Hadith 581

neglecting the sins is an obligation, and you are more needy to establishing the obligation than you are needy to earning the benefits’. He (the narrator) said, ‘I kissed his-asws hand and his-asws leg (feet), and I said, ‘May my father and my mother be (sacrificed) for you-asws, O son-asws of Rasool-Allah-saww! We cannot find the correct knowledge except with you-asws, and I have become of old age, and my bones are brittle, and I do not see among you-asws what I can be cheered with. I see you-asws all being killed, expelled, fearful, and I have stood upon (awaiting) your-asws Qaim-asws since a long time. I keep saying, ‘He-asws will emerge today, or tomorrow’’. He-asws said: ‘O Abdul Gaffar! Our-asws Qaim-asws, he-asws is the seventh from my-asws sons-asws, and it isn’t the time yet for his-asws appearance, and my-asws father-asws has narrated to me-asws, from his-asws father-asws, from his-asws forefathers-asws who said: ‘Rasool-Allah-saww said: ‘The Imams-asws after me-saww are twelve, a number of the captains of the children of Israel, nine being from the Sulb of Al-Husayn-asws, and the ninth being their-asws Qaim-asws. He-asws will emerge at the end of times and fill it (world) with justice after it would have been filled with injustice and tyranny’’. I said, ‘So, if this (your-asws passing away) were to happen, O son-asws of Rasool-Allah-saww, then to whom after you-asws? ’ He-asws said: ‘To Ja’far-asws, and he-asws is chief of my-asws children, and father of the Imams-asws, truthful in his-asws words and his-asws deeds; and you have asked a mighty thing, O Abdul Gaffar, and you are deserving of the answer’. Then he-asws said: ‘Indeed! The key of the knowledge is the question’. And he-asws prosed saying: ‘Cure of the blindness is in the prolonged questioning, and rather the completion of blindness is prolonged silence being upon the ignorance’’. [18]