The Testimony of 40 People

Mohammad Ibne Khaled Barghi has reported on the authority of Imam Sadeq (AS):   “There was a pious man among Bani Israel.  God inspired prophet David (AS) that the pious man was hypocritical.  After sometime the man passed away.  Prophet David did not attend his funeral service but forty men of Bani Israel did so and said:     O God! We know nothing but good about him.  Yet You are the All-knowing.  Forgive him his sins.   After bathing the corpse, forty others rose up saying: O God! We know nothing but good about him. Yet You are the All-knowing.  Forgive him his sins.   After having buried him, forty others came and said:    O God! We know nothing but good about him.  Yet You are the All-knowing.  Forgive him his sins.     At this time God said to David: Why didn’t you pray for him?  David said: You Yourself said he is hypocritical.  God said: Since a group of people testified that he was good, I accepted their testimony, hence I forgave him for what I knew but they did not know.”   Reference : Oddatud Daee