The Thirty-Fourth Assembly, the Assembly of Tuesday, the Nineteenth of Muharram, 368 AH.

The Messenger of Allah (s) said: I am astonished at he who avoids food in fear of disease – why does he not avoid sins in fear of Hell?!

The Messenger of Allah (s) said: O Allah, have mercy on my vicegerents (khulafa’i) – three times. It was said: O Messenger of Allah! Who are your vicegerents? He said: Those who convey my narrations and my Sunna, then teach them to my Nation.

I have a need. He said: So, he left. Then, another one said: I have a need. So, he left. Then, the last one said: I have a need. So, he left. The three of them had gone to the gold. Two of them said to one of them: Buy us food. So, he went to buy food for the two of them. He put poison in it so that he may kill them and not share the gold with them. The two said: When he comes, let us kill him so that we do not have to share with him. When he came, they went to him and killed him. Then, they ate, and they both died. So, `Isa (as) returned to him, and they were dead around him. So, he resurrected them by the permission of Allah; then said: Did I not tell you that this kills people?!

The Messenger of Allah (s) went out wearing a black cloak. So, it was said: O Messenger of Allah! Who shrouded you in this black cloak? So, he said: My lover and my elect, my special and my pure one, my representative, my deputy, my inheritor, my brother; the first of the believers to convert to Islam, the sincerest of them in faith, the most gracious of the people in his hands; the Master of the people after me, the Leader of the shining believers, the Imam of the people of the Earth `Ali b. Abi Talib shrouded me in it. Then, he did not stop weeping until his tears became like pebbles in his longing for him.

We are the Imams of the Muslims, the Proofs of Allah over the Worlds, the Chiefs of the Believers, the Leaders of the shining believers, and the Masters of the Believers. We are a safeguard for the people of Earth just as the stars are a safeguard for the people of the sky. We are the ones by whom Allah holds up the sky from falling, except by His permission. We are the ones by whom He prevents the Earth from shaking its people. We are the ones by whom He sends down rain. We are the ones by whom He spreads mercy and brings out the blessings of the Earth. Had any of us not been on Earth, it would have caved in on its people. He said: The Earth has never been left without a Proof of Allah upon it since Allah created Adam – either apparent and known or hidden and concealed. It will not be empty [of a Proof] until the Hour rises with a Proof upon it. Had it not been for that, Allah would not be worshiped. Sulayman said: So, I said to al-Sadiq (as): How will people benefit from a Proof that is hidden and concealed? He said: Just as you benefit from the Sun when it is concealed with clouds.