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Al-Fadl actually did try to transfer the caliphate from one tribe to another in order to satisfy by so doing his own personal conceit and in pursuit of his own personal ambition to be a second Abu Muslim, so he enters the residence of al-Rida (A.S.) accompanied by Hisham ibn Amr to say: "O son of the Messenger of God! I have come to you to speak in private; so, please clear the place," then al-Fadl brings out of his pocket an oath sworn by the sanctity of emancipation, divorce, and whatever has no kaffara, and both men say to him, "We have come to you to say a word of truth and honesty, and we know that your word is most effective, and the right belongs to you. O son of the Messenger of God! What we say with our tongues is attested to by our own conscience; otherwise, we would emancipate all that we have, and all our women are henceforth divorced, and I shall be required to perform the pilgrimage thirty times on foot... that we shall kill al-Mamoon and put you in charge so that right goes back to you," but he did not listen to them but cursed them and said, "You both have proven ungrateful to the blessings God has blessed you with; therefore, you will not be safe from what you have said, and I shall not get what you promise even if I were to agree to what you say." When al-Fadl and Hisham heard the Imam (A.S.) say so, they realized that they were mistaken in their calculations; therefore, they went back to al-Mamoon after telling al-Rida (A.S.) that they were only testing him. Before leaving, they were told by the Imam (A.S.), "You have lied, for your hearts certainly relish what you have just said to me, but you found me not exactly as you had hoped." When they entered al-Mamoon's court, they said: "O commander of the faithful! We have just visited al-Rida (A.S.) and we tested him and wanted to sift his mind about you, so we said what we said and he said too," whereupon al-Mamoon said, "You have done well." So when they came out, al-Rida (A.S.) went to see him and they remained by themselves and al-Rida (A.S.) informed him of what they both had said and enjoined him to protect himself from their mischief. When al-Mamoon heard that from al-Rida (A.S.), he knew that the Imam (A.S.), not those two men, was the truthful.

Adapted from: "Imam al-Ridha (a.s.), A Historical and Biographical Research" by: "Muhammad Jawad Fadlallah"