when they ask you, be compassionate toward them, and liberate them from the causes of darkness until they ascend and become pure."

Then he vanished from us and we saw him no more. We said to the man: "Make known to us your name and inform us who you are. What was the cause of your leaving this place, your arrival to us, and your gathering with us?"

He said to us: "My name is Salih. As for the place of my first birth, it was Mecca. I had gathered with a believing man who had approached Purity. I served him the service due to him once I verified his faith, and I reached his satisfaction. He used to supplicate much for me, asking Allah to bring me close to Him in His hereafter and His world.

It was in the days of Ali ibn Musa al-Rida, Exalted Glory. My Lord al-Rida, Exalted Glory, came to him one day while I was following him, and said to him: 'Your transition (nuqlah) has drawn near. If you choose that, I shall do it; and if you choose to remain in this world, you shall remain.' He said: 'O Allah, transition me to the best place and the most noble station; join me with this noble world, make me among their number and group, and join this boy to me; make him with me by Your grace and mercy; indeed, You are Powerful over all things.' No sooner had he finished his speech than my Lord al-Rida, Exalted Glory, said: 'Die.' So he died while I was looking at him. He ordered that he be prepared; he was prepared and prayed over. When we buried him, he said to me: 'Do you wish for me to join you to him and to his world in which he resides?' I said to him: 'I would choose that, O my Lord.' He said: 'Die.' So I died. I saw my soul wandering in the Kingdom (al-Malakūt), in the grip of my Lord al-Rida, Exalted Glory, until he entrusted it to this form in which you see me. He placed me in the world in which I am—honored, noble, and free in myself to do what I choose and desire.

In the year I met you, O Abd Allah, I had chosen to perform the Hajj. My Lord permitted me to do that. I performed the Hajj and met you, and I knew what was between you and Abu al-Tahir Sabur ibn al-Qasim,