Saʿd b. ʿAbd Allāh and ʿAbd Allāh b. Jaʿfar al-Ḥimyarī together, from Abī’l-Ḥasan Ṣāliḥ b. Abī Ḥammād and al-Ḥasan b. Ṭarīf together, from Bakr b. Ṣāliḥ, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Sālim, from Abī Baṣīr, from Abī ʿAbd Allāh عليه السلام, who narrated: “My father
عليه السلام once said to Jābir b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī: “I have a need of you. So, when would it be convenient for you that I seclude myself with you so that I may ask you about it?” Jābir said to him: “Whenever you wish.” So, Abū Jaʿfar
عليه السلام secluded himself with him and said to him: “O’ Jābir, inform me about the Tablet which you saw in the hand of my mother, Fāṭima
عليها السلام, the daughter of the Apostle of Allāh
صلى الله عليه وعلى آله, and what she informed you was inscribed upon that Tablet.” Jābir responded: “I bear witness, by Allāh, that I once entered upon your mother, Fāṭima
عليها السلام, during the lifetime of the Apostle of Allāh
صلى الله عليه وعلى آله to congratulate her upon the birth of al-Ḥusayn
عليه السلام, whereupon I saw in her hand a green Tablet. I supposed that it was made of emerald, and I saw upon it writing, white as sunlight. So, I said to her: “May my father and mother be made your ransom, o’ daughter of the Apostle of Allāh. What is this Tablet?” She said: “This is the Tablet which Allāh
عز وجل gifted to His Apostle
صلى الله عليه وعلى آله. In it are the name of my father, the name of my husband, the names of my two sons and the names of the Legatees from among my offspring. My father gave it to me to bring me comfort because of it.” Jābir said: “Your mother, Fāṭima
عليها السلام, then gave it to me, so I read it and made a transcription of it.” My father
عليه السلام said to him: “Would you, o’ Jābir, show it to me?” He replied: “Yes.” So, my father
عليه السلام walked with him until they reached Jābir’s house, whereupon Jābir brought out for my father a scroll of parchment. My father said: “O’ Jābir, you look at your copy while I read it to you.” So, Jābir looked at his transcription while my father
عليه السلام read it to him—and, by Allāh, not a single letter differed from another. Jābir said: “I bear witness, by Allāh, that this is how I saw it inscribed upon the Tablet:
In the name of Allāh, the Entirely and Innately Merciful. This is a book from Allāh, the supremely Majestic and Wise, to His light, His envoy, His veil and His proof, Muḥammad, which has been brought down by the Trusted Spirit from the Lord of the Worlds. O’ Muḥammad, exalt My names, express gratitude for My blessings and do not persistently deny My bounties. Verily, I am Allāh. There is no god but Me, Breaker of tyrants, Obliterator of the arrogant, Humiliator of oppressors and Reckoner of the Day of Reckoning. Verily, I am Allāh. There is no god but Me. So, whoever hopes for other than My favour or fears other than My justice, I will punish him with a punishment with which I have punished no-one among the worlds. So, worship Me alone, and place your trust in Me. I have never sent forth a Prophet, completed his days and brought his tenure to its conclusion without appointing for him a Legatee. I have favoured you over the Prophets and favoured your Legatee over the Legatees, and I have honoured you after him through your two lionets, your two grandsons, al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn. I have made Ḥasan the repository of My knowledge after the conclusion of his father’s term, and I have made Ḥusayn the custodian of My revelation, honoured him with martyrdom and sealed his life with felicity, for he is the best of those who are martyred and the highest of the martyrs in rank. I have placed My complete Word with him and My consummate Divine authority with him; through his posterity I reward and I punish. The first of them is ʿAlī, chief of the worshippers and ornament of My representatives who have passed on, and his son, the namesake of his praiseworthy forefather, Muḥammad—the one who will cleave open My knowledge and the repository of My wisdom. Those who doubt concerning Jaʿfar will perish; for the one who stands against him stands against Me. It is an utterance in truth from Me that I will surely honour Jaʿfar’s abode and will surely gladden him in regard to his representatives, his partisans and his supporters. And after him I have chosen Mūsā; there will be a blind, pitch-black tribulation, for the thread of My obligation will not be severed, My Divine authority will not be hidden and My representatives will never be wretched. See! Whoever persistently denies one of them has persistently denied My blessing, and whoever alters a verse of My Book has fabricated upon Me. Woe betide the fabricators upon the conclusion of the tenure of Mūsā, My servant, My beloved and My chosen one! See! The one who repudiates the eighth has repudiated all of My representatives. ʿAlī is My representative and supporter, the one upon whom I will place the burdens of prophethood and whom I will test in undertaking them. An arrogant rogue will murder him, and he will be buried in the city built by the righteous servant Dhū’l-Qarnayn, beside the most evil of My creation.[1] It is an utterance in truth from Me that I will surely gladden his eyes with Muḥammad, his son and his caliph after him, for he is the inheritor of My knowledge, the repository of My wisdom, the locus of My secret and My Divine authority over My creation. I have made Paradise his residence and granted him intercession for seventy members of his household, all of whom had deserved the Fire. And I will seal with felicity for his son ʿAlī, My representative and supporter, the witness among My creation and My trustee over My revelation. From him I will bring forth the missionary (inviting people) to My path and the custodian of My knowledge, al-Ḥasan. Then I will bring this to completion through his son, as a mercy to the worlds. Upon him will be the perfection of Mūsā, the splendour of ʿĪsā and the patience of Ayyūb. My representatives will be subjected to debasement during his time, and their heads will be passed around as gifts just as the heads of the Turks and Daylamites are passed around. They will be killed and burned, and will be fearful, terrified and apprehensive. The earth will be dyed with their blood, and lamentation and wailing will become prevalent among their women. Those are My representatives in truth. Through them I will repel every blind, pitch-black tribulation, through them I will dispel earthquakes, and I will remove from them their encumbrances and fetters. ﴾It is they who receive the blessings of their Lord and [His] mercy, and it is they who are the [rightly] guided.
﴿ [2:157].” ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Sālim reported that Abū Baṣīr said: “Had you heard nothing in the course of your lifetime except this tradition, it would have sufficed you. So, keep it with only its people.”