Al-Kāfī
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(, , literally 'The Sufficient') is a
hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...
collection of the Twelver tradition, compiled in the first half of the 10th century  CE (early 4th century  AH) by . It is one of the
Four Books The Four Books and Five Classics are authoritative and important books associated with Confucianism, written before 300 BC. They are traditionally believed to have been either written, edited or commented by Confucius or one of his disciples. S ...
. It is divided into three sections: , dealing with
epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...
,
theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...
,
history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
,
ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...
,
supplication Supplication (also known as petitioning) is a form of prayer, wherein one party humbly or earnestly asks another party to provide something, either for the party who is doing the supplicating (e.g., "Please spare my life.") or on behalf of someon ...
, and the ; , which is concerned with practical and
legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a Socia ...
issues; and (or , which includes miscellaneous traditions, many of which are lengthy letters and speeches transmitted from the
imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...
s. In total, comprises 16,199 narrations.


Contents


''Usul al-Kafi''

The first eight books of are commonly referred to as , meaning 'Fundamental'. The first typeset edition of the , which was published in eight volumes, placed in the first two volumes. Generally speaking, contains traditions that deal with epistemology, theology, history, ethics, supplication, and the .


''Furūʿ al-Kāfī''

Books 9 through 34 are referred to as and are found in volumes three through seven of the first typeset edition. contains traditions that deal predominantly with practical and legal issues.


''Rawdat al-Kāfī''

The final book stands alone as or , which is found in volume eight of the first typeset edition. contains nearly 600 miscellaneous traditions, many of which are lengthy letters and speeches, not arranged in any particular order.


Authenticity

Most scholars do not make any assumptions about the authenticity of a hadith book. Most believe that there are no ('sound', 'truthful') hadith books that are completely reliable. Hadith books are compiled by fallible people, and thus realistically, they inevitably have a mixture of strong and weak hadiths. Kulaynī himself stated in his preface that he only collected hadiths he thought were important and sufficient for Muslims to know, and he left the verification of these hadiths up to later scholars. According to the
Imami Twelver Shi'ism (), also known as Imamism () or Ithna Ashari, is the largest branch of Shi'a Islam, comprising about 90% of all Shi'a Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers to its adherents' belief in twelve divinely ordained leaders, known as th ...
scholar , known as (1505–1559 CE, 911–966 AH), who examined the or the chains of transmission of traditions, 5,072 are considered ; 144 are regarded as ('good'), second category; 1,118 are held to be ('trustworthy'), third category; 302 are adjudged to be ('strong') and 9,485 traditions which are categorized as ('weak').


Scholarly remarks

The author, , stated in his preface to : Imam
Khomeini Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (17 May 1900 or 24 September 19023 June 1989) was an Iranian revolutionary, politician, political theorist, and religious leader. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian ...
(a prominent 20th century scholar and statesman) said: The general idea behind this metaphor is that Khomeini objected to the laziness of many ignorant people who simply kept on their shelf, and ignored or violated it in their daily lives, assuming that they would somehow be saved from
Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...
just by possessing the book. Khomeini argued that Islamic law should be an integral part of everyday life for the believer, not just a stale manuscript to be placed on a shelf and forgotten. The irony of the allusion is telling; Khomeini implicitly says that (literally 'the Sufficient') is not ('enough') to make one a faithful Muslim or be counted among the righteous, unless one uses the wisdom contained within it and acts on it. scholar did not believe in the complete authenticity of .
Khoei Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Abu al-Qasim Musawi Khoei ( ; (; ; November 19, 1899 – August 8, 1992) was an Iranian Shia marja'. Khoei is considered one of the most influential twelver scholars. After the death of Muhsin al-Hakim in 1970, he became ...
points this out in his , or ''Collection of Men of Narrations'', in which he states: Scholars have made such remarks to remind the people that one cannot simply pick the book up, and take whatever they like from it as truthful. Rather, an exhaustive process of authentication must be applied, which leaves the understanding of the book in the hands of the learned. From the point of view, any book other than the , as well as individual hadiths or hadith narrators can be objectively questioned and scrutinized as to their reliability.


Shia view of ''al-Kafi'' relative to other hadith books

Kulaynī stated in his preface that he only collected hadiths he thought were important and sufficient for Muslims to know, and he left the verification of these hadiths up to later scholars. Kulaynī also states, in reference to hadiths generally: The author of never intended for it to be politicized as "infallible", but compiled it to give sincere advice based on Islamic law (regardless of the soundess of any one particular hadith), and to preserve rare hadiths and religious knowledge in an easily accessible collection for future generations to study. is the most comprehensive collection of traditions from the formative period of Islamic scholarship. It has been held in the highest esteem by generation after generation of Muslim scholars. ( 1022 CE) extolled it as "one of the greatest and most beneficial of Shia books". (d. 1385 CE) and (d. 1533 CE) have said, "No book has served the Shia as it has." The father of ʿAllāmah al Majlisī said, "Nothing
lse LSE may refer to: Education * London School of Economics, a public research university within the University of London * Lahore School of Economics, a private university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan * Lincoln Southeast High School, a public gove ...
like it has been written for Islam."


Commentaries

*, a commentary on by
Mohammad Salih al-Mazandarani Muḥammad Sāliḥ al-Māzandarānī (,  1675  CE, 1086  AH; Persian: ), He was Shia Islamic scholar and jurist, He was the author of a ten-volume commentary, ''Sharḥ Uṣūl al-Kāfī'', on the first of the Four Books (hadiths) ...
(17th century CE) * ('Mirror of the Mind'), a commentary on by
Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi Mohammad Baqer Majlesi ( – 29 March 1699; ), also known as Allamah Majlesi or Majlesi Al-Thani (Majlesi the Second), was an influential Iranian Akhbari Twelver Shia scholar and thinker during the Safavid era. He has been described as "one of t ...
(17th century CE) * by
Mulla Sadra Ṣadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī, more commonly known as Mullā Ṣadrā (; ; c. 1571/2 – c. 1635/40 CE / 980 – 1050 AH), was a Persians, Persian Twelver Shi'a, Shi'i Islamic philosophy, Islamic mystic, philosopher, Kalam, theologian, a ...
(17th century CE) * by Muhammad Baqir al-Behbudi (20th century CE)


See also

*
List of Shi'a books A list of religious books of Shia Islam: Books attributed to Shia Imams :# Mus'haf of Ali, a Tafseer of the Quran by Imam Ali :# Al-Jafr by Imam Ali :# Nahj al-Balaghah, a collection of sermons, letters and quotes attributed to Ali :# Ghurar a ...


References


External links


Al-Kafi English Translation
(Volume
12345678
, compiled by Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Kulaynī, translated by Hub-e-Ali organization, publicly available for free.
'Usul al-Kafi English Translation, E-Book Volumes 1-8'
compiled by Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Kulaynī, translated by Muḥammad Sarwar, published by the Islamic Seminary INC NY, available for purchase.
'Al-Kafi with translation and commentary by Islamic Texts Institute''Kiṫâbu-l-Kâfî'
compiled by Muḥammad Ya`qûb Kulaynî, published by the Islamic Seminary INC NY, translated by Muḥammad Sarwar.
How reliable is our Hadith Corpus? , Ayatullah Sayyid Kamal Al-Haydari
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitab Al-Kafi The Four Books Ja'fari jurisprudence Shia hadith collections