2. Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from al- Husayn ibn Sa’id from Fadalah ibn Ayyub and al-Qasim ibn Muhammad al- Jawhari from Kulayb ibn Mu’awiyah al-Asadi from Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) who has said the following: “Abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.) has said, ‘A servant (of Allah) may live in the morning as a believer and in the evening as an unbeliever. One may live in the morning as an unbeliever and in the evening as a believer. A people borrow belief then it is removed from them and they are called people with transient (belief).’ Then the Imam said, ‘So and so is among them (the last group).”’

3. Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father from Ibn Abi ‘Umayr from Hafs ibn al-Bakhtari and others from ‘Isa Shalqan who has said the following: “Once I was sitting when abu al-Hassan Musa (a.s.) passed by and with him was a goat. I (the narrator) asked him, ‘O young man, do you know what your father does? He commands us to do something and then he prohibits us to do the same thing. He commanded us to be friends with abu al-Khattab and then he commanded us to condemn and disown him.’ Abu al-Hassan (a.s.) said, and he was only a young boy, ‘Allah has created a creature for belief that does not vanish. He has created a creature for disbelief that does not vanish. He has created a creature in between and has deposited belief in them and they are called people with transient belief. When He wills He removes belief from them and abu al-Khattab was one in whom belief was deposited temporarily.’ I (the narrator) then went in the presence of Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) and informed him of what I had said to abu al-Hassan and what abu al-Hassan (a.s.) had said to me. Abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.) then said, ‘He is one of the fountains from prophet-hood.’”

4. Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father from Isma’il ibn Marrar from Yunus from certain individuals of our people from abu al-Hassan (a.s.) who has said the following: ‘‘Allah has created the prophets with prophet-hood, thus, they are nothing else but prophets. He has created the believers upon belief and they are nothing else but believers. He has deposited belief in a people. If He wills He completes it in them and if He wishes He removes it from them.’ The Imam said, ‘About these people it is said, “. . . the permanent and transient. . . .” (6:98) The Imam said to me, ‘The belief of so and so was temporary. When he made false statements against us his belief was removed.’”