(a) Al-Shaykh al-Saduq, 'Uyun Akhbar al-Rida, ed. Mahdi al-Husayni al-Ajwardi (Qumm 1377/1957), II, 203, bab 46, §5. Quoted in al-Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, IV, 271-272.

From Tamim al-Qurashi, from his father, from Ahmad b. 'Ali al-Ansari, that al-Harawi said: I said to al-Rida, peace be upon him:

In the Sawad of al-Kufa there is a group who teach that the Prophet did not experience distractedness (sahw) in his prayer.

R: They have lied; may God damn them! Indeed, the one who is not inattentive is God [alone], save Whom there is no God.

H:O son of the Messenger of God, among them is a group who maintain that al-Husayn b. 'Ali was not killed, and that his resemblance (shibh or shabah) was imposed on Hanzala b. As'ad al-Shami, and that he was raised to heaven, as Jesus, son of Mary was raised. They advance as an argument this verse:

“And God will not grant the disbelievers a way to prevail against the believers” (4:141).

R: They have lied; upon them is God's wrath and His curse; and they have disbelieved due to their denial of the Prophet of God in his report that al-Husayn b. 'Ali will be murdered. By God, al-Husayn was killed, and those who were better than al-Husayn were also killed: the Prince of Believers (Ali) and al-Hasan b. All. There was no one of Us who was not martyred. I [myself], by God, am to be killed by poison, by the slaying of one who shall assassinate me. I know that through a pact entrusted to me from the Messenger of God, and Gabriel informed him of it on behalf of the Lord of the Worlds.

As for the word of God, Mighty and Majestic“And God will not grant the disbelievers a way to prevail against the believers” (4:141). He is saying that God will not grant the kafir a proof (hujja) against the mu'min; and God has related concerning unbelievers who slew the prophets unjustly [c.f. 4:155], and God did not grant [the unbelievers] a way to prevail with a proof against His prophets by their killing of them.

(b) Al-Tabarsi, Al-Ihtijaj, II, 281-83; quoted in al-Majlisi Bihar al-Anwar, IV, 271.

From al-Kulayni, that Ishaq b. Yaqub said: I asked Muhammad b. 'Uthman al-'Amri,1 may God have mercy on him, to expedite the sending of a letter on my behalf in which I had asked [the Imam) about questions that caused problems for me. Then there came the signed undertaking in the handwriting of our Lord, the Master of the End-Time, peace be upon him:2... ‘As for the doctrine of he who claims that al-Husayn did not die [or: was not killed], this is unbelief, and a denial [of received reports], and a straying from the truth.’

(c) Al-Shaykh al-Saduq, 'Ilal al-Shara'i', ed. Muhammad Sadiq Bahr al-'Ulum (Najaf, 1383/1963), I, 241-43, bab 177: 'The reason that God did not make the Prophets and Imams victorious in all their circumstances.’ Quoted in al-Tabarsi, al-Ihtijaj, II, 285-88.

Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. Ishaq al-Taliqani said: I was with the Shaykh Abu Qasim al-Husayn b. Ruh,3 may God sanctify his spirit, with a group that included 'Ali b. 'Isa al-Qasri. A man went up and said to him: I wish to ask you about something.

T: Ask whatever seems proper to you.

Man: Tell me about al-Husayn b. 'Ali, peace be upon him, is he the friend of God?

T: Yes.

Man: And tell me about his murderer, may God curse him, is he the enemy of God?

T: Yes.

Man: Then is it possible that God should give mastery to His enemy over His friend?

T: Understand what I am going to say to you! Know that God, the Exalted, does not address people by means of an eye-witnessing, nor does He instil awe in them by speaking. Rather He, Mighty and Majestic, sent to them Messengers of their own species and kind, men like themselves. If He had sent to them Messenger Prophets not of their kind and their form, they would have shunned them and would not have obeyed them. So, when they came to them and were of their species, eating food and walking in the markets, they said to them: 'You are like us, so we will not obey you until you perform something which we are incapable of performing the like of; then we shall know that you are chosen to the exclusion of us in what we are not capable of.'

Thus God, the Exalted, appointed for them the miracles which creatures are incapable of performing, and among them was he who brought the flood after the admonition and excuses, so all who tyrannized and were overbearing, drowned. And among them was he who was cast into the fire, and it was for him cool and safe.

And he who extracted from barren ground a female camel and made milk flow in her udder. And he for whom the sea split, and springs gushed from the rock, and the dry staff was turned into a snake that gobbled up their [falsehoods]. Among them was he who healed the blind and the leper and gave life to the dead by God's consent, and who informed them of what they were eating and stored away in their homes.

And among them was he for whom the moon was split and to whom the animals such as the camel and the wolf spoke, and others. So, when they performed such works and the people of their communities were incapable of performing similar things, it was part of the pre-ordainment of God, the Exalted, and His kindness towards His worshippers and His wisdom, to make His Prophets with these miracles victorious, in one situation, and in another, vanquished, and in one circumstance conquerors, and in another conquered.

If He, Mighty and Majestic, had appointed them victorious and conquerors in all of their circumstances, and did not try them and test them, the people would have taken them to be divinities beside God the Exalted, and [the people] would not have recognized the excellence of their forbearance and self-possession in the face of misfortune and tribulations and ordeals.

But He, Mighty and Majestic, appointed their circumstances with respect to that like the circumstances of others, in order that they might be forbearing in the condition of ordeal and affliction, and grateful in the condition of well-being and ascendancy over enemies, and to be humble not haughty in all their circumstances, not waxing strong. [God placed them in these circumstances] in order that humanity might know that [the prophets] have a God, and that He is their Creator and Director, so that [people] will worship Him and follow His Messengers.

And God's convincing argument is proven against whomever goes beyond the limit concerning them, who presumptuously claims Lordship (rububiyya) for them, or who obstinately resists and diverges, disobeys and repudiates what the Prophets and the Messengers offer. Let him perish who was destroyed by a clear proof and let him live who was made alive by a clear proof.... [Ibn Ruh adds that his words were not his own but came direct from the hidden Imam.]

• 1. The second of the four agents or representatives of the twelfth or Hidden Imam, who died in Baghdad in 304/917.
• 2. There follows a whole list of pronouncements from the twelfth Imam on diverse questions over which the Shi’a argued.
• 3. Al-Husayn b. Ruh al-Nawbakhti, the third agent of the Hidden Imam, d. 326/937-38.