4. A number of our people have narrated from Sahl ibn Ziyad and Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad all from Ali ibn Mahziyar who has narrated the following:

“Once Muhammad ibn Hamzah al-‘Alawiy wrote to abu Ja‘far, al-Thaniy , and asked, ‘One of your Mawla made a will to me about a hundred dirham and I heard him say, ‘Everything that belongs to me is for my Mawla.’ He died and left it but did not instruct to give anything from it. He has two women of whom one is in Baghdad whose address I do not know at this time and the other is in Qum; so what do you command me about the one hundred dirham?’ He (the Imam) wrote to him saying, ‘Find out how you can give from these dirham to the two wives of the man. Their rights in it is one-eighth if he has left any children but if he has not left any children, then it is one-fourth; and give the rest as charity to whomever you know is needy and deserving of charity, by the will of Allah.’”