Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Abu Ishaq al-Laythi said: ... The Imam (peace be upon him) said: Allah created all things from nothing, and among what Allah created was a pure earth. Then He caused springs sweet and clear to flow from it, and He presented our wilayah — the wilayah of us, the Ahl al-Bayt — to it, and it accepted. Then He caused that water to flow over it for seven days until it covered it entirely and enveloped it, and then it sank into it. Then He took from the choicest of that clay a clay and made it the nature (tinat) of the Imams, then He took the sediment of that clay and from it He created our Shia. ... After that, Allah the Exalted created a briny, impure, foul-smelling earth. He split it open and brought out from it a bitter, salty water. Then He presented our wilayah to it, but it did not accept. He caused that water to flow over the earth for seven days until it covered all of it, then He took the water away, and after that He took a portion of the clay on the surface of that earth and from it He created the tyrants (tughat) and their leaders. ... Then He mixed it with the sediment of your clay. After that He blended the two together, so that from the substance (sinkh) of the believer and his tinat there fell some upon the substance of the disbeliever and his tinat, and from the substance of the disbeliever and his tinat there fell some upon the substance of the believer and his tinat. So whatever you see in our Shia — such as fornication, sodomy, abandoning prayer, abandoning fasting, abandoning Hajj, abandoning jihad, treachery, or any of these grave sins — know that it arises from the tinat and element of the nasibi (hostile opponent) that has been mixed with the tinat of the believer. ... And whatever you see in the nasibi — such as diligence in prayer, fasting, zakat, Hajj, jihad and works of good — arises from the tinat of the believer that has been mixed with the tinat of the nasibi. The tinat of the believer necessitates receiving good deeds, using the means of goodness, and avoiding sins. When these deeds are presented to the Truth, Blessed and Exalted, He says: "I am just, I do not wrong; I am equitable, I do not permit oppression; I am the Judge, I do not deviate in My judgement, I do not incline from what is right to error, and I do not depart from truth and reality. Attach the evil deeds which the believer has committed to the substance of the nasibi and his tinat, and attach the good and praiseworthy deeds which the nasibi has earned to the substance of the believer and his tinat. Return all these actions to their origin. I am the Allah other than whom there is no deity; I know the hidden and what is more hidden; I am the One who oversees the hearts of My servants; I do not deviate and I do not wrong, and I do not oblige anyone to any act except by what I knew of him before I created him." Then Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) said: "O Ibrahim, recite this verse." I said: "O son of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family), which verse shall I recite?" He said: "قالَ مَعاذَ اللهِ أَنْ نَأْخُذَ إِلَّا مَنْ وَجَدْنا مَتاعَنا عِنْدَهُ إِنَّا إِذاً لَظالِمُونَ [He said: Allah forbid that we should seize other than him with whom we found our property, for then indeed we would be wrongdoers]. This saying of the Exalted Truth has, in its outward meaning, what you understand from it, and by Allah, in its inner meaning it is precisely this."