They are six in number...

They are six in number: Yunus ibn Abd al–Rahman, Safwan ibn Yahya Biyya’ al–Sabiri, Muhammad ibn Abi Umayr, Abdullah ibn al–Mughirah, al–Hasan ibn Mahbub and Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Nasr. These were apart from the aforementioned six who were among the companions of Abu Abdillah (‘a). Some sources mention al–Hasan ibn Ali ibn Faddal and Fadalah ibn Ayub. And others mention Uthman ibn Isa in place of Fadalah.

The most competent in jurisprudence among them was Yunus ibn Abd al–Rahman and Safwan ibn Yahya.” Section Three: The Earlier Generations who Produced Works According to the Ja’fari School On the fact that the jurists of the earlier generations who produced works according to the school of Imam Jafar ibn Muhammad al–Sadiq peace be on him were numerous.

In the early part of his book Al–Mu’tabar , where he mentions Imam Abu Abdillah al–Sadiq (‘a) Sheikh Abu al–Qasim Jafar ibn Sa’id who was known as ‘al–Muhaqqiq’ says: “Through his teaching, a large number of notable jurists reached distinguished stations and four hundred books were compiled on the answers he gave.” In reality, these books represent the works of the prominent scholars, because Sheikh Shamsuddin Muhammad ibn Makki, al–Shahid, has recorded in his Al–Dhikra that four thousand people who came from Iraq, Hijaz, Khurasan and Syria have written about Abu Abdullah al–Sadiq’s answers to questions.

Their works have been mentioned in different Fihrist books that are written by Shi’ah scholars, such as Sheikh Abu al–Abbas al–Najashi, Sheikh Abu Jafar al–Tusi, Sheikh Abu al–Faraj ibn al–Nadim, and what is stated in the book of al–Uqayli and the book of Ibn al–Ghada'iri. In his Al–Irshad in the section about Imam al–Sadiq (‘a), Sheikh al–Mufid wrote: On his authority, people transmitted learning far and wide, thereby making his name to be known in many regions.

Scholars have not narrated as much from any member of his family as they related from him. Hadith narrators have indeed related four thousand names of reliable persons of different schools of thought who transmitted on the authority of Imam al–Sadiq. Sheikh Abu al–Abbas Ahmad ibn Uqdah al–Zaydi has enumerated these four thousand men in Al–Tasnif . Sheikh Abu Ja’far al–Tusi has done the same in Al–Rijal at the beginning of the chapter on the companions of al–Sadiq*.* The reader may refer to it.