his station.”
This Imam has a powerful authority over the satans who cling to the people of goodness and righteousness to divert them from their way.
When a satan catches sight of this Imam while accompanying one of the righteous and plotting how to divert him from his way, it melts as lead melts in fire. The Imam calls it by its name, in the hope that it may submit, but it turns and flees.
That righteous person remains protected from this kind of satan’s casting into him something that would remove him from his righteousness, so long as this Imam is present, looking toward him—even if that righteous person does not know him or know what has occurred. We have witnessed this with a group of people. Through this Imam, God wards off from His servants the evils particular to His righteous servants, as a special care for them.
One of this Imam’s special qualities is assenting to every report related about God, whether the reporter speaks truthfully or fabricates. The Imam assents because he looks toward the divine name that governs this reporter in his reporting.
If he is truthful, his reporting proceeds from realized unveiling, and he and the Imam are equal in this.
If he has no unveiling and reports what has occurred within him, not knowing who caused it to occur and intending to lie, this Imam assents to his report. The reporter, however, is punished by God and deprived because of his intention to lie, though in the affair itself it is not so. The evil consequence of his intention
Notes
Translator’s note TN5633-1: The antecedent in “in the affair itself it is not so” is not explicitly named. The translation preserves the distinction between the Imam’s assent to the report and the reporter’s culpable intention, without making this a permission to fabricate.
