The Sheykh Abdul Naby Al Kazmy in Takmalat Al Rijaal said...

The Sheykh Abdul Naby Al Kazmy in Takmalat Al Rijaal said, ‘I copied from the writing of Al Majlisi, may Allah -azwj have Mercy upon him, who said, ‘I say that I found an old copy of Kitab Sulaym by two reports between which were simple differences, and written at the end of one of them was, “This completes Kitab Sulaym Bin Qays Al Hilali – until it said – A report from Al Sadiq -asws , that he -asws said: ‘The ones from our -asws Shiites and those that loves us -asws , who does not have Kitab Sulaym Bin Qays Al-Hilali, then there is nothing with him from our -asws matters, nor does he know anything from our -asws reasons, and it is the Alphabet ( Abjad ) of the Shiites, and a secret from the secrets of the Progeny -asws of Mohammed -saww ’.

[1] Preface Sulaym ibn Qays Kufi Amari Hilali -ra is ‘Tabai’ [2] and has seen the lifetime of five Masoom Imams -asws , including Imam Ali -asws , Imam Hassan -asws , Imam Hussain -asws , Imam Zainul Abadeen -asws and Imam Mohammed Baqir -asws .

Sulaym has written those accounts in his priceless book, which he has either observed by his own eyes or has directly heard from those who have directly heard from the Divine tongues of the Prophet Mohammed -saww or Amir-ul-Momineen Ali -asws ibn abi Talib -asws .

The date of birth of Sulaym ibn Qays can be estimated from the history somewhere during the early years after migration of the Holy Prophet -saww to Medina and his demise is believed to have taken place somewhere between 70 to 90 Hijri [3] . Most of the Shia scholars have agreed that his book is the first Shia Ahadith book compiled even before the famous Shia book, consisting of the sermons and Ahadith narrated by Imam Zain-ul-Abadeen -asws ‘Sahifa-e-Kamila’.

Ibn Nadeem has included in his book when commenting about the scholars and Ahadith contributors that Sulaym ibn Qays Hilali was among the devout companions of Amir-ul-Momineen -asws . He escaped persecution of Hajjaj ibn Yousif and took refuge with Abaan ibn abi Ayash. Hajjaj wanted to arrest and kill Sulaym Ibn Qays, so Abaan offered him shelter in recognition of him being a companion of Amir-ul-Momineen -asws .

When Sulaym ibn Qays was inspired about his death, he told Abaan, O the son of my brother, I am about to leave this world, as Prophet -saww has informed me so. After having said that Sulaym entrusted to Abaan his book (as it is in your hands today).