عَنْ جَعْفَرٍ عَنْ أَبِيهِ عَنْ جَدِّهِ قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ: «أَبْشِرُوا إِنَّمَا مَثَلُ أُمَّتِي مَثَلُ الْغَيْثِ لَا يُدْرَى آخِرُهُ خَيْرٌ أَمْ أَوَّلُهُ؟ أَوْ كَحَدِيقَةٍ أُطْعِمَ مِنْهَا فَوْجٌ عَامًا لَعَلَّ آخِرَهَا فَوْجًا أَنْ يكون أعرَضَها عرضا وَأَعْمَقَهَا عُمْقًا وَأَحْسَنَهَا حُسْنًا كَيْفَ تَهْلِكُ أُمَّةٌ أَنَا أَوَّلُهَا وَالْمَهْدِيُّ وَسَطُهَا وَالْمَسِيحُ آخِرُهَا وَلَكِنْ بَين ذَلِك فَيْجٌ أَعْوَج لَيْسُوا وَلَا أَنا مِنْهُم» رَوَاهُ رزين
Ja'far, on his father's authority, told that his grandfather[*] reported God's messenger as saying, "Rejoice and rejoice again. My people are just like the rain, it not being known whether the last or the first of it is better; or it is like a garden from which a troop can be fed for a year, then another troop can be fed for a year, and perhaps the last troop which comes may be the broadest, deepest and finest. How can a people perish of which I am the first, the Mahdi the middle and the Messiah the last? But in the course of that there will be a crooked party which does not belong to me and to which I do not belong." *i.e., Ja'far as-Sadiq, whose father was Muhammad al-Baqir and whose grandfather was `Ali b. al-Husain Zain al-'Abidin. Razin transmitted it.
Cited in Mishkat al-Masabih (No. 6287).