of Zurarah that

I said to Abu Ja`far al-Baqir : May Allah be in peace with you! Explain to me the Word of Allah, the Mighty and High, in His Book: “The nature made by Allah is which He has made men.” He responded, “He created them with a natural predisposition towards Divine Unity at the time of the Covenant when they recognized that He was their Lord.” I asked, “Did they reply to Him?” Zurarah says, he then put his head down, and after a while he said: “Had it not been so, then they would have not known their Lord or the One who sustains them.”