| 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 '
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]
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: Kitāb al-ʿaql wal jahl | The Book of Intellect and Ignorance | 36 traditions | |
| Arabic: Kitāb faḍl al-ʿilm | The Book of Knowledge and its Merits | 176 traditions | |
| Arabic: Kitāb at-tawḥīd | The Book of God and his Oneness | 212 traditions | |
| Arabic: Kitāb al-ḥujjah | The Book of Divine Guidance | 1015 traditions | |
| Arabic: Kitāb al-īmān wal kufr | The Book of Belief and Unbelief | 1609 traditions | |
| Arabic: Kitāb ad-duʿāʾ | The Book of Supplication | 409 traditions | |
| Arabic: Kitāb ʿadhamat al-Qurʾān | The Book of the Qurʾān and its Merits | 124 Traditions | |
| Arabic: Kitāb al-muʿāsharah | The Book of Social Intercourse | 464 traditions |
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.
| 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 |
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.
| The Book of Miscellanea – literally a garden from which one can pick many kinds of flowers |
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]
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.
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."