Through testing them and closely monitoring their speech...

Through testing them and closely monitoring their speech, actions, behavior and their claims of specific representation, their lies and trickery will clearly be seen as from the beginning of the major occultation until today, not only have we not heard, but also we have not seen any of these signs in any person. A person who claims this status must be one who acts upon the Shari’ah and the religion of Allah.

In addition, there must not be even the smallest slips in his character or in the performance of the religious duties. He must perform all of the obligatory (wajib) acts and refrain from all of the prohibited (haram) acts. Of course, all reprehensible (makruh) acts must be avoided and the recommended (mustahab) acts must be carried out.

In addition to this, the supernatural acts would have to be shown as this defines his relationship with Imam al-Hujjah (ajtf) and his being a specific representative of the Imam. In the tradition quoted above, the Imam noted: “Whoever claims to have seen me (during the occultation) is a liar and has leveled a false accusation against me” and this statement clearly proves that there are currently no specific representatives of the Imam!

Thus, if a person claims to have a certain status granted to him by the Imam or claims to have met the Imam just like the (four) specific representatives of the Imam had done (during the minor occultation), then he must be called a liar and must be introduced as one who has placed a false accusation against the Imam. [^1]: The proofs which speak about the general representation are many and can be found in the books which are related to the issue of the Wilayatul Faqih.

There are traditions in regards to this topic which are found in the thirteenth responsibility in this book, from Imam Hasan al-’Askari  and one from the 12th Imam  himself. [^2]: Refer to the Tawdhiul Masa’il manual under the section of Taqlid, Issue 1 [^3]: Kamal ad-Din wa Tamam an-Ni’mah, vol. 2, pg. 516, sec. 45, no. 44 Previous…