١١ - حدثنا أحمد بن محمد بن يحيى العطار رحمه الله، عن أبيه، عن أحمد بن محمد، عن الحسين بن سعيد، عن القاسم بن محمد، عن عبد الصمد بن بشير، عن فضيل ابن سكرة، قال: قلت لأبي جعفر عليه السلام: جعلت فداك إن رأيت أن تعلمني هل كان الله جل ذكره يعلم قبل أن يخلق الخلق أنه وحده؟  فقد اختلف مواليك، فقال بعضهم: قد كان يعلم تبارك وتعالى أنه وحده قبل أن يخلق شيئا من خلقه، و قال بعضهم، إنما معنى يعلم يفعل، فهو اليوم يعلم أنه لا غيره قبل فعل الأشياء، وقالوا: إن أثبتنا أنه لم يزل عالما بأنه لا غيره فقد أثبتنا معه غيره في أزليته، فإن رأيت يا سيدي أن تعلمني ما لا أعدوه إلى غيره، فكتب عليه السلام : ما زال الله تعالى عالما تبارك وتعالى ذكره. 
11. Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Yahya al-`Attar  said, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ahmad ibn Muhammad, on the authority of al-Husayn ibn Sa`id, on the authority of alQasim ibn Muhammad, on the authority of `Abd al-Samad ibn Bashir, on the authority of Fudayl ibn Sukkarah that I asked Abu Ja`far al-Baqir : May I be taken as your ransom! I hope that you can tech me. Prior to creation, did Allah, may His Remembrance be Exalted, know that He was One? Your followers have a dispute regarding this issue. Some of them say: “The Blessed and Exalted surely knew that He was alone before He created anything from His Creation/” While others say: “Verily, the meaning of knowing is doing. Therefore, He knows today that there was no one other than Him before He created the thngs.” And they say: “If we prove that He has always known that ere was none but Him, then we have proved that there was other than Him in sempiternity [azaliyyah]. If you could be so kind, O my Master, to teach me whether the truth is other than this. Thus, he  wrote: “Allah, the Exalted, has always been All-Knowing, Blessed and Exalted be His Remembrance.”