It is narrated that the Commander of the Faithful (God's blessings and peace be upon him) said this to al-Harith al-Hamdani: O Har of Hamdan, whoever dies shall see me face to face, be he believer or hypocrite; his person will know me, and I shall know him by his name and his kunya and by what he has done. And you, O Har, if you die you shall see me, and I shall give you to drink a water that you will take for honey. (al-Muhtadar, vol. 1, p. 13)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said to al-Harith al-Hamdani: All people see me at the moment of death, whether they be believers or hypocrites. Not only do they see me, they know me. I too know them by name and in detail, and I am informed of their deeds. It is at that moment that I give my pure Shi'a a draught of honey to drink.
Al-Fadl ibn Shadhan narrated in Kitab al-Qa'im, from Sa'd ibn Tarif, from al-Asbagh ibn Nubata, in a long hadith in which he relates that the Commander of the Faithful (God's blessings be upon him) went out from Kufa and travelled on until he came to al-Ghariyyan and passed beyond it. We caught up with him, and he was lying with his body upon the ground, with no garment beneath him. Qanbar said to him: O Commander of the Faithful, shall I not spread my garment beneath you? He (AS) said: No. Is this anything but the dust of a believer, or a crowding upon him in his gathering-place? Al-Asbagh said: I said, O Commander of the Faithful, the dust of a believer we understand — one who has been or who will be — but what is this crowding upon him in his gathering-place? He (AS) said: O son of Nubata, were the veil lifted for you, you would find the spirits of the believers on this high ground in circles, visiting one another and conversing. Truly, in this high ground is the spirit of every believer, and in the valley of Barahut the soul of every unbeliever. (al-Muhtadar, vol. 1, p. 18)
The narrator says: The Commander of the Faithful (AS) went out from Kufa toward al-Ghari (present-day Najaf). There he fell into prostration. When we arrived, we saw that there was no mat beneath him and that he was prostrating directly upon the bare earth. His servant said: Would you like us to spread something out beneath you? He said: No! This place is either the dust of a believer or the assembly of the believers. The narrator says: I asked: We know what the dust of a believer is, but what is the assembly of the believers? The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: If the veil were drawn back from your eyes, you would see that the spirits of the believers are gathered in this desert; they visit one another and sit together in conversation. This is the meeting-place of the spirits of the believers, and the abode of the spirits of the unbelievers is Barahut (a dry desert in Hadramawt in Yemen).
Al-Saduq ibn Babawayh narrated with his chain from al-Sadiq (AS), from the Commander of the Faithful (AS): Hold fast to what God has commanded you; for there is nothing between any one of you and his coming to be envied and seeing what he loves, except that the Messenger of God (PBUH) should come to him — and what is with God is better and more lasting — so that the good tidings come to him from God, Mighty and Majestic, his eye is gladdened, and he comes to love the meeting with God. (al-Muhtadar, vol. 1, p. 21)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Occupy yourselves with the service of God, and take joy in the fact that between you and Paradise there is nothing but death. And at death the Messenger of God (PBUH) will be present with you and will give you the good news of Paradise and of meeting God.
Shaykh Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tusi (may God have mercy on him) narrated in his Amali, with his chain, from Yunus ibn Zabyan, who said: I was with Abu Abd Allah (AS) and he spoke concerning the spirits of the believers after their death: When that comes to pass, there come to him the Messenger of God, Ali, Fatima, al-Hasan and al-Husayn, and with them the angels of God who are brought near. If God causes his tongue to utter the testimony to God's oneness, to the Prophet's prophethood and to the walaya of the Ahl al-Bayt, then the Messenger of God, Ali, Fatima, al-Hasan and al-Husayn and those angels present with them (peace be upon them) bear witness to that. Then, when God takes him to Himself, He conveys that spirit to Paradise in a form like its form in this world, and they eat and drink; and when a newcomer arrives among them, he knows them by that same form which they had in this world. (al-Muhtadar, vol. 1, p. 22)
Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said: At the death of the believers, the Messenger of God (PBUH), the Commander of the Faithful (AS), Fatima (peace be upon her), al-Hasan and al-Husayn (AS) and the angels brought near are present; and when the believer utters the two testimonies of faith, they too confirm it. Then God takes the spirits of the believers, and brings them into Paradise in this very outward form and likeness they had in the world. There they enjoy its bounties, and whenever the spirit of one of their acquaintances joins them, they recognize him and welcome him.
From the Commander of the Faithful (AS): When the believer sleeps, his spirit ascends to God, glorified be He, and He receives it and blesses it. If its appointed term has come, He places it within the hidden treasury of His mercy; and if its appointed term has not come, He sends it back with the trustworthy ones among His angels, and returns it into its body. (al-Muhtadar, vol. 1, p. 44)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: When a believer sleeps, his spirit ascends toward God. God receives him and pours out blessing upon him. If his appointed term has come, He immerses him in His mercy; otherwise He returns his spirit to the body with guardians from among the angels.
From the Commander of the Faithful (AS): If you have cause to disown anyone, wait for him until death; for it is at that point that the disowning takes hold. (al-Muhtadar, vol. 1, p. 55)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: In disowning someone, do not be hasty so long as he is alive and has the opportunity to change; if he dies while persisting in falsehood, then is the place for disowning.
From the Commander of the Faithful (AS): Do not consider the best of this community safe from God's punishment, because of the words of God Most High: 'None feels secure from God's devising except the people who are lost' [Qur'an 7:99]. And do not despair of God's relief for the worst of this community, because of the words of God Most High: 'None despairs of God's relief except the unbelieving people' [Qur'an 12:87]. (al-Muhtadar, vol. 1, p. 55)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: Let the good of the community not be deluded, for God has said: to feel secure from God's devising is grievous loss; and let the evildoers not despair, for God has said: despair of God's mercy is the worst kind of unbelief.
It is narrated that when her father (God bless him and his family) died, Fatima (peace be upon her) said to the Commander of the Faithful (AS): I hear someone speaking to me of things and events that will come to pass among my descendants. He said: Whenever you hear it, dictate it to me. So she began to dictate and he to write it down; and it is narrated that it amounted to three times the size of the Qur'an, containing nothing of the Qur'an itself. When he had completed it, he named it the Mushaf of Fatima, because she was one spoken to, whom the angels addressed. (al-Muhtadar, vol. 1, p. 233)
It is narrated that after the passing of the Prophet (PBUH), Fatima (peace be upon her) said to Ali (AS): I hear someone speaking to me and telling of events that will befall my children in the future. Ali (AS) said: From now on, whenever you hear the voice, tell me so that I may write it down. So Fatima (peace be upon her) would speak and Ali (AS) would write, and these writings grew numerous. These writings are called the Mushaf of Fatima, and the voices were the voices of the angels who spoke with her.
It is narrated from the Commander of the Faithful (AS) that he said to Salman: O Salman, He has made obedience to our authority obligatory in His Book in more than one place, and has made clear therein what must be acted upon, yet it is not laid open to view. (al-Muhtadar, vol. 1, p. 278)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said to Salman: Our walaya and the necessity of following us are mentioned in several places in the Book of God, but this is not manifest to everyone.
It is narrated from him (AS) that he said: I have been given six things: knowledge of deaths, of afflictions and of testaments, and the decisive word; I am the possessor of the returns and the dominion of dominions; I am the possessor of the staff and the branding-iron; and I am the Beast that speaks to mankind. (al-Muhtadar, vol. 1, p. 278)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: God has bestowed six gifts upon me: I know when and how every person will die; I know what afflictions have been decreed for each person in his life; I know what will pass from each person to others after his death; the fourth is that I appear and manifest myself again and again; the fifth: I am the possessor of the staff and the possessor of the branding-iron; the sixth: I am that Beast of the Earth of which God spoke in the Qur'an — I set a mark upon the foreheads and distinguish the believer from the unbeliever.
(We say: this narration is among the strange (gharib) reports, and this servant has translated it to the measure of his own understanding; the meaning of the staff and the branding-iron did not become clear to this servant.)
The book Mukhtasar al-Basa'ir, composed by Hasan ibn Sulayman al-Hilli, a Shi'i scholar of the eighth century, is a selection and abridgement of the book Basa'ir al-Darajat of Sa'd ibn Abd Allah al-Ash'ari al-Qummi, a Shi'i scholar of the third century AH, and has no connection with the book Basa'ir al-Darajat of Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Saffar al-Qummi. The subject of the book is narrations concerning the virtues and characteristics of the Imams and the knowledge of them. The original book of al-Ash'ari is no longer extant, but a work of the same name, the Basa'ir al-Darajat of al-Saffar al-Qummi, a contemporary of al-Ash'ari, does exist, and as it happens its contents are entirely similar to what appears in Mukhtasar al-Basa'ir. Many narrations asserting the corruption of the Qur'an are found in this book; and likewise the doctrine of the Return (raj'a), with legendary, strange and at times unbelievable details, was for the first time given prominence in this book and thereafter took its place among the beliefs of the Shi'i common people. One of the features of such an extremist interpretation of the Return is the denial of many verses about the Resurrection and their figurative reinterpretation as referring to the Return. It is as though the world of the hereafter, especially in its spiritual interpretation, was for those who believed in such hadiths fundamentally unbelievable. Hence, even if we do not wish to call this book the most error-ridden of Shi'i hadith works, we must be entirely cautious in the face of what it alone transmits and what no one before its author had narrated.