Go to him and ask your questions.

Go to him and ask your questions.’ The [second] person was the Mahdī, peace be on him.” Biḥār al-anwār[^2]: A group from the citizens of Najaf informed me that A person from Qāshān came to Najaf on the way to the Sanctuary, the House of Allah (Bait Allah al-ḥarām). He became severely ill to the extent that both his legs became paralyzed and he was unable to walk.

His friends left him behind and entrusted him to a righteous person—who lived in a room in the school surrounded by the holy shrine—and went ahead for Hajj. Every day, this righteous man would lock the door and go to the desert to seek sustenance. One day, the ill-man said to him, “I am bored and I am fed up with being confined to this place.

Today, take me someplace and leave me there and go wherever you like.” (The ill-man narrates,) “He accepted and carried me to the Station (maqām) of the Qā’im outside Najaf. He made me sit there, washed his shirt in the pond, and hung it on a tree, then left for the desert. I was alone and sorrowful and was thinking about my fate. Suddenly, I saw a handsome youth with a tanned complexion.

He entered the courtyard, greeted me, and went inside the building and started praying some units (rak`a) in the prayer-niche with a humility and humbleness the like of which I had never witnessed before. When he finished his prayers, he came out to me and enquired about my condition. I said to him, ‘I have been afflicted with a calamity that has straitened me. Allah neither cures me so that I am freed from it nor does he make me die so that I am relieved of it.’ He said, ‘Don’t be sad!

Soon, Allah will give you both.’ Saying this, he left. When he went away, I saw that the shirt had fallen on the ground from the tree. I stood up and washed it and hung it back on the tree. Then, it struck me that I could not move. So how did I get up and do all these things? I inspected myself but found nothing of [my ailment]. I realized that he was the Qā’im—Allah’s blessings be on him. I went out in the desert but saw no one and became very sorrowful.

When the owner of the room returned, he asked me about my condition and was amazed at my condition. I informed him about what had happened. He too became sorrowful about the opportunity both of us had lost and I walked along with him to his room.” He was in sound and healthy condition until the pilgrims and his friends returned. When he saw them, he stayed with them for a short time but fell ill and died.