Kitab al-Kafi explained

Arabic: Kitab al-Kāfī
Subheader:Arabic: ٱلْكَافِي
Religion:Islam (Twelver Arabic: italic=unset|Shī‘ah|nocat=y)
Language:Arabic
Orig Lang Code:ar
Author:Arabic: italic=unset|[[Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Kulaynī]]
Date:= (309–329 AH
Chapters:35 (in 3 sections)

Arabic: Al-Kafi (Arabic: ٱلْكَافِي,, literally 'The Sufficient') is a hadith collection of the Twelver Arabic: italic=unset|Shī‘ah|nocat=y tradition, compiled in the first half of the 10th century CE (early 4th century AH) by Arabic: italic=unset|[[Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Kulaynī]].[1] It is one of the Four Books.

It is divided into three sections: Arabic: Uṣūl al-Kāfī, dealing with epistemology, theology, history, ethics, supplication, and the Arabic: italic=unset|[[Quran|Qurʾān]]; Arabic: Furūʿ al-Kāfī, which is concerned with practical and legal issues; and Arabic: Rawdat (or Arabic: Rawḍah al-Kāfī, which includes miscellaneous traditions, many of which are lengthy letters and speeches transmitted from the imams.[2] In total, Arabic: al-Kāfī comprises 16,199 narrations.[3]

Contents

Usul al-Kafi

The first eight books of Arabic: al-Kāfī are commonly referred to as Arabic: Uṣūl al-Kāfī, Arabic: Uṣūl meaning 'Fundamental'. The first typeset edition of the Arabic: al-Kāfī, which was published in eight volumes, placed Arabic: Uṣūl al-kāfī in the first two volumes. Generally speaking, Arabic: Uṣūl al-kāfī contains traditions that deal with epistemology, theology, history, ethics, supplication, and the Arabic: italic=unset|Qurʾān.

Arabic: Uṣūl al-Kāfī

[4] !Chapters!Traditions!Descriptions

Arabic: Kitāb al-ʿaql wal jahlThe Book of Intellect and Ignorance36 traditions
Arabic: Kitāb faḍl al-ʿilmThe Book of Knowledge and its Merits176 traditions
Arabic: Kitāb at-tawḥīdThe Book of God and his Oneness212 traditions
Arabic: Kitāb al-ḥujjahThe Book of Divine Guidance1015 traditions
Arabic: Kitāb al-īmān wal kufrThe Book of Belief and Unbelief1609 traditions
Arabic: Kitāb ad-duʿāʾThe Book of Supplication409 traditions
Arabic: Kitāb ʿadhamat al-QurʾānThe Book of the Qurʾān and its Merits124 Traditions
Arabic: Kitāb al-muʿāsharahThe Book of Social Intercourse464 traditions

Furūʿ al-Kāfī

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

Arabic: Furū al-Kāfī!Chapters
The Book of Purity
The Book of Menstruation
The Book of Funeral Rites
The Book of Prayer
The Book of Charity
The Book of Fasting
The Book of Ḥajj
The Book of Jihād
The Book of Commerce
The Book of Marriage
The Book of Animal Sacrifice upon the Birth of a Child
The Book of Divorce
The Book of Emancipation
The Book of Hunting
The Book of Slaughtering
The Book of Food
The Book of Drink
The Book of Clothing, Beautification, and Honor
The Book of Domesticated Animals
The Book of Testaments
The Book of Inheritance
The Book of Capital and Corporal Punishments
The Book of Restitution and Blood Money
The Book of Testimonies and Depositions
The Book of Adjudication and Legal Precedents
The Book of Oaths, Vows, and Penances

Rawdat al-Kāfī

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

Arabic: Rawdat al-Kāfī!Title
The Book of Miscellanea – literally a garden from which one can pick many kinds of flowers

Authenticity

Most Arabic: italic=unset|[[Shī‘ah]] scholars do not make any assumptions about the authenticity of a hadith book. Most believe that there are no Arabic: ṣaḥīḥ ('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 scholar Arabic: italic=unset|[[Zayn al-Din al-Juba'i al'Amili|Zayn al-Dīn al-ʿĀmili]], known as Arabic: italic=unset|ash-Shahīd ath-Thāni (1505–1559 CE, 911–966 AH), who examined the Arabic: asanād or the chains of transmission of Arabic: al-Kāfi traditions, 5,072 are considered Arabic: ṣaḥīḥ; 144 are regarded as Arabic: ḥasan ('good'), second category; 1,118 are held to be Arabic: muwathaq ('trustworthy'), third category; 302 are adjudged to be Arabic: qawi ('strong') and 9,485 traditions which are categorized as Arabic: ḍaʿīf ('weak').[5]

Scholarly remarks

The author, Arabic: italic=unset|[[Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Kulaynī]], stated in his preface to Arabic: Al-Kafi:[6]

Imam Khomeini (a prominent 20th century Arabic: italic=unset|[[Shī‘ah]] scholar and statesman) said:[7]

The general idea behind this metaphor is that Khomeini objected to the laziness of many ignorant people who simply kept Arabic: al-Kafi on their shelf, and ignored or violated it in their daily lives, assuming that they would somehow be saved from Hell 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 Arabic: al-Kāfī (literally 'the Sufficient') is not Arabic: kafi ('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.

Arabic: italic=unset|[[Shī‘ah]] scholar Arabic: italic=unset|[[Al-Shaykh al-Saduq|Shaykh Sadūq]] did not believe in the complete authenticity of Arabic: al-Kāfī. Khoei points this out in his Arabic: Mu‘jam Rijāl al-Hadīth, or Collection of Men of Narrations, in which he states:[8]

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 Arabic: italic=unset|[[Shī‘ah]] point of view, any book other than the Arabic: italic=unset|Qurʾān, 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:[9]

The author of Arabic: al-Kāfi 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.

Arabic: Al-Kāfi 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. Arabic: italic=unset|Shaykh al-Mufīd (1022 CE) extolled it as "one of the greatest and most beneficial of Shia books". Arabic: italic=unset|Al-Shahīd al-ʾAwwāl (d. 1385 CE) and Arabic: italic=unset|al-Muḥaqqiq al-Karāki (d. 1533 CE) have said, "No book has served the Shia as it has." The father of ʿAllāmah al Majlisī said, "Nothing [else] like it has been written for Islam."

Commentaries

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Meri, Josef W. . 2005 . Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia . Routledge . 978-0-415-96690-0.
  2. Howard . I. K. A. . Al-Kafi by Al-Kulaynī . Al-Serat: A Journal of Islamic Studies . 2 . 1 . 1976 .
  3. Web site: Hadith al-Kafi . Al-Islam.org.
  4. Book: Kohlberg, Etan . Belief and Law in Imami Shiism . 1991 . 523 . Variorum.
  5. Web site: Selections from Al-Kulaynī's Al-Kafi . Al-Islam.org.
  6. Book: Islamic Texts Institute . Al-Kafi Book I: Intellect and Foolishness . 2012 . Taqwa Media . 9781939420008.
  7. Wilayat al-Faqih: Al-Hukumah Al-Islamiyyah, p. 72.
  8. Web site: (Arabic reference) . 2008-12-05 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070527121650/http://www.alkhoei.net/data/almaktaba/m_r/01/p3.html . 2007-05-27 . dead .
  9. Web site: Nikah of Lady Umme Kulthum[sa] . Answering-Ansar.org . 2009-03-08 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100124100037/http://www.answering-ansar.org/answers/umme_kulthum/en/chap7.php . 2010-01-24 . dead.