Then he (al- MansUr) said to at- Sàdiq...

Then he (al- MansUr) said to at- Sàdiq:’ Your reward with me is to permit you to spread your knowledge among your followers (ShT’a). And I will not prevent you nor your followers (from doing that). Sit sown without fear and give people religious opinions. Do not be in the country where I am. So, al-Sadiq spread knowledge everywhere.

For this reason and others, at- Sâdiq was able to spread knowledge, while the other Imams were unable to do that because their conditions were quite different from al.. Sâdiq’s. The books of traditions, jurisprudence, ethics, and the like indicate that. His many narrators and the reports on his authority indicate that, too. A group of authors have written about his narrators They have mentioned that their number was over four thousand narrators. Among these authors was b. ‘Uqda[1] .

If the narrators who reported traditions on the authority of at- Sâdiq were four thousands, then how many traditions did they report? And if one narrator reported thirty thousand traditions on the atfthority of at- Sadiq, then how many traditions did the other narrators report? And how many sciences were reported on his authority?

Generally speaking, at- Sadiq, peace be on him, has been known as a school to which the Imamis and the Ja’faris are ascribed because of his many sciences and traditions. Besides most of the traditions in the ShVte books have been reported on his authority. Not only the ShVte narrators have reported traditions on the authority of at- Sâdiq, but also the great Sunni figures who were contemporary of him. Among them were Malik, Abfl Hanifa, Sufyân at- Thawri, Sufyan b. ‘Ayyna, Ayyllb, b.

JarTh, Sh’ba, and the like. Besides, b. Abfl at- HaddTd has ascribed the jurisprudence of the four Sunni schools to him as in Sharih Nahj at- Balâgha, 1,6. The ShT’a have related to at- Sâdiq since his lifetime. It was he who said to his companions in his commandments: “When a man among you is pious in his religion, truthful in his speech, pays the trust, his manners are good toward people, it will be said: ‘This is a Ja’fari’. And that delights me.

And when he is contrary to that, his tribulation and shamefulness wilt include me and it wilt be said: ‘This is Ja’far’s education.”[2] The relation of the ShT’a to al- Sâdiq was known at that time. For exainj, le, two, ShT’tes gave testimony before Shurayh at- Qâdi (the judge). They were Mohammed b. Muslim, the famous reliable companion of at-Sâdiq, and AbU Kurayba at- Azdi.