Would you tell me where you have got this from?

Would you tell me where you have got this from?’ He said, ‘Imam Abu Muhammad asked me to say that…’ Al-Kindi said, ‘Now you say the truth. The like of this can not be expressed, except from that house (the Ahlul Bayt)…’ After that, al-Kindi burnt his book.[^1] Refuting A Monk Once, people suffered from a terrible drought. Al-Mu’tamid, the Abbasid caliph, ordered people to go out in the open air for three days in order to offer the prayer for rain. They did, but no rain fell down.

Christians as well went out with whom there was a monk who whenever stretched his hand towards the sky, it rained. He did that many times and some ignorant (Muslims) doubted their religion and some others apostatized. This was hard for al-Mu’tamid.

He went to Imam Abu Muhammad (a.s.) who was in prison then and said to him, ‘Attain to the nation of your grandfather before they will perish!’ Imam Abu Muhammad (a.s.) said to him, ‘Let people go out tomorrow and I shall remove their doubts insha’Allah.’ Al-Mu’tamid set the imam free from prison, but the imam asked him to set free all his companions from prison too, and al-Mu’tamid agreed to his request. On the following day, people went out to offer the prayer for rain.

The monk raised his hand towards the sky and it clouded and rained. Imam Abu Muhammad (a.s.) asked his men to catch the monks hand and take what there was in it. There was a bone of a human being. The imam took the bone from the monk and asked him to pray for rain again. The monk raised his hands towards the sky, but clouds disappeared and the sun shone. People were astonished.

Al-Mu’tamid asked Imam Abu Muhammad (a.s.) what that thing was and the imam said, ‘This is a bone of one of the prophets that this monk has got in some way or another from some grave. Whenever a prophet’s bone is exposed under the sky, it will rain…’ Al-Mu’tamid checked that and it was as the imam said. Then suspicions and doubts were refuted.[^2] Liars and Fabricators Liars and fabricators were not few at that time, and this was another plague of that age. It was a result of weak faith.

From the most famous fabricators was Urwah bin Yahya ad-Dihqan al-Baghdadi who fabricated lies against Imam Abul Hasan Ali bin Muhammad al-Hadi (a.s.) and Imam Abu Muhammad al-Hasan bin Ali (a.s.) after him. He embezzled the monies that came to Imam Abu Muhammad (a.s.) from his followers.