أو من الناس و في ف اللّٰهم لا ذا و لا ذاك فمن إذا المنهوم باللذة السلس القياد للشهوة أو مغرم بالجمع و الادخار ليسا من رعاة الدين و لا ذوي البصائر و اليقين و في النهج أو منهوما باللذة سلس القياد للشهوة أو مغرما قوله عليه السلام سلس القياد أي سهل الانقياد من غير توقف أو مغرى بالجمع و الادخار أي شديد الحرص على جمع المال و ادخاره كان أحدا يغريه بذلك و يبعثه عليه و الغرم أيضا بمعناه يقال فلان مغرم بكذا أي لازم له مولع به ليسا من رعاة الدين بضم أوله جمع راع بمعنى الوالي أي ليس المنهوم و المغرى المذكوران من ولاة الدين و فيه إشعار بأن العالم الحقيقي وال على الدين و قيم عليه أقرب شبها أي الأنعام السائمة أي الراعية أشبه الأشياء بهذين الصنفين كذلك يموت أي مثل ما عدم من يصلح لتحمل العلوم تعدم تلك العلوم أيضا و تندرس آثارها بموت العلماء العارفين لأنهم لا يجدون من يليق لتحملها بعدهم.

or among the people. And in f: "O God, neither this nor that. Then who? — since the one greedy for pleasure, easily led by appetite, or the one enamoured of amassing and hoarding, are not of the shepherds of religion nor of those possessed of insights and of certainty." And in the Nahj: "or one greedy for pleasure, easily led by appetite, or one enamoured". His words, peace be upon him, "easily led" — that is, easy of compliance, without hesitation. "Or one enticed by amassing and hoarding" — that is, intense in eagerness for the gathering of wealth and the hoarding of it, as though someone were enticing him to that and urging him on to it. And al-gharam too is in its meaning: one says fulanun mughramun bi-kadha — that is, cleaving to it, addicted to it. "Neither of the two is of the shepherds of religion": with damma on its first letter, the plural of ra'in in the sense of the governor — that is, the greedy one and the enticed one who have been mentioned are not of the governors of religion. And in it is an intimation that the true scholar is a governor over religion and a custodian of it. "The nearest thing in likeness" — that is, grazing cattle, meaning those that pasture, are the likest of things to these two classes. "Thus does it die" — that is, just as one fit to bear the sciences is lacking, so too are those sciences lost and their traces effaced by the death of the knowing scholars, because they find none after them fit to bear them.

و لما كانت سلسلة العلم و العرفان لا تنقطع بالكلية ما دام نوع الإنسان بل لا بد من إمام حافظ للدين في كل زمان استدرك أمير المؤمنين عليه السلام كلامه هذا بقوله اللّٰهم بلى و في النهج لا تخلو الأرض من قائم لله بحججه إما ظاهرا مشهورا أو خائفا مغمورا و في ف من قائم بحجة إما ظاهرا مكشوفا أو خائفا مفردا لئلا تبطل حجج اللّٰه و بيناته و رواة كتابه و الإمام الظاهر المشهور كأمير المؤمنين صلوات اللّٰه عليه و الخائف المغمور كالقائم في زماننا و كباقي الأئمة المستورين للخوف و التقية و يحتمل أن يكون باقي الأئمة عليهم السلام داخلين في الظاهر المشهور و كم و أين استبطاء لمدة غيبة القائم عليه السلام و تبرم ١من امتداد دولة أعدائه أو إبهام لعدد الأئمة عليهم السلام و زمان ظهورهم و مدة دولتهم لعدم المصلحة في بيانه ثم بين عليه السلام قلة عددهم و عظم قدرهم و علي الثاني يكون الحافظون و المودعون الأئمة عليهم السلام و على الأول يحتمل أن يكون المراد شيعتهم الحافظين لأديانهم في غيبتهم هجم بهم العلم أي أطلعهم العلم اللدني على حقائق الأشياء دفعة و انكشفت لهم حجبها و أستارها و الروح بالفتح الراحة و الرحمة و النسيم أي وجدوا لذة اليقين و هو من رحمته تعالى و نسائم لطفه

And since the chain of knowledge and gnosis is not cut off altogether so long as the human kind endures — rather there must be in every age an Imam who preserves the religion — the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him, made an amendment to this speech of his with his words: "O God, nay." And in the Nahj: "the earth is not empty of one who upholds God's proofs, either manifest and well known, or fearful and obscure"; and in f: "of one upholding a proof, either manifest and uncovered, or fearful and alone, lest the proofs of God and His clear signs and the transmitters of His Book be void." And the manifest, well-known Imam is like the Commander of the Faithful, God's blessings be upon him; and the fearful, obscure one is like the Qa'im in our own age, and like the rest of the Imams who were concealed by reason of fear and dissimulation. And it is possible that the rest of the Imams, peace be upon them, are included in the manifest and well known. And "how many, and where" is a reckoning long of the period of the occultation of the Qa'im, peace be upon him, and a weariness (1) at the extension of the rule of his enemies; or an obscuring of the number of the Imams, peace be upon them, and of the time of their appearance and the period of their rule, because there is no benefit in the declaring of it. Then he, peace be upon him, set forth the fewness of their number and the greatness of their worth. And upon the second view the preservers and the depositors are the Imams, peace be upon them; and upon the first it is possible that what is meant is their Shi'a, who preserve their religions in their occultation. "Knowledge has borne them" — that is, the God-given knowledge brought them up upon the realities of things all at once, and their veils and their coverings were unveiled for them. And al-rawh, with fatha, is rest, and mercy, and the breeze — that is, they found the delight of certainty, and it is of His mercy, exalted be He, and of the breezes of His grace.