Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 1

The Book about people with Divine Authority · When the Imams will Rise with Divine Authority They will Judge Among People as David and his People had Done that They will not Ask any Witness to Testify (May the peace and blessings of Allah be up on them) · Volume 1, book 4, chapter 99, Hadith 1

Original Arabic text

1ـ عَلِيُّ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ عَنْ أَبِيهِ عَنِ ابْنِ أَبِي عُمَيْرٍ عَنْ مَنْصُورٍ عَنْ فَضْلٍ الاعْوَرِ عَنْ أَبِي عُبَيْدَةَ الْحَذَّاءِ قَالَ كُنَّا زَمَانَ ابي جعفر (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) حِينَ قُبِضَ نَتَرَدَّدُ كَالْغَنَمِ لا رَاعِيَ لَهَا فَلَقِينَا سَالِمَ بْنَ أَبِي حَفْصَةَ فَقَالَ لِي يَا أَبَا عُبَيْدَةَ مَنْ إِمَامُكَ فَقُلْتُ أَئِمَّتِي آلُ مُحَمَّدٍ فَقَالَ هَلَكْتَ وَأَهْلَكْتَ أَ مَا سَمِعْتُ أَنَا وَأَنْتَ أَبَا جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) يَقُولُ مَنْ مَاتَ وَلَيْسَ عَلَيْهِ إِمَامٌ مَاتَ مِيتَةً جَاهِلِيَّةً فَقُلْتُ بَلَى لَعَمْرِي وَلَقَدْ كَانَ قَبْلَ ذَلِكَ بِثَلاثٍ أَوْ نَحْوِهَا دَخَلْتُ عَلَى أَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) فَرَزَقَ الله الْمَعْرِفَةَ فَقُلْتُ لابِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) إِنَّ سَالِماً قَالَ لِي كَذَا وَكَذَا قَالَ فَقَالَ يَا أَبَا عُبَيْدَةَ إِنَّهُ لا يَمُوتُ مِنَّا مَيِّتٌ حَتَّى يُخَلِّفَ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ مَنْ يَعْمَلُ بِمِثْلِ عَمَلِهِ وَيَسِيرُ بِسِيرَتِهِ وَيَدْعُو إِلَى مَا دَعَا إِلَيْهِ يَا أَبَا عُبَيْدَةَ إِنَّهُ لَمْ يُمْنَعْ مَا أُعْطِيَ دَاوُدَ أَنْ أُعْطِيَ سُلَيْمَانَ ثُمَّ قَالَ يَا أَبَا عُبَيْدَةَ إِذَا قَامَ قَائِمُ آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِه) حَكَمَ بِحُكْمِ دَاوُدَ وَسُلَيْمَانَ لا يَسْأَلُ بَيِّنَةً.

Published English translation

1. Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father from ibn abu’Umayr from Mansur from al-Fadl al-A ‘al-A ‘war from abu ‘ubayda al-Hadhdha’ who has said the following. “We lived during the times of abu Ja‘far (a.s.). When he passed away we were left like sheep without shepherd. We met Salim ibn abu Hafs and he said to me, “O abu ‘Ubayda, who is your Imam?” I said, “My Imams are A’l (family) of Muhammad (s.a).” He said, “Did not I and you hear abu Ja‘far (a.s.) say, “Whoever would die without an Imam above him he has died as the death of the age ignorance.” I said, “Yes, that is very true. I can swear by my own life.” It was only about three days before my meeting with abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.) in which meeting Allah granted to me the blessing of recognizing him as my Imam. I said to abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.) that Salim said to me so and so.” The narrator has said that the Imam (a.s.) said, “O abu ‘Ubayda, no one of us passes away before appointing a successor that would act and behave just as the preceding Imam and call people to what the Imam before him did. O abu ‘Ubayda what was given to David did not bar Sulayman from receiving (Allah’s blessings).” Then he said, “O abu ‘Ubayda, when Al-Qa’im (the one who will rise with Divine Authority) will rise he will judge among people the way David and Sulayman had been judging among people. He will call any witness to testify in a case.”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: حسن موثق

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (4/298)

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/1/4/99/1
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
542df34e5140ecb19f8f58116a4fb46d4c45e6733e2f8b5afd03d71b06a773c4
source File Hash
30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/4/99/1
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.