Their condition with the rest of our Masters and their devotees, as they claim, remained thus, and will remain until the emergence of our Master Muḥammad ibn Al-Ḥasan (may his glory be exalted). Then the Khārijites will rebel against him and say to him: "Go back." He will fight them and they will fight him. He will kill them until they say: "This is not from the Family of Muḥammad." In addition, the delay of the emergence is fundamentally due to the lack of the complete number [of supporters] and the lack of a sufficient number of helpers.

It is narrated from ‘Abdullāh ibn Bukayr, he said: Abū Al-Ḥasan (may his glory be exalted) said: "O son of Bukayr, I am saying to you a saying that my fathers (may their glory be exalted) used to say: 'If there were among you the number of the people of Badr, our Qā’im would rise.' O ‘Abdullāh, we treat people and we know what they are. Among them are those whose affection for us is true, who would sacrifice their lives for us. Among them are those in whose hearts there is no reality to what they declare with their tongues. Among them are those who are spies for our enemy against us. They listen to our words, and if they are tempted by a little bit of the world, they become harder against us than our enemy. How can these people see joy when this is their attribute? Truly, the truth has its people and falsehood has its people. The people of the Truth are preoccupied from the people of Falsehood. They await our command and supplicate to Allah to see our state. They are not the ones who spread secrets, nor the rough, hypocritical ones, nor the ones who seek to profit by us, nor the greedy ones. They are the best of the nation, a light in the darkness of the earth, a light in the darkness of seditions, and a light of guidance by which others are enlightened. They do not withhold good from their allies, nor do their enemies aspire to them. If we are mentioned with good, they rejoice, become happy, their hearts are assured, and their faces light up. But if we are mentioned with evil, their hearts are disgusted, their skin shivers, and their faces frown. They declare their support, and the secret of their hearts appears. They have rolled up their sleeves, followed our example, and acted according to our command. The monasticism is recognized in their faces. They wake up in a state different from what people are in, and they go to sleep in a state different from what people are in. They cry out to Allah for the rectification of the nation through us and that Allah may send us as a mercy to the weak and the common people. O ‘Abdullāh, those are our followers, and those are from us. Those are our party, and those are the people of our loyalty."¹