The Reasons for Differences in Transmitted Narrations & the Requisites for Confusion and Uncertainty

Were I to withhold what I have articulated by way of this interpretation of the report, there would be, in the interpretation placed upon it by one who clings to it for the purpose of refutation, an even more convincing argument and a more decisive rebuttal, because he who transmits this tradition interprets it as meaning that the impossibility of undertaking the Imamate beyond forty years of age is due to the impairment of the intellects. And I seek refuge in Allāh from saying that they—the Ahl al-Bayt صلوات الله عليهم—are in the position of the rest of mankind, or that their intellects are susceptible to corruption at forty years of age and beyond. For the Apostle of Allāh صلى الله عليه وعلى آله is the most excellent role model, and he is the Master of the Prophets and the rightly guided Imams: when he surpassed forty (years of age) he was made a Prophet, and for years after that he made the Mission manifest. As for the matter of Mūsā (al-Kāẓim) عليه السلام, and his statement: “He will not die until he has filled the earth with justice just as it had been filled with iniquity,” he said that at a time of intense pursuit and hardness of hearts, so as to bring the term near and restrain the oppressors. As for the decisive argument against those who professed the cessation of the Imamate with him, I have exhaustively set it forth through authentic reports in the chapter concerning his Imamate. By mentioning this tradition, I intended only to adduce his statement: “Allāh made a disclosure (badāʾ) concerning what I said,” because it was uttered during the days of so-and-so, when pursuit and fear had become intense, such that after this tradition there occurred an Occultation and concealment which have continued to this very age and reached this duration; and Allāh would never make a disclosure concerning the designation of an Imam or his emergence. Nor do I differentiate, after having affirmed that Imamate is one of the five religious ordinances, between one who professes Divine disclosure, in that context, with respect to the number and designation (of Imams), and one who professes Divine disclosure with respect to the ritual prayer, fasting and the remaining four religious ordinances. For the four proceed from the one, which is Imamate: if it were possible for Allāh to abrogate the foundation of the religious ordinances, it would be possible for Him to abrogate their ancillaries. And I seek refuge in Allāh from saying that a Sacred Law has been abrogated or a religious dispensation changed, after Allāh has made Muḥammad صلى الله عليه وعلى آله the Seal of the Prophets, his Sacred Law the seal of all Sacred Laws, and perpetuated adherence to his religion and Sacred Law until the advent of the Hour and the transition therefrom to the Gathering of the Resurrection. As for the time, the established precedent regarding it is concealment, and the Sacred Law regarding it requires refraining from public disclosure. And among that which demonstrates dissimulation and soundly orients one to the fact that the numerous reports were transmitted for some particular reason is his عليه السلام statement: “Allāh made a disclosure concerning Ismāʿīl.” What, then, becomes of the decisive argument concerning Ādam عليه السلام, namely that he preserved their names? And what is to be said concerning Nūḥ عليه السلام, namely that he knew their number? And how can it be maintained that Allāh عز وجل took their covenant from the entire community while He would abrogate their ordinance and make a disclosure concerning their names? And by what evidence can the matter of the Tablet be set aside? Then there are the reports concerning the primordial shadows, and the transmitted traditions stating that Allāh created them before the religious communities. Allāh would never appoint one of His representatives as master over a people and then make a disclosure concerning that after He has already taken upon Himself a great number of them, since it is a truth that He holds none accountable except by means of a decisive argument and punishes none except after the reality has been fully conveyed. Far be it from Allāh that He should appoint among His servants caliphs whose ordinance He would overturn and whose custom He would alter, or that His wisdom, glory be to Him, should be such that He would nominate a man for the safeguarding of the body of the Muslims, only for him to become as one who is removed therefrom before the expiration of his appointed term and the completion of his allotted duration; or that He should place him in a position in which his intellect would become susceptible to corruption upon his reaching the utmost extent of life and the furthest reaches of age. Allāh transcends that with a great transcendence.