al-Husayn and asked him...

al-Husayn and asked him: If Allah’s inevitable command comes, whom shall we follow after you?” The Imam gently looked at him and replied: “(Follow) this son of mine (pointing to his son Muhammad al-Baqir), for he is my testamentary trustee, my inheritor, the box of my knowledge, the origin of knowledge, and the one who will split knowledge open.” “Why have you not appointed your most obedient son as your testamentary trustee?” asked al-Zuhri. Al-Zuhri did not understand the affair of the Imamate.

He thought that it was based on the tribal customs. “O Aba ‘Abd Allah, the Imamate is not based on oldness and youngness. In this manner, Allah’ Apostle, may Allah bless him and his family, entrusted (the Imamate) to us, and in this manner we have found it in the tablet (lawh) and the parchment (sahifa),” answered the Imam.

Demanding more information, al-Zuhri asked: “O Son of Allah’s Apostle, did your Prophet appoint you as testamentary trustees after him?” “We have found twelve names in the parchment and the tablet. Their Imamate, the names of their fathers, and of their mothers have been written in the tablet,” replied the Imam, “and seven testamentary trustees will come out of the loins of my son Muhammad.

Al-Mahdi will be one of them.”[^3] Some Shi‘ites visited the Imam, and he nominated his son Muhammad al-Baqir before them, and ordered them to follow him. Then he gave him a document and a box in which were the inheritances of the prophets, the weapon and books of Allah’s Apostle, may Allah bless him and his family.[^4]” His Commandments to his Son al-Baqir Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin, peace be on him, entrusted his commandments to his son Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, peace be on him.

The following is some of his commandments to him: He commanded him (to take care of) his she-camel. He said to him: “I performed the hajj on this she-camel of mine twenty times, yet I did not whip it. When it dies, bury it.

Let not the beasts eat its meat, for Allah’s Messengers, may Allah bless him and his family, said: ‘If a camel stops seven times at ‘Arafa, Allah will place it among the favors of the Garden, and bless its offspring.’[^5]” Imam al-Baqir carried out these commandments of his father. The Imam gave to his son this commandment, which displays the brilliant sides of the qualities of the members of the House (ahl al-Bayt), peace be on them.

He said to him: “O my little son, I will command you with what my father commanded me when death was close to him.