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The Reason of Coming Down of Scroll Hadith On the third of Shaban (3rd year A.H), a very dear newborn opened his eyes to this world and shed another light in the house of Ali Ibn Abi Talib and Fatima: Imam al-Husain as the forth child of this family was born. The place and statues of this child before God was so high that God endowed the holy Prophet with a divine Scroll to honor him. And the holy Prophet found no one more deserving than Fatima - his daughter – possessing the Scroll; therefore he gave it to her. This Scroll includes significant points in Monotheism, Prophethood, Resurrection (Ma’ad), al-Walaya (guardianship of the Imams), name of the Imams, their characters, the future (end) of the world, and a report about the era of Absence of Imam al-Mahdi the 12th Imam and his Reappearance. *** From this precious document only two manuscripts existed: one, the original, which was in the hands of the holy Prophet and was passed down from one Imam to the next and the other a copy, written by Jabir ibn Abdullah Ansari, and kept with him for safekeeping. When Jabir went to Hazrat Zahra’s house to offer his congratulations on the birth of Imam al-Husain, Jabir was shown the Scroll by Hazrat Zahra and was allowed by her to make a copy from it. Jabir, an elderly companion of the Prophet, lived more than 100 years and was alive until the Imamat of Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (the 5th Imam). The 6th Imam - Ja’far al-Sadiq- said: “one day, my father - Imam al-Baqir - said to Jabir: “I have something to tell you, whenever you have time, let me know.” So a time was set. Imam al-Baqir said: “Tell me about the Scroll you saw with my mother, Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, and the words she told you about that Scroll and its contents.” Jabir said: “By God, a day in the time of the Prophet I came to your mother, Fatima to offer my congratulations on the birth of Imam al-Husain. In front of her, I saw a green Scroll which seemed to be made of emerald with white writings on it (shining) like the sun. I said: “O’ the daughter of the Prophet, what is this scroll?” she said: “This is a scroll from God, given to the Prophet as a gift and in it are the names of my father (Muhammad), my husband (Ali), my two sons (Imam al-Hasan and Imam al-Husain) and the names of the prophet’s successors which are my descendants. My father (the Prophet) gave this Scroll to me as glad tidings”. Jabir continued: “Your mother Fatima gave that Scroll to me, and I read it and made a manuscript from it.” Imam al-Baqir told Jabir: “Will you show me that Scroll?” Jabir replied: “Of course, you have more authority over it than I do”. Imam al-Baqir came to Jabir’s house and Jabir brought a manuscript. Imam al-Baqir said: O’ Jabir! Look at your manuscript while I read from it (from the original one to compare them) Jabir looked at his manuscript and my father started reading. Not a vowel differed between them. *** Imam al-Sadiq said this story to one of his special accompanies, Abu Basir. Abu Basir told it to Abd al-Rahman Ibn Salim. And gradually, the content of this Scroll was quoted to others and now it is recognized as “The Scroll of Jabir”, or “The scroll of Fatima al-Zahra”. This holy document has been quoted in several authentic Islamic books. We have cited it from the book “al-Kafi” written by the great Shia scholar, Muhammad Ibn Yaqub al-Kolaini (d:329 Hejri) to show in the eleventh century after his passing, one of many, of the Ahl al-Bait precious relics preserved in his book. |