إليه فيلقانا ببر الآباء و ذوي الأرحام الماسة فقال لنا ذات يوم إذا أتاكما خبر كفاية اللّٰه عز و جل أبويكما و إخزاؤه أعداءهما و صدق وعدي إياهما جعلت من شكر اللّٰه عز و جل أن أفيدكما تفسير القرآن مشتملا على بعض أخبار آل محمد عليهم السلام فيعظم بذلك شأنكما قال ففرحنا و قلنا يا ابن رسول اللّٰه فإذا نأتي على جميع علوم القرآن و معانيه قال كلا إن الصادق عليه السلام علم ما أريد أن أعلمكما بعض أصحابه ففرح بذلك فقال يا ابن رسول اللّٰه قد جمعت علم القرآن كله فقال قد جمعت خيرا كثيرا و أوتيت فضلا واسعا و لكنه مع ذلك أقل قليل أجزاء علم القرآن إن اللّٰه عز و جل يقول قُلْ لَوْ كانَ الْبَحْرُ مِداداً لِكَلِماتِ رَبِّي لَنَفِدَ الْبَحْرُ قَبْلَ أَنْ تَنْفَدَ كَلِماتُ رَبِّي وَ لَوْ جِئْنا بِمِثْلِهِ مَدَداً ١و يقول وَ لَوْ أَنَّ ما فِي الْأَرْضِ مِنْ شَجَرَةٍ أَقْلامٌ وَ الْبَحْرُ يَمُدُّهُ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ سَبْعَةُ أَبْحُرٍ ما نَفِدَتْ كَلِماتُ اللَّهِ ٢و هذا علم القرآن و معانيه و ما أودع من عجائبه فكم قد ترى مقدار ما أخذته من جميع هذا و لكن القدر الذي أخذته قد فضلك اللّٰه به على كل من لا يعلم كعلمك و لا يفهم كفهمك قالا فلم نبرح من عنده حتى جاءنا فيج ٣قاصد من عند أبوينا بكتاب يذكر فيه أن الحسن بن زيد العلوي قتل رجلا بسعاية أولئك الزيدية و استصفى ماله ثم أتت الكتب من النواحي و الأقطار المشتملة على خطوط الزيدية بالعذل الشديد و التوبيخ العظيم يذكر فيها أن ذلك المقتول كان أفضل زيدي على ظهر الأرض و أن السعاة قصدوه لفضله و ثروته فشكر لهم و أمر بقطع آنافهم و آذانهم و أن بعضهم قد مثل به كذلك و آخرين قد هربوا و أن العلوي ندم و استغفر و تصدق بالأموال الجليلة بعد رد أموال ذلك المقتول على ورثته و بذل لهم أضعاف دية وليهم المقتول و استحلهم فقالوا أما الدية فقد أحللناك منها و أما الدم فليس إلينا إنما هو إلى المقتول و اللّٰه الحاكم و أن العلوي نذر لله عز و جل أن لا يعرض للناس في مذاهبهم و في كتاب أبويهما أن الداعي

to him, and he would meet us with the kindness of fathers and of close kin. One day he said to us: When there comes to you the news of God Almighty's sufficing your fathers, and His disgracing their enemies, and the truth of my promise to them, I shall make it part of my thanks to God Almighty that I impart to you the commentary of the Qur'an, comprising some of the reports of the family of Muhammad, peace be upon them, so that your standing may thereby be magnified. He said: So we rejoiced, and said: O son of the Messenger of God, shall we then come upon all the sciences of the Qur'an and its meanings? He said: By no means. Al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, taught some of his companions what I intend to teach you, and he rejoiced at that and said: O son of the Messenger of God, I have gathered the whole science of the Qur'an. He said: You have gathered much good and been given ample excellence; yet with all that, it is the least little of the parts of the science of the Qur'an. God Almighty says: "Say: if the sea were ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would be exhausted before the words of my Lord were exhausted, though we brought the like of it for replenishment" (1); and He says: "And if all the trees in the earth were pens, and the sea, with seven seas after it to replenish it, the words of God would not be exhausted" (2). And this is the science of the Qur'an and its meanings, and the wonders deposited in it. How much, then, do you reckon the measure of what you have taken of all this to be? Yet the measure you have taken — God has favoured you by it over everyone who does not know as you know, nor understand as you understand. They said: We did not leave his presence before there came to us a courier (3) sent from our fathers with a letter, mentioning in it that al-Hasan b. Zayd al-'Alawi had killed a man upon the informing of those Zaydis and confiscated his property. Then letters came from the districts and the regions, bearing the hands of the Zaydis, with severe reproach and great rebuke, mentioning in them that the man killed was the most excellent Zaydi on the face of the earth, and that the informers had aimed at him for his excellence and his wealth. So he was grateful to them, and ordered their noses and their ears cut off; and some of them were indeed so mutilated, and others fled. And the 'Alawi repented and asked forgiveness and gave great sums in charity, after returning the property of that slain man to his heirs, and offered them many times over the blood-money of their slain kinsman, and asked them to absolve him. They said: As for the blood-money, we absolve you of it; but as for the blood, that is not ours — it belongs to the slain man alone, and God is the Judge. And the 'Alawi vowed to God Almighty that he would not interfere with people in their creeds. And in the letter of their two fathers was that the Summoner