ভূমিকা

With my chain of authorities reaching up to the foremost shaykh and the greatest pillar, Muhammad ibn Ya’qub al-Kulayni (R) from Muhammad ibn Tahya, from Ahmad ibn Muhammad, from al-Husayn ibn Said, from al-Nadr ibn Suwayd, from ‘Asim ibn Humayd who said: Ali ibn al-Husayn (A) was asked concerning tawhid.

He replied, “Verily, God Almighty and Glorious, knew that in the ultimate era there would be people of profound thinking, and so God, the Exalted, sent down, Qul huwa Allahu ahad (Say: He is Allah, the One…) and the verses of Surat al-Hadid until His words, ‘…and He knows well that which is in the breasts.’ Hence someone who seeks to go beyond that will perish.”[^1] Exposition Hadrat Sadr al-Muta’allihin (Q) says, “Asim ibn Humayd was not a contemporary of Imam Sajjad and therefore the tradition is a marfu’ one.”[^2] The repetition of the word qala (he said) is perhaps due to a fragmentation in the hadith , or, perhaps, it is an error of the copyists, or the subject ( fa’il ) was mentioned but was omitted due to a lapse of the pen.

Or the fail has been omitted, the case being one where such omission is permissible. Or the first fail is the pronoun referring to al-Nadr ibn Suwayd, and this possibility is very remote. As to al-tawhid, tawhid pertains to the form tafil, and that is either due to repetition signified by the verb, in the sense of extreme emphasis on unity and simplicity, or it is in the sense of qualification of the object ( maful ) on the basis of the verb, such as in takfir and tafsiq.