This is what we intend in this book: to bring you the opposite of what is known about them.
Therefore, O believer, expand your heart and open your breast {Is he whose breast Allah has opened to Islam and he is upon a light from his Lord?}1
Our Master Assadiq (may his glory be exalted) said: "What harm is it to any of you, when a Hadith reaches him from us whose knowledge he is not given, to say: 'The saying is their saying'? He would then have believed in our secret and our public [speech]."2
To know the importance of Submission, even if it comes contrary to what we know in the most important matters, we cite the following report:
From Durays, our Master Abu Ja'far al-Baqir (may his glory be exalted) said: "What if the Voice, which we told you would occur, does not happen? What will you do?" I said: "By God, I will submit to your command in it." He said: "That, by God, is Submission. Otherwise, it is the slaughter," and he motioned with his hand to his throat3.
Knowing that this Voice is one of the inevitable matters, as has come in the reports. Despite that, Submission is obligatory if there is no voice, because the "change in the divine decree" is very important in the religion, for it is the origin of the confusion.
Our Master Assadiq (may his glory be exalted) said: "Whoever takes our knowledge with acceptance, God will open Gnosis for him. The single Hadith [becomes] ten Hadiths, until he becomes a deeply knowledgeable scholar. And whoever takes our knowledge with deceit, twisting opinion and guidance for their own ends, God will turn them away as a goat is turned from a lowly wolf; such a person will gain nothing in true knowledge except further distance."4
From Sufyan ibn al-Samit, I said to our Master Abu 'Abdillah Assadiq (may his glory be exalted): "May I be made your ransom, a man comes to us from your side, known for lying, and narrates a Hadith that we find repulsive?" So Abu 'Abdillah (may his glory be exalted) said: "Does he say to you: 'I said the night is day, and the day is night'?" I said: "No." He said: "If he tells you that I said this, do not deny it, for in denying it, you are only denying me."5