Hadith 11-31

حَدَّثَنا الحُسَيْنِ بْنِ أَحْمَدِ بْنِ إِدْرِيس رَضِىَ اللهُ عَنْهُ، عَنْ أَبيهِ قالَ: حَدَّثَنا مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ بُنْذارٍ عَنْ‏عَلِيِّ الكُوفِي عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عَلِى الخُراسانِي خادِم الرِّضا عَلَيْهِ السَّلامُ قالَ: قَالَ بَعْضُ الزَّنَادِقَةِ لابِي الْحَسَنِ‏ عَلَيْهِ السَّلامُ هَلْ يُقَالُ لِلَّهِ: إِنَّهُ شَيْ‏ءٌ؟ فَقَالَ: نَعَمْ وَقَدْ سَمَّى نَفْسَهُ بِذَلِكَ فِي كِتَابِهِ فَقَالَ قُلْ أَيُّ شَيْ‏ءٍ أَكْبَرُ شَهادَةً قُلِ اللَّهُ شَهِيدٌ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَكُمْ فَهُوَشَيْ‏ءٌ لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْ‏ءٌ.

Al-Husayn ibn Ahmad ibn Idris - may God be pleased with him - narrated that his father quoted on the authority of Muhammad ibn Bondar, on the authority of Muhammad ibn Ali al-Kufi, on the authority of Muhammad ibn Ali al-Khorasani - the servant of Al-Ridha’ (a.s.), “One of the hypocrites asked Abil Hassan (a.s.), ‘Can we say that God is a ‘thing’? The Imam (a.s.) replied, ‘Yes. He has called Himself ‘thing’ in His Book as we read in the Quran, ‘Say, ‘What thing is most weighty in evidence?’ Say, ‘God is witness between me and you…’’ [51] He is a ‘Thing’ for which there is no other thing alike.’”