Ain Al-Hayat, The Essence of Life.pdf - Higher Intellect | Content ...

also a condition that the Successor (Wasi) and the Imam ( the spiritual and temporal
leader) has to be a Masoom
(immaculate and infallible) individual. Such Imams are the Chosen of Allah.
Saad bin Abdallah Qummi reports that once he had a discussion with a hardcore imposter.
The man said, “ Pity on you Rawafiz (dissenters) that you speak ill of the Prophet (a.s.)’s
companions and blame them that they had no affection for him. To the contrary, Abu
Bakr, because of his eminence being one of the earliest converts to Islam, was better than
all other companions of the Prophet (a.s.). The Prophet (a.s.) used to hold him so close to
his heart that on the eve of the Migration (Hegira) took Abu Bakr along in the cave for
hiding to save him from the sword of the enemy and later on become his successor and
Caliph. Ali (a.s.) was left to sleep in the Prophet (a.s.)'s bed that even if he was
assassinated, it wouldn’t have made any big difference in the matter of succession. Abu
Bakr was the first to adopt Islam. Tell me, was his conversion voluntary or under any
duress?”
Saad thought for a while, “ If I accepted that the conversion was voluntary, then the
person would say that there wouldn’t be any question of nifaq ( hypocrisy ) in the
conduct of Abu Bakr. And if I said that the conversion of Abu Bakr was under duress,
then it would be a wrong statement that Islam had not become such a big force at that
time that one could even imagine any use of coercion. I was totally confused and sought
some time from him to be able to answer his question. Along with some more queries I
went to Sammara to meet Imam Hasan Askari (a.s.). Along with me came Ahmed bin
Ishaq, the Representative (Vakil) of the Imam (a.s.) who carried with him 160 sachets of
Dinarts and Dirhams as a presentation to the Imam from the Shias of our place.. . .
We both went to the presence of the Imam (a.s.) and respectfully greeted him. . The Imam
(a.s.) reciprocated our greetings and asked us to be seated. The place was aglow with the
radiance of the face of the Imam (a.s.). On the lap of the Imam (a.s.) sat a pretty child
whose look would put to shame a hundred moons! In the hands of the child there was a
pomegranate made of gold, with which he was playing.
Ahmed brought out all the sachets from his bag and put in front of the Imam (a.s.). The
Imam (a.s.) put all that money in front of the child and said, ‘Your Shias have sent you all
this as a gift. Count it.’ The child said, ‘ Does the Imam (a.s.) permit me to touch the
tainted and dirty money with my pure hands!’ The Imam (a.s.) told to Ahmed, ‘ Open one
of the sachets and keep the money in front of your Imam (a.s.) in waiting.’ The child
looked at the money once and said, ‘ This is so much money and is from such and such a
person from Qom. Out of the money so much is legitimate (Halal) and the rest is
illegitimate (Haram) Out of the 62 gold sovereigns there are two with faded markings,
they are illegitimate..’ Ahmed counted the coins and found them to be exactly 62 in
number. . He was able to identify the two coins with faded markings. The Imam (a.s.)
looked at his son and said,
‘ O son ! You are absolutely right!’ Then Ahmed opened the other sachets, one after the
other and the child correctly told about the number of coins in each and also about the