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Abū al-Adyān has narrated the following: I was one of the individuals who worked for Imam ‘Askarī (‘a) and I would deliver his letters to various cities. During the time that he was sick with the illness that he later died from, I went to visit him. The Imam (‘a) wrote some letters and said: Take these to Madā’in and you will be gone from SāmarrāÞ for fifteen days; on the fifteenth day when you enter the city again, you will hear the sounds of crying and wailing coming from my house and they will have placed my body in the place where they give the ritual bath (for the dead).
I said to him: Oh my master, when this happens, who will be the Imam after you? He said: The one who prays over me is the leader after me. I asked him: Please give me another sign. He said: Whoever gives news of what is in the purse (a type of bag), he is the imam after me. The greatness and awe of the Imam prevented me from asking what he meant by the purse.
I went and delivered the Imam’s (‘a) letters to MadāÞin, collected their responses, and on the fifteenth day, I entered into SāmarrāÞ. I saw that the situation was exactly as the Imam (‘a) had described and the sounds of mourning were coming out of his home. I also saw Ja‘far sitting next to the home and a group of the Shias were giving him their condolences and congratulating him on his imamate. I became disturbed and said to myself: If Ja‘far is the imam, then the imamate has truly changed, for I had seen him drinking wine and gambling with my own eyes and he was also known to play musical instruments. I also went towards him and offered my condolences on his brother’s passing and I congratulated him on his imamate, yet he didn’t ask me any questions.
At this time, ‘Aqīd, the servant of the Imam (‘a) came out side and told Ja‘far: They have shrouded the body of your brother; come and pray (over him). Ja‘far entered the home while the Shias were gathered around him. Sammān[1] and Ḥasan ibn ‘Alī (known as Salmah) were also with them. When i entered the courtyard of the home, I saw that they had shrouded the body of Imam ‘Askarī (‘a) and they had placed it on a bier. Ja‘far went forward to pray over the Imam (‘a), yet before he could initiate the prayer, a child who was wheat complexioned, black haired, and whose front teeth were slightly set apart, came out and took hold of Ja‘far’s clothing. He pulled him away and said: Uncle, step aside, for I must pray over my father. Ja‘far looked upset but he moved aside. The child went forward and prayed over the body of the Imam (‘a) and he buried him in his home, next to the grave of his father, Imam Hādī (‘a).
The child then faced me and said: Oh man from Baṣrah, give me the responses to the letters that you have with you. I gave him the letters and I said to myself: Here are two of the signs (praying over the body and requesting the answer to the letters); now there only the issue of the money bag that remains. I then went towards Ja‘far and I saw that he was in an agitated state and making a commotion. Ḥājiz WashāÞ said to Ja‘far: Who was that child? He wished to censure Ja‘far for his false claim to the imamate through the use of this question. Ja‘far said: By God, I have not seen him until now and I don’t know who he is!
We continued to sit there until a group from the people of Qum arrived and they asked in regards to Imam ‘Askarī (‘a). When they found out that he had passed away, they said: Who is his successor? The people present motioned towards Ja‘far. The group from Qum went to Ja‘far, greeted him, and offered their condolences. They then said that they had brought with them some letters and some money that they wished to give to him. They then asked him to tell them who had written the letters and how much the money was? Ja‘far became upset at this question and he stood up; while he was brushing the dust off of his clothing, he said: These people expect that we have knowledge of the unseen!
At this point, a servant came out of the house and said: The letters are from the following people (and he mentioned the exact names) and the purse contains 1,000 dīnārs, of which ten of them are gold plated. The representatives from Qum gave the servant the letters and the money and said to him: Whoever has sent you to collect the purse, he is the Imam (‘a)…[2][3]
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