“My name is ,” the old man whispered. “Not the city. The collector. I wrote six volumes, not five. The sixth was suppressed because it contained al-rijal al-muhmalun — the neglected narrators. Those whose truth would destabilize thrones.”
Everyone knew the canonical five volumes of Rijal al-Kashi (also known as Ikhtiyar Ma'rifat al-Rijal ). They contained the biographies of narrators of Hadith — who was trustworthy, who was a liar, who saw the Imam, who sold his soul for a handful of silver.
Faraj, trembling, opened it. The first page read: "These are the men and women whom the later schools forgot. Their chains of narration are broken not by weakness, but by fear." rijal kashi volume 6
He placed the page in a bottle and buried it under a thorn tree in the Kashi desert.
— A story for Rijal Kashi Volume 6: Where the erased narrators live. “My name is ,” the old man whispered
A figure stepped out of the shadow — not a jinn, not an angel, but an old man with luminous eyes and chains wrapped around his wrists. The chains made no sound.
Faraj turned. The door of his small study was open. He had locked it. I wrote six volumes, not five
Centuries later, a child will find it. And the chain will begin again.
“I, Faraj ibn al-Husayn al-Qummi, narrate from Kashi, who narrated from the neglected ones, who narrated from the Imams, who narrated from the Messenger (SAW), who narrated from Jibra’il, who narrated from Allah — the Just, the Hidden, the One who never forgets a single narrator.”