(7) Muhammad bin Yahya narrated from Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Eessa from al-Hasan bin Mahboob from Iss’haq bin Ghalib that Abu Abdullah as-Sadiq had said in one of his speeches when describing the imams: “Allah the Almighty has declared his religion with the guiding imams of the Prophet’s family . He has shone His divine method with them and has uncovered to them the hidden springs of His knowledge. Whoever of Muhammad’s nation knows the right of his imam will taste the sweetness of his faith and find the virtue of the comeliness of his religion. Allah has appointed the imam as a sign to His people and has made him the authority over the believers. Allah has put on the imam’s head the crown of gravity and has shed upon him some of His light. He is the means between the Heaven and people. Nothing of the blessings of Allah is gained except by the means of the imam. Allah does not accept the deeds of His people without regarding (the right of) their imam. The imam is able to answer all the vague problems and is aware of all the ambiguous issues of the Sharia and the confusing questions of religion. Allah has chosen for His people the infallible imams from the descendants of al-Husayn one after the other. He has been pleased with them and He has accepted them for His people. Whenever an imam goes to the better world, Allah appoints another as a guiding imam and a knowing authority to guide the people to the straight path of the truth. The imams are the authorities of Allah, His preachers and guardians, by whom people are guided and nations are refreshed. Allah has made them as the means of life for His people, as the light in darkness and as the pillars of Islam. All that has been determined by the will of Allah. The imams are the preferred choice of Allah, the chosen guides and expected deliverances. Allah has chosen them since the first creation. He has created them as shadows before making them as beings at the right side of His Throne with His care. He has endowed them with wisdom while in the unseen world near Him. He has created them as the pure remainder of Adam, the best of Noah’s progeny, the choice of Abraham’s family, the offspring of Ishmael and the purest progeny of Muhammad . They are still under the care of Allah and they are protected by His angels. They are protected from the evil darkness and the evil of every devil. They are freed from handicaps and diseases. They are infallible before all kinds of obscenities. They are endowed with piety and patience. They are granted with abstinence, knowledge and virtue. An imam is entrusted with the position of his father. He keeps silent during the lifetime of his father. But when the will of Allah determines to bring the father to the better world, the son becomes ready to receive the order of Allah. Allah will entrust the son after the death of the father with His religion and make him the authority over His people and the guardian on His earth. He assists him with His angels, grants him His knowledge, entrusts him with His secret, deputes him to undertake the great task, appoints him as the authority over His people, makes him as a light for the believers of His religion and entrusts him with their affairs. Allah is pleased with him as His guardian over His people. He entrusts him with His knowledge, wisdom and religion. He makes him revive His path, obligations and penalties. In his turn, the imam spreads justice when the ignorant become confused, confutes the arguers with the clear proofs and the bright truth of his truthful fathers . No one ignores this truth save the wretched, no one denies it save the deviate and no one leaves it aside save the opponents of Allah.”