Question 78 - The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 2

Source footnotes

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↑ [143] Abu al-Hasan al-Kadhim (a) said: ‘Ali, my son, is the eldest of my children, the most attentive to my words, and the most obedient to my command. He looks with me into the Book of al-Jafr and al-Jamia, and no one looks into it except a prophet or the vicegerent of a prophet.’ Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 49, p. 20. (Commentator.)

↑ [144] Rufayd, the client of Abu Hubayra, narrated from Abu Abdullah (a), who said to him: ‘O Rufayd, how will you be when you see the companions of the Qa’im pitching their tents in the mosque of Kufa, then the new pattern is brought forth-severe upon the Arabs?’ He said: I said, ‘May I be made your ransom, what is it?’ He said: ‘Slaughter.’ I said, ‘By what will he conduct himself among them? By that with which Ali ibn Abi Talib (a) conducted himself among the people of the Sawad?’ He said: ‘No, O Rufayd. Ali conducted himself according to what is in the White Jafr, which is restraint. He knew that those after him would prevail over his Shia. The Qa’im will conduct himself according to what is in the Red Jafr, which is slaughter. He knows that no one after him will prevail over his Shia.’ Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 25, p. 318. Here Sayyid Ahmed Alhasan said that the White Jafr is precautionary concealment, because were it not for the Imams’ (a) fear for their Shia and for the Muhammadan religion, they would have conducted themselves according to the Red Jafr. But because of the scarcity of supporters and the rule of the wrongdoers, the Imams (a) resorted to precautionary concealment and began spreading the teachings of the religion through hadiths, supplications, visitation texts, and other means of spreading the sciences of the original divine Muhammadan religion. As for Imam al-Mahdi (a), he will conduct himself according to the Red Jafr, which is the killing and eradication of wrongdoers and hypocrites, because he knows that the state of wrongdoing has ended and that no wrongdoer will prevail over his Shia after him. He therefore does not fear that vengeance will be taken upon them because of what Imam al-Mahdi (a) did to the hypocrites. (Commentator.)