الأئمة عليهم السلام و كان ممن لا يطعن في روايته و يكون سديدا في نقله و لم يكن هناك قرينة تدل على صحة ما تضمنه الخبر لأنه إذا كان هناك قرينة تدل على صحة ذلك كان الاعتبار بالقرينة و كان ذلك موجبا للعلم كما تقدمت القرائن جاز العمل به و الذي يدل على ذلك إجماع الفرقة المحقة فإني وجدتها مجتمعة على العمل بهذه الأخبار التي رووها في تصانيفهم و دونوها في أصولهم لا يتناكرون ذلك و لا يتدافعون حتى إن واحدا منهم إذا أفتى بشي ء لا يعرفونه سألوه من أين قلت هذا فإذا أحالهم على كتاب معروف و أصل مشهور و كان راويه ثقة لا ينكر حديثه سكتوا و سلموا الأمر في ذلك و قبلوا قوله هذه عادتهم و سجيتهم من عهد النبي صلى اللّٰه عليه و آله و من بعده من الأئمة عليهم السلام و من زمان الصادق جعفر بن محمد عليهما السلام الذي انتشر العلم عنه و كثرت الرواية من جهته فلو لا أن العمل بهذه الأخبار كان جائزا لما أجمعوا على ذلك و لا يكون لأن إجماعهم فيه معصوم لا يجوز عليه الغلط و السهو و الذي يكشف عن ذلك أنه لما كان العمل بالقياس محظورا في الشريعة عندهم لم يعملوا به أصلا و إذا شذ منهم واحد عمل به في بعض المسائل و استعمل علی وجه المحاجة لخصمه و إن لم يكن اعتقاده ردوا قوله و أنكروا عليه و تبرءوا من قولهم حتى إنهم يتركون تصانيف من وصفناه و رواياته لما كان عاملا بالقياس فلو كان العمل بخبر الواحد يجري ذلك المجرى لوجب أيضا فيه مثل ذلك و قد علمنا خلافه انتهى كلامه قدس سره و لما كان في غاية المتانة و مشتملا على الفوائد الكثيرة أوردناه و سنفصل القول في ذلك في المجلد الآخر من الكتاب إن شاء اللّٰه تعالى.

the rightly guided Imams, peace be upon them, and if there is no blame against the narrator in his transmission of the narration and he is exacting in the matter of transmitting narration, and there is also no indication pointing to the soundness of what the report contains (for if there were an indication here, it would point to the soundness of the report, but then the authority and criterion would be that indication, and this would produce knowledge in the report), as was said of the earlier indications — then acting upon it is permissible. And the proof of this matter is the consensus of the true sect (the Shi'a), so far as I have ascertained, that they have all acted upon these reports, and their compilations and compositions have transmitted those narrations, and they have set them down in their books of principles and have not denied them nor discarded them; to the point that if one of these great scholars wished to give a legal ruling on something, he would not be asked: from where have you said this? Just as, when he says to them, "a well-known book and a famous source is the proof of my ruling, and the narration is reliable and his hadith is not denied", they fall silent and accept the matter. This has been the practice and custom of the Shi'a from the time of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and his family, and after him in the times of the Imams, peace be upon them, and especially in the time of Imam al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, when knowledge spread from that Imam and narration from him became abundant. And even if there were no acting upon these reports, the very fact that they have reached consensus upon it makes it permissible; why should it not be so? For it may well be that in their consensus an infallible one was present, and error and forgetfulness have no way into the infallible. And what lifts the veil from the matter is this: that since in the school of the Imams of the People of the House, peace be upon them, acting upon analogy is not permissible, when they met with a single report they acted upon it and by this means brought demonstration against the opponent; and if it were not in accordance with belief they would reject it and deny it and keep clear of its speakers, to the point of discarding their compositions, because in its narrations acting upon analogy was held permissible. And if in acting upon a single report there were this same practice, as there is in acting upon analogy, the same treatment would be given to it — whereas we know the contrary of this. Since this discussion of the shaykh is of the utmost soundness and has many benefits, we have brought it, and in the last volume we shall give the shaykh's discourse on this subject in detail.