O God, we have never called upon them to assert what they do...

O God, we have never called upon them to assert what they do assert; so do not punish us for what they say and forgive us for what they allege. “My Lord! leave not one of the disbelievers in the land” (Qur'an 71:26) . “If Thou shouldst leave them, they will mislead Thy slaves and will beget none save lewd ingrates”(Qur'an 71:27).

And it is related from Zurara that he said: I said to Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq that a man from among the descendants of 'Abdu'l-lah bin Saba' is a believer in (the doctrine of) delegation (tafwid). And he said: And what is tafwid? I (Zurara) said: According to him Allah, the Mighty and Glorious, (in the first instance) created Muhammad and 'Ali, and then delegated the matter (of creation) to them, and these two created and gave sustenance, and caused life and death.

The Imam said: He, the enemy of Allah, has lied. When you return to him recite to him the verse of the Chapter of The Thunder: “Or assign they unto Allah partners who created the like of His creation so that the creation (which they made and His creation) seemed alike to them? Say: Allah is the Creator of all things, and He is the One, the Al-mighty” (Qur'an 13:16) .

Then I went to the man and informed him of what Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq had said, and he became as if I had forced him to swallow stones or as though he were struck dumb. Now (undoubtedly) Allah has delegated matters concerning religion to His Prophet and He, the Mighty and Glorious, says: “And whatsoever the Messenger giveth you, take it. And whatsoever he forbiddeth, abstain (from it)” (Qur'an 59:7) . And this (that is, religious authority) has also been delegated to the Imams.

The sign of the Delegators (al-mufawwida) and the Extremists (al-ghulat) and their likes is the belief that their Shaykhs[^19] and ulema have attributed less than their due (to the Imams).

And the sign of the Hallajites among the Extremists is the claim of Manifestation (tajalli )[^20] in their devotion, in spite of their doctrinal belief in the abandonment of prayer and all the obligatory acts (fard- 'idh),[^21] and (also) their claim of knowing the Most High Names of Allah'[^22] and their claim of the incarnation (intiba`) of the Divine Being in bodily shape for them[^23].

I For according to them the saint (wali), when he is purified and knows their religion, becomes more excellent than the Prophets. Their distinguishing characteristic is the claim that they know alchemy.