[307] And from it: And from my Sheikh - may Allah have mercy on him - when he narrated it disconnectedly (mursalan): That a man came to the Commander of the Faithful - Exalted is His Might - and said to him: "O Commander of the Faithful, you said: I did, and I made, and I am the Capable, and by my knowledge the unification (al-tawhid) is valid, and I raised its sky, and I flattened its earth, and I am Allah the Lord of the Worlds?" So he said: "I am the sayer of that, and I am its doer, and to me it returns." So the man said to him: "O our Master, the Master Muhammad manifested the prayer, the almsgiving, the fasting, the pilgrimage, and the struggle (al-jihad), and you say: I am the servant of Allah and the brother of the Messenger of Allah?" So he said: "Yes." So the man said: "So how is that? And how do the people of density (ahl al-kathafah) free themselves from what they saw you as its doer?"

So our Master - Exalted is His Might - said: "Not all of what was said concerning me obligated me, nor all of what was related concerning me became binding upon me, nor all of what I am in, its saying became binding, nor all of what its saying became binding, its people were found, nor all of what its people were found, its time attended. So if its people are found, and its time attends, and its saying becomes binding, I said it."

[308] And from the book "Al-Sirat" (The Path): by al-Mufaddal bin Umar - from him is peace - from the Master al-Sadiq - Exalted is His Might - :

"And know, O Mufaddal, that the manifestation of existence (zuhur al-wujud) and the witnessing of observation (mushahadat al-'iyan) are of one meaning, because He manifested to the two factions: the world of acknowledgment ('alam al-iqrar) and the world of denial ('alam al-inkar) equally. Not a thing exclusive of a thing, and not a meaning exclusive of a meaning. Rather, a single unveiling and a manifestation by power, a manifestation in a single state, and the explicit declaration by the address and the call are in a single meaning. So the differing of the worlds in that was by their corrupt opinions due to what they deserved.