We need this amount urgently.

We need this amount urgently.’ I then said to myself, ‘I hope he -asws will grant me three hundred Dirhams, one hundred to buy a donkey, one hundred for expenses and one hundred for clothes and then I will go to the mountains.’ ‘The narrator has said that when we arrived at the door a slave came out and said, ‘Ali ibn Ibrahim and his son Muhammad, please come inside.’ When we were in his (the Imam -asws ’s) presence we offered ‘Salam (the greetings of peace). The Imam -asws said to my father.

‘O Ali, what held you back from coming to us -asws until now?’ He said, ‘My master, I felt shy to come to you -asws in this condition.’ When we left him -asws his slave came to us and gave a bag of money to my father saying, ‘This is five hundred Dirhams. Two hundred for clothes, two hundred to pay debts and one hundred for expenses.’ He gave me a bag and said, ‘This is three hundred Dirhams, one hundred for the donkey, one hundred for clothes and one hundred for expenses.

Do not go to the mountains. Go to Sawra.’ He then went to Sawra’ and married a woman and now his income from properties is a thousand Dinar. Despite this he belongs to the waqifi [4] sect in matters of beliefs. Muhammad ibn Ibrahim has said that I said to him, ‘Woe is you! What more clear proof do you want to believe in him -asws as your Imam?’ He said, ‘This (belief in Waqifi sect) is a habit that has been with us (and it does not go away).

[5] The narrator of the Hadith says: ‘I requested Imam Hassan Askari -asws for something that I needed. The Imam -asws scratched the earth with his -asws whip. I (the narrator) think he -asws then covered it with a handkerchief and then took out five hundred Dinars.

The Imam -asws then said, ‘O Abu Hashim this is for you.’ [6] Ishaq has said that Abu Hashim Al-Ja’fari has said the following: ‘Once I complained to Abu Mohammed -asws about the constraining cell of the prison and the weight of the shackles on me. He -asws wrote back in reply to me, ‘Today you will pray your noontime prayer in your own home.’ I was released that day and prayed the noontime prayer in my own home as he -asws had said.

I was under financial constraints and I decided to ask him -asws for a certain amount of Dinars in writing but I felt shy. When I was going to my home he sent me a hundred Dinars and had written to me this: ‘If you need anything do not feel shy or embarrassed. Ask and you will find it as you wanted, by the will of Allah -azwj .