Day 3

The lesson

1. In 200 or 201 AH al-Ma'mun brought him from Medina to Khorasan by way of Basra, escorted by Raja' ibn Abi l-Dahhak, a kinsman of al-Fadl ibn Sahl (Tarikh al-Ya'qubi); al-Shaykh al-Mufid names the escort as al-Juludi and says a group of the family of Abu Talib was summoned with him (al-Irshad). His route was kept away from Kufa and the Shia towns, for fear the Shia would gather around him (Majmu'a-yi Athar of Murtada Mutahhari).
2. At Nishapur the hadith scholars asked him for a hadith before he left. Ishaq ibn Rahawayh narrates that he put his head out of his litter and said that he heard from his father Musa ibn Ja'far, from his fathers, each from his father, back to Ali ibn Abi Talib, from the Messenger of God, from Gabriel, from God: 'the sentence 'There is no god but Allah' is my stronghold, thus whoever enters my stronghold shall be safe from my punishment.' As his litter moved on he called out: With its conditions, and I myself am one of those conditions (al-Tawhid of al-Shaykh al-Saduq).
3. Because every narrator in it is an infallible Imam, back to the Prophet, from Gabriel, from God, it is called Silsilat al-Dhahab, the Golden Chain. Al-Saduq narrates it in al-Tawhid, al-Amali, Ma'ani al-Akhbar and 'Uyun Akhbar al-Rida; al-Shaykh al-Tusi narrates it in al-Amali without the closing words. Al-Saduq explains that one of the conditions of There is no god but God is acknowledging his Imamate, as the Imam appointed by God whom one must obey (al-Tawhid).

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