Even though he is hidden from the people...

Even though he is hidden from the people—while they are guided—his knowledge and his customs are firmly established in the hearts of the believers and they act upon them. Kitāb Faḍl b. Shādhān[^8]: Narrated to us Muḥammad b. Abī `Umair and Ṣafwān b. Yaḥyā, from Jamīl b. Darrāj, from (Imam) al-Ṣādiq, from his father, from his forefathers, from Amīr al-Mu’minīn, peace be on them all, who said: Islam and a just ruler are two brothers who are always together.

One will not be corrected without the other. Islam is the foundation and the just ruler is the protector. What is without a foundation will be destroyed and what is without a protector will be spoiled. It is because of this that when our Qā’im departs from this world, nothing will remain this world. The following traditions also prove the above point: 245 and 609 [^1]: Nahj al-balāgha, p. 497, saying no. 147; Tadhkirat al-ḥuffāẓ, vol. 1, p. 11; Dastūr ma`ālim al-ḥikam, chap. 4, pp.

82–85, through his chain of narrators from Kumail; al-Ghārāt, vol. 1, p. 153; Tuḥaf al-`uqūl, section on his sayings to Kumail b. Ziyād, p. 170; al-Khiṣāl, chap. 3, p. 187; al-Amālī, pp. 19–20, no. 23; Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 23, chap. 1, pp. 44–46, no. 91; al-Mufīd, al-Amālī, session 29, p. 250; Kamāl al-dīn, vol. 1, chap. 26, p. 289, no. 2; Also see al-Bidāya wa l-nihāya, vol. 9, p. 46, and many other sources. [^2]: Nahj al-balāgha, saying no. 147. [^3]: Yanābī` al-mawadda, p.

437; Sharḥ nahj al-balāgha by Ṣubḥī al-Ṣāliḥ, Sermon 150, p. 208. [^4]: Nahj al-balāgha, trans. Sayed Ali Reza (Iran: Sayed Mujtaba Musavi Lari Foundation), sermon 149 (with some minor changes in the translation); [^5]: Farā’id al-simṭain, vol. 1, chap. 2, pp. 45–46, no. 11; Yanābī` al-mawadda, p. 477.

[^6]: Al-Majlisī, may Allah have mercy on him, has mentioned some aspects of his similarity with the sun when it is covered by the clouds: The lights of existence, knowledge, and guidance reach the people through him; since it has been established through many traditions that they are the ultimate cause for the creation of the creatures. Was it not for them, the light of existence would not have reached anything other than them [i.e. no one would have come into existence].

Because of their blessings, us asking them for intercession, and by asking them for help, the sciences and knowledge have become manifest for the people and calamities have been dispelled from them.