عَنْ بَكْرِ بْنِ كَرِبٍ قَالَ كُنَّا عِنْدَ اَبِي عَبْدِ اللهِؑ فَسَمِعْنَاهُ يَقُولُ اَمَا وَ اللهِ اِنَّ عِنْدَنَا مَا لَا نَحْتَاجُ اِلَى النَّاسِ وَ اِنَّ النَّاسَ لَيَحْتَاجُونَ اِلَيْنَا اِنَّ عِنْدَنَا الصَّحِيفَةَ سَبْعُونَ ذِرَاعًا بِخَطِّ عَلِيٍّؑ وَ اِمْلَاءِ رَسُولِ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِمَا وَ عَلَى اَوْلَادِهِمَا فِيهَا مِنْ كُلِّ حَلَالٍ وَ حَرَامٍ اِنَّكُمْ لَتَأْتُونَنَا فَتَدْخُلُونَ عَلَيْنَا فَنَعْرِفُ خِيَارَكُمْ مِنْ شِرَارِكُمْ
Bakr Ibn Karb reports, “We were with Imam Abu Abdillah (al-Sadeq a.s.) when we heard him (peace be upon him) say,
‘By Allah! Surely, with us is a thing due to which we become needless of the people and the people are certainly in need of us. Verily, with us is the Saheefah (a scripture) of seventy cubits in the writing of Ali (peace be upon him) and on the dictation of the Messenger of Allah (peace be on both of them and the progeny of both of them). In it (i.e. the scripture) is every permissible and prohibited thing. Definitely, when you come to us and call upon us, we can distinguish the good among you from the evil ones’.”
Note:
In this narration, Imam (peace be upon him) is talking of only one source of their divine knowledge. Of course, there are other sources as well.
References
1. Behaar al-Anwaar, vol. 26, p. 21, H. 8
2. Basaaer al-Darajaat, p. 142, H. 1, Chapter 12