At that time...

At that time, he, peace be on him, was according to some statements a boy of seven years of age, according to others a boy of nine but according to the majority he was a boy of ten.

The perfection of his intellect, peace be on him, (at that age) and the occurrence (in a boy of that age) of the ability to acknowledge God and His Apostle, may God bless him and his family, is an illustrious sign from God which transcends normal human behaviour, and thus indicates his position with Him, his special endowment and his being worthy for what he was nurtured for the Imamate of the Muslims, and the proof (of God) to all mankind.

In this transcendence of ordinary human behaviour which we have mentioned there is a similarity with Jesus and John the Baptist as we have described.

If it was not for the fact that at that (time) he was perfect, complete and (capable of) acknowledging God, the Exalted, the Apostle of God, may God bless him and his family, would not have made him responsible to acknowledge his prophethood, nor would he have bound him to believe in himself and to accept his mission, nor would he have summoned him to accept his rights, nor would he have begun his mission with him before every other person except his wife, Khadija, peace be on her.

Because the Prophet of God, may God bless him and his family, entrusted him with his secret which he ordered him to protect and because he set him apart by that from all the other children of his time and endowed him apart from all others as we have mentioned, that indicates that he, peace be on him, was perfect despite his youth, (capable of) acknowledging God, the Exalted and His Prophet, may God bless him and his family, before adolescence.

This is the meaning of the words of God, the Exalted concerning John the Baptist, peace be on him: We gave him wisdom while still a boy (XIX 12).

There is no wisdom dearer than knowledge of God, nor more obvious than the knowledge of the prophethood of the Apostle of God, may God bless him and his family, nor more celebrated than the ability of rational deduction, nor more discerning than the understanding of speculation (nazar) and consideration and the knowledge of the aspects of elucidation, by which one is able to arrive at the realities of the unknown.