Indications of the Imam & Proofs for Cognisance of Him

Muḥammad al-ʿAṭṭār, from al-Ashʿarī, from al-Khashshāb, from Yazīd b. Isḥāq Shaʿr, from al-Ghanawī, from ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, who narrated: “I said to Abī ʿAbd Allāh عليه السلام: “What is the proof against the one who makes a claim on this Ordinance without any right (to it)?” He said: “There are three proofs that do not convene upon a man unless he is the Master of this Ordinance: that he is the most worthy, among people, of he who preceded him, that he has with him the weapon of the Apostle of Allāh صلى الله عليه وعلى آله, and that he is the one in charge of the apparent testament, the one who, when you proceed to Medina and ask the general masses and their young ones: “To whom did so-and-so bequeath?,” they reply: “To so-and-so.”