A messenger was sent to Ya<yá b. Aktham and a number of my companions, when he (Ya<yá) was the chief justice, and he said: Amír al-Mu’minín [i.e. the caliph Ma'mún] has commanded me to bring 40 people with me at dawn tomorrow, all of them people of knowledge (of religion) who will understand what is said to them and are good in their answers. So name whomsoever you think will be right for what Amír al-Mu’minín requires.’

So we named a number for him and he mentioned a number, until the desired number was complete. He wrote down the names of people bidding (them) to hasten to come before daybreak and sent for one who was present and instructed him concerning that.

So we went to him early in the morning before the rise of dawn and found him dressed and sitting, waiting for us. He mounted (his animal) and we mounted with him, until we reached the door, and there, a servant was standing. When he saw us, he said: ‘O Abú Mu<ammad, Amír al-Mu’minín awaits you’. We entered and he bid us perform the #alát (obligatory prayers). We began it and had barely completed it when the messenger came out and said: ‘Enter!’ We entered and there was Amír al-Mu’minín sitting on his couch…. – until he said:

Then he said: ‘I did not send for you for this but I am pleased to give you the happy news that Amír al-Mu’minín wishes to debate with you concerning the school of thought that he follows and through which he obeys Allah’.

We said: ‘Then let Amír al-Mu’minín do it, may Alláh give him success’.

He said: ‘Amír al-Mu’minín obeys Alláh on the basis that `Alí b. Abí ^álib is the best of the Khulafá after the Messenger of Alláh, blessings and salutations of Alláh on him, and the most worthy of people as a successor to him’.

Is<áq said: I said: ‘O Amír al-Mu’minín, among us there are those who do not acknowledge what the Amír al-Mu’minín has mentioned regarding `Alí, and Amír al-Mu’minín had called us for a debate.’

He said: ‘O Is<áq, choose. If you wish me to question you I will question you, and if you wish to question then speak.’

Is<áq said: I seized the opportunity and said: ‘No but I will question you, Amír al-Mu’minín.’ He said: ‘Ask.’

I said: ‘How does Amír al-Mu’minín say that `Alí b. Abí ^álib was the most excellent of people after the Messenger of Alláh, and the most entitled of them to Khiláfah after him?’

He said: ‘O Is<áq, inform me of people by what do they differ in superiority over each other so that it is said: So and so is better than so and so?’

I said: ‘By good deeds.’ He said: ‘You have said the truth.’

He said: 'Inform me of one whose companion excelled over him during the lifetime of the Messenger of Alláh, blessings and salutations of Alláh on him. Then, after the death of the Messenger of Alláh, if the one who was surpassed performed better acts than the one who excelled during the time of the Messenger of Alláh, does he catch up with him?'

He said: I bowed my head. He said to me: O Is<áq, you do not say: Yes. If you say yes, I will find for you in this age of ours one who is greater than him in jihád and \ajj and fasting and @alát and almsgiving.’

I said: ‘Yes indeed, Amír al-Mu’minín, he will not catch up.’

He said: ‘The person who has excelled during the time of the Messenger of Alláh, blessings and salutations of Alláh on him, will always be the possessor of excellence. Is<áq, do you relate the \adíth of al-Wiláya?’

I said: ‘Yes Amír al-Mu’minín.’ He said: ‘Relate it.’ I did and he said: ‘Is<áq, do you think that this <adíth makes incumbent on Abú Bakr and `Umar what was not made incumbent on them?’

I said: ‘The people have said that the <adíth was only because of something that occurred between Zayd b. \áritha and `Ali and he denied the authority (walá') of `Alí. So the Messenger of Alláh, blessings and salutations of Alláh on him, said: ‘Of whomsoever I am master (mawlá) `Ali is his master. O Allah, befriend him who befriends him and be at enmity with him who is at enmity with him.’

He said: ‘At what occasion did he say this? Was it not after his departure from the \ajjat’ul Widá’?

I said: 'Yes indeed.'

He said: 'If Zayd b. \áritha was killed before Ghadír, then how do you accept this for yourself? Tell me; if you were to see a son of yours, for a period of fifteen years, saying: Oh people, my subservients are the subservients of my cousin - let it be known. Would you deny that he identified to the people what they do not deny and can not be ignorant of?'

I said: 'Yes indeed, by God'. He said: 'O Ishaq, do you deem your son in a way that you do not deem the Messenger of Allah, blessings and salutations

of Allah on him?'

Woe be to you, do not make your jurists your masters. Alláh, Sublime is His mention, has stated in His Book:

"They have taken their rabbis and monks as lords apart from Alláh (9:31)".

They did not pray for blessings on them, neither did they fast, and nor did they claim that they were lords, but they commanded them and they obeyed their command'.

(We have taken whatever we have needed from the narration which is long and of very great benefit).