Indications of the Imam & Proofs for Cognisance of Him

Aḥmad b. Idrīs, from Ibn ʿĪsā, from Muḥammad b. Sinān, from Abī’l-Jārūd, from Abī Jaʿfar عليه السلام. Abū’l-Jārūd narrated: “I said to him: “May I be made your sacrifice. When your Scholar from among the People of the House dies, what thing is it by which you recognise he who comes after him?” He replied: “By guidance, a grave and lowered demeanour, the affirmation of his excellence by the House of Muḥammad, and that he is not asked about anything between its two sides but that he gives the answer for it.”