ذكره لاجتماعهم عليه و ما هذا إلا جزء من كل و لا أنا علم اللّٰه تعالى إلا معترف بالعجز و التقصير كما قال أبو الجوائز.

mentioning them, given their agreement upon it. And this is but a part of a whole; nor am I — God the Exalted knows — anything but one who confesses incapacity and shortcoming, as Abu al-Jawa'iz said:

رويت و ما رويت من الرواية و كيف و ما انتهيت إلى نهاية

I have related, and yet of the narration I have related nothing — and how, when I have reached no end?

و للأعمال غايات تناهى و إن طالت و ما للعلم غاية

Deeds have ends at which they finish, however long they run; but knowledge has no end.

و قد قصدت في هذا الكتاب من الاختصار على متون الأخبار و عدلت عن الإطالة و الإكثار و الاحتجاج من الظواهر و الاستدلال على فحواها و حذفت أسانيدها لشهرتها و لإشارتي إلى رواتها و طرقها و الكتب المنتزعة منها لتخرج بذلك عن حد المراسيل و تلحق بباب المسندات.

In this book I have aimed at confining myself to the texts of the reports, and have turned aside from lengthiness and multiplication, from argument drawn from surface meanings and from inference upon their purport. And I have dropped their chains because of their fame, and because I have pointed to their transmitters, their routes, and the books from which they were extracted — so that they may thereby pass out of the category of chainless reports and be joined to the class of those with full chains.

و ربما تتداخل الأخبار بعضها في بعض و يختصر منها موضع الحاجة أو نختار ما هو أقل لفظا أو جاءت غريبة من مظان بعيدة أو وردت منفرة محتاجة إلى التأويل فمنها ما وافقه القرآن و منها ما رواه خلق كثير حتى صار علما ضروريا يلزمهم العمل به و منها ما بقيت آثارها رؤية أو سمعا و منها ما نطقت به الشعراء و الشعرورة لتبذلها فظهرت مناقب أهل البيت عليهم السلام بإجماع موافقيهم و إجماعهم حجة على ما ذكر في غير موضع و اشتهرت على ألسنة مخالفيهم على وجه الاضطرار و لا يقدرون على الإنكار على ما أنطق اللّٰه به رواتهم و أجراها على أفواه ثقاتهم مع تواتر الشيعة بها و ذلك خرق العادة و عظة لمن تذكر فصارت الشيعة موفقة لما نقلته ميسرة و الناصبة مخيبة فيما حملته مسخرة لنقل هذه الفرقة ما هو دليل لها في دينها و حمل تلك ما هو حجة لخصمها دونها و هذا كاف لمن أَلْقَى السَّمْعَ وَ هُوَ شَهِيدٌ و إِنَّ هذا لَهُوَ الْبَلاءُ الْمُبِينُ و تذكرة للمتذكرين و لطف من اللّٰه تعالى للعالمين.

It may be that reports overlap one another, and the place of need is abridged from them, or we choose what is fewer in wording; or a report comes as a rarity from remote sources, or arrives in a repellent form standing in need of interpretation. Among them is what the Qur'an accords with; among them what a great many have related, until it became necessary knowledge binding them to act by it; among them what its traces have preserved, whether by sight or by hearing; and among them what the poets and the versifiers have uttered, on account of its currency. Thus the virtues of the People of the House, peace be upon them, became manifest by the consensus of those who agree with them — and their consensus is a proof, as has been stated in more than one place — and became widely known upon the tongues of those who differ from them, by way of compulsion, for they are unable to deny what God has caused their own transmitters to utter and has set running upon the mouths of those they hold trustworthy, together with the Shi'a's mass transmission of it. That is a breaking of custom, and an admonition for whoever takes heed. So the Shi'a came to be granted success in what they transmitted, and were made at ease; and the Nasiba came to be disappointed in what they carried, and were made a mockery — since this party transmits what is a proof for it in its religion, while that party carries what is a proof for its adversary and not for itself. And this is sufficient for one who "gives ear while he is a witness"; and "this indeed is the manifest trial"; and a reminder for those who remember, and a kindness from God the Exalted to the worlds.

هذا آخر ما نقلناه عن المناقب

This is the end of what we have transmitted from al-Manaqib.

و لنذكر ما وجدناه في مفتتح تفسير الإمام العسكري صلوات اللّٰه عليه قال الشيخ أبو الفضل شاذان بن جبرئيل بن إسماعيل القمي أدام اللّٰه تأييده حدثنا السيد محمد بن شراهتك ١الحسني الجرجاني عن السيد أبي جعفر

And let us mention what we found at the opening of the Tafsir of the Imam al-'Askari, God's blessings be upon him. The Shaykh Abu al-Fadl Shadhan b. Jibra'il b. Isma'il al-Qummi — may God perpetuate his support — said: There related to us al-Sayyid Muhammad b. Sharahatak (1) al-Hasani al-Jurjani, from al-Sayyid Abu Ja'far