Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 6

The Book about people with Divine Authority · The Jinns Come to the Imam for Religious Instructions and for Dealing with their Affairs · Volume 1, book 4, chapter 98, Hadith 6

Original Arabic text

6ـ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ يَحْيَى وَأَحْمَدُ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ الْحَسَنِ عَنْ إِبْرَاهِيمَ بْنِ هَاشِمٍ عَنْ عَمْرِو بْنِ عُثْمَانَ عَنْ إِبْرَاهِيمَ بْنِ أَيُّوبَ عَنْ عَمْرِو بْنِ شِمْرٍ عَنْ جَابِرٍ عَنْ ابي جعفر (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) قَالَ بَيْنَا أَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) عَلَى الْمِنْبَرِ إِذْ أَقْبَلَ ثُعْبَانٌ مِنْ نَاحِيَةِ بَابٍ مِنْ أَبْوَابِ الْمَسْجِدِ فَهَمَّ النَّاسُ أَنْ يَقْتُلُوهُ فَأَرْسَلَ أَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) أَنْ كُفُّوا فَكَفُّوا وَأَقْبَلَ الثُّعْبَانُ يَنْسَابُ حَتَّى انْتَهَى إِلَى الْمِنْبَرِ فَتَطَاوَلَ فَسَلَّمَ عَلَى أَمِيرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) فَأَشَارَ أَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) إِلَيْهِ أَنْ يَقِفَ حَتَّى يَفْرُغَ مِنْ خُطْبَتِهِ وَلَمَّا فَرَغَ مِنْ خُطْبَتِهِ أَقْبَلَ عَلَيْهِ فَقَالَ مَنْ أَنْتَ فَقَالَ عَمْرُو بْنُ عُثْمَانَ خَلِيفَتِكَ عَلَى الْجِنِّ وَإِنَّ أَبِي مَاتَ وَأَوْصَانِي أَنْ آتِيَكَ فَأَسْتَطْلِعَ رَأْيَكَ وَقَدْ أَتَيْتُكَ يَا أَمِيرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فَمَا تَأْمُرُنِي بِهِ وَمَا تَرَى فَقَالَ لَهُ أَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) أُوصِيكَ بِتَقْوَى الله وَأَنْ تَنْصَرِفَ فَتَقُومَ مَقَامَ أَبِيكَ فِي الْجِنِّ فَإِنَّكَ خَلِيفَتِي عَلَيْهِمْ قَالَ فَوَدَّعَ عَمْرٌو أَمِيرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَانْصَرَفَ فَهُوَ خَلِيفَتُهُ عَلَى الْجِنِّ فَقُلْتُ لَهُ جُعِلْتُ فِدَاكَ فَيَأْتِيكَ عَمْرٌو وَذَاكَ الْوَاجِبُ عَلَيْهِ قَالَ نَعَمْ.

Published English translation

6. Muhammad ibn Yahya and Ahmad ibn Muhammad have narrated from Muhammad ibn al-Hassan from Ibrahim ibn Hashim from ‘Amr ibn ‘Uthman from Ibrahim ibn Ayyub from ‘Amr ibn Shimr from Jabir from abu Ja‘far (a.s.) who has said the following. “Once when Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s.) was on the pulpit a serpent entered from one of the doors of the mosque. People wanted to kill him. Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s.) asked them to leave him alone. They left him alone. The serpent began to crawl to the pulpit. He stretched and saluted to Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s.). Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s.) made a gesture to him to wait until the sermon is completed. When the sermon was completed he came to him and said, “Who are you?” He said, “I am ‘Amr ibn ‘Uthman, your deputy among the Jinns. My father has died and he has asked me in his will to come to you and find out your instructions and that is why I am here. What do you command me to do and what do you see.” Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s.) said, “I ask you to be pious before Allah and go back and act as the successor of your father among the Jinns. I appoint you as my deputy over them.” The narrator has said that ‘Amr then said farewell to Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s.) and left as his deputy over the Jinns. I asked The Imam (a.s.), may Allah take my soul in service for your cause, does ‘Amr fulfill that obligation on him?” He said, “Yes, he does so.”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: ضعيف على المشهور

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (4/295)

Assessment transcribed from the source's named scholar and reference. No new grading or consensus is asserted; differing entries remain separate.

Shaykh Baqir al-Behbudi: Catalogue non-inclusion note (not an authenticity grade)

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Kāfī

Source records non-inclusion in this scholar's selection; this is not itself a weak or authentic grade.

Source, rights, and attribution

dataset Name
Thaqalayn public library, via ThaqalaynAPI snapshot
source Url
https://thaqalayn.com/hadith/1/4/98/6
license
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
edition
Al-Kafi, volume 1, Thaqalayn digital edition / Muhammad Sarwar translation
imported At
2026-10-18T21:36:12.871Z
license Url
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
rights Statement Url
https://thaqalayn.com/terms
attribution
Source: Thaqalayn (Stichting Thaqalayn). Compiler: Shaykh Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-Kulaynī. Translation: Muhammad Sarwar. Data transport: MohammedArab1/ThaqalaynAPI. No endorsement implied.
translator
Muhammad Sarwar
source Revision
becbad600b693ce23735d7403c4126ce7c896d34
content Hash
64c286fd0c6bef6f6cb62f31d7b54ac367712e7efe9860656415c5dafe4182c6
source File Hash
30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/4/98/6
changes
Arabic and English texts preserved verbatim from pinned snapshot. Compiler introduction excluded where present; references mapped to fields; assessment whitespace trimmed; source-supplied English sanad retained separately. Search normalization is not applied to displayed text.
verification Note
Publisher content rights, translator attribution and structural checks, with independent publisher-page spot checks—not scholarly authentication or printed-edition collation. Historical text and scholarly reference strings may contain source errors; they are not silently corrected. No full commentary prose or inferred narrator identity is added. Muʿjam coverage, where present, is only the supplied excerpt, not the complete work.