Hadith 174

(The book) ‘Al Kafi’ – Ahmad Bin Mihran and Ali Bin Ibrahim, altogether from Muhammad Bin Ali, from Al-Hassan Bin Rashid, from Yaqoub Bin Ja’far Bin Ibrahim who said, ‘I was in the presence of Abu Al-Hassan Musa-asws when a Christian man came over to him-asws, and we were with him-asws at Al-Urayz. The Christian said to him-asws, ‘I come to you-asws from a distant city and a grievous journey, and I had asked my Lord-azwj thirty years ago that He-azwj should Guide me to the best of the Religion, and to the best of the servants, and the most knowledgeable of them. And a comer came to be during the sleep, and he described a man to me in the upper part of Damascus. So I went until I came over to him and spoke to him. He said, ‘(No doubt) I know more than the most people of my religion, but there is another who is more knowledgeable than me’. I said, ‘Guide me to the one who is more knowledgeable than you, for there neither is the journey too difficult nor too distant upon me, and I have recited the Evangel, all of it, and the Psalms of Dawood-as, and I have read the four Books from the Torah, and I have read the apparent Quran to the extent that I have absorbed all of it’. The scholar said to me, ‘If you are intending the knowledge of Christianity, so I am the most knowledgeable of the Arabs and non-Arabs with it, and if you were intending the knowledge of the Jews, so Baty Bin Shurjeel Al-Samiry is the most knowledgeable of the people with it today. And if you are intending the knowledge of, and the knowledge of the Torah, and the knowledge of the Evangel, and the knowledge of the Psalms, and the Book of Hud-as, and everything which was Revealed unto a Prophet-as from the Prophets-as during your time and the time of others, and whatever was Revealed from the sky from a news, so whether anyone knows it or does not know of it, wherein is an explanation of everything and a healing for the world, and a rest for the one who seeks rest to it, and an insight for the one who intends Allah-azwj with it, a goodness and a comfort to the Truth, so I can guide you to him-asws. Go to him-asws, and even if it be walking upon your feet. If you are not able, so crawl upon your knees. If you are not able, then dragging upon your body/bottom. If you are not able, so upon your face’. I said, ‘No, but I am able upon the travelling, regarding the body (health) and the wealth’. He said, ‘Go immediately until you get to Yasrib’ (Madina). I said, ‘I do not recognise Yasrib’. He said, ‘Go until you come to Medina of the Prophet-saww who was Sent among the Arabs, and he is the Arabian Prophet-saww, the Hashemite. When you enter it, ask about the clan of Ghanam Bin Malik Bin Al-Najjar, and it would be by the door of its Masjid, and display the overall of the Christians and their ornaments, for its governor is difficult upon them and the Caliph is even more difficult. Then you should ask about the clan of Amro Bin Mabzoul, and it would be at the spot of Al-Zubeyr.