Chapter on narrating books and Hadith (The virtue of writing and its preservation)

15. A number of our people have narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from Muhammad ibn al-Hassan ibn abu Khalid Shaynula who has said the following: “I said to abu Ja‘far al-Thani عليه السلام, ‘May Allah take my soul in your service, our sheikhs have narrated from abu Ja‘far and abu ‘Abdallah عليه السلام, and at that time Taqiyah was severe. So they concealed their books and did not narrate from them. When they died their books came to us.’” He (the Imam) replied, “You may narrate from them because they contain the truth.”