What is their position before You?

What is their position before You?” He replied, “O son of `Imrān! I created them before the creation of the lights. I placed them in My Store of Sanctity (khazānat qudsī), whilst they enjoy the gardens of My Will (yarta`ūna fī riyaḍi mashī’atī) and inhale the fragrance of My Greatness (yatanassamūna rūḥ jabarūtī) and witness the realms of my kingdom, until I desired with My Will to implement My decree and destiny (qadā’ī wa qadarī). O son of `Imrān! . . . I have decorated My Heavens with them.

O son of `Imrān! Fasten to their remembrance because surely, they are the store of My Knowledge, the chest of My Wisdom, and the mine of My Light.” Al-Ḥusayn b. `Ulwān says, “I mentioned this (narration) to (Imam) Ja`far b. Muḥammad, peace be on him, who said, ‘It is the truth. They are twelve from the family of Muḥammad, Allah's blessings be on him and his family: `Alī, al-Ḥasan, al-Ḥusayn, `Alī b. al-Ḥusayn, Muḥammad b. `Alī, and whoever Allah wills.’ I said, ‘May I be sacrificed for you!

I am asking you so that you may make the truth clear for me.’ He replied, ‘[After them], myself, then followed by this son of mine—and he pointed towards his son Mūsā—the fifth from his descendants will be hidden and it will not be permitted to mention him by his name.’” Kamāl al-dīn[^6]: Narrated to us `Alī b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. `Imrān, may Allah be satisfied with him, from Muḥammad b. Abī `Abd-Allah al-Kūfī, from Mūsā b. `Imrān al-Nakha`ī, from his paternal uncle al-Ḥusayn b.

Yazīd al-Naufalī, from al-Ḥasan b. `Alī b. Abī Ḥamza, from his father, from Abū Baṣīr, who heard [Imam] Abū `Abd-Allah, peace be on him, say: “The customs of the prophets (sunan al-anbiyā) by which they went into occultation, will exactly occur for the Qā’im from us Ahl al-Bait.” Abū Baṣīr says: “I asked, ‘O son Allah’s Messenger! Who is the Qā’im from you Ahl al-Bait?” He replied, ‘O Abū Baṣīr! He is the fifth from the descendant of my son Mūsā. He is the son of the Master of the Maids.

He will have an occultation in which the people of falsehood will become skeptical. Then, Allah, Mighty and Majestic be He, will make him appear and Allah will conquer by his hand the Easts and the Wests. The Spirit of Allah, Jesus son of Mary, will descend and pray behind him. The earth will be illuminated with the light of its Lord.

There will not remain a single spot on earth where anyone other than Allah, Mighty and Majestic be He, had been worshipped except that Allah will be worshipped there.