Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 4

The Book about people with Divine Authority · The Birth of Ali ibn al-Husayn (a.s.) · Volume 1, book 4, chapter 117, Hadith 4

Original Arabic text

4ـ الْحُسَيْنُ بْنُ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عَامِرٍ عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ إِسْحَاقَ بْنِ سَعْدٍ عَنْ سَعْدَانَ بْنِ مُسْلِمٍ عَنْ أَبِي عُمَارَةَ عَنْ رَجُلٍ عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) قَالَ لَمَّا كَانَ فِي اللَّيْلَةِ الَّتِي وُعِدَ فِيهَا عَلِيُّ بن الحسين (عَلَيْهما السَّلام) قَالَ لِمُحَمَّدٍ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) يَا بُنَيَّ ابْغِنِي وَضُوءاً قَالَ فَقُمْتُ فَجِئْتُهُ بِوَضُوءٍ قَالَ لا أَبْغِي هَذَا فَإِنَّ فِيهِ شَيْئاً مَيِّتاً قَالَ فَخَرَجْتُ فَجِئْتُ بِالْمِصْبَاحِ فَإِذَا فِيهِ فَأْرَةٌ مَيْتَةٌ فَجِئْتُهُ بِوَضُوءٍ غَيْرِهِ فَقَالَ يَا بُنَيَّ هَذِهِ اللَّيْلَةُ الَّتِي وُعِدْتُهَا فَأَوْصَى بِنَاقَتِهِ أَنْ يُحْظَرَ لَهَا حِظَارٌ وَأَنْ يُقَامَ لَهَا عَلَفٌ فَجُعِلَتْ فِيهِ قَالَ فَلَمْ تَلْبَثْ أَنْ خَرَجَتْ حَتَّى أَتَتِ الْقَبْرَ فَضَرَبَتْ بِجِرَانِهَا وَرَغَتْ وَهَمَلَتْ عَيْنَاهَا فَأُتِيَ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ عَلِيٍّ فَقِيلَ لَهُ إِنَّ النَّاقَةَ قَدْ خَرَجَتْ فَأَتَاهَا فَقَالَ صَهْ الانَ قُومِي بَارَكَ الله فِيكِ فَلَمْ تَفْعَلْ فَقَالَ وَإِنْ كَانَ لَيَخْرُجُ عَلَيْهَا إِلَى مَكَّةَ فَيُعَلِّقُ السَّوْطَ عَلَى الرَّحْلِ فَمَا يَقْرَعُهَا حَتَّى يَدْخُلَ الْمَدِينَةَ قَالَ وَكَانَ عَلِيُّ بن الحسين (عَلَيْهما السَّلام) يَخْرُجُ فِي اللَّيْلَةِ الظَّلْمَاءِ فَيَحْمِلُ الْجِرَابَ فِيهِ الصُّرَرُ مِنَ الدَّنَانِيرِ وَالدَّرَاهِمِ حَتَّى يَأْتِيَ بَاباً بَاباً فَيَقْرَعُهُ ثُمَّ يُنِيلُ مَنْ يَخْرُجُ إِلَيْهِ فَلَمَّا مَاتَ عَلِيُّ بن الحسين (عَلَيْهما السَّلام) فَقَدُوا ذَاكَ فَعَلِمُوا أَنَّ عَلِيّاً (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) كَانَ يَفْعَلُهُ.

Published English translation

4. Al-Husayn ibn Muhammad ibn 'Amir narrated from Ahmad ibn Ishaq ibn Sa'd, who narrated from Sa'dan ibn Muslim, who narrated from Abi 'Umara, who narrated from a man, who narrated from Abi 'Abdillah (as) who said: On the night when Ali ibn al-Husayn (as) was promised [his death], he said to Muhammad (as), "My son, bring me some water for ablution." So I stood up and brought him water for ablution. He said, "Not this, for there is something dead in it." So I went out and brought a lamp, and there was a dead mouse in it. I brought him another water for ablution, and he said, "My son, this is the night I was promised." He then instructed that a pen be fenced and fodder be set for his camel, and so it was done. <br>The camel did not linger long before it went out and came to the grave, placing its neck on it, groaning and weeping. Muhammad ibn Ali was informed that the camel had gone out, so he came to it and said, "Hush now, stand up, may Allah bless you." But it did not do so. He said, "He used to ride it to Mecca, hanging the whip on the saddle, and would not strike it until he entered Medina." <br>Ali ibn al-Husayn (as) used to go out on dark nights carrying a bag filled with dinars and dirhams, knocking on doors and giving to whoever came out to him. When Ali ibn al-Husayn (as) died, they missed that and realized that Ali (as) was the one doing it.

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: مجهول

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (6/10)

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/1/4/117/4
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
111134844da2fb0d418062eb17e70f1c136eb8c07071fbc6427fb9a09ff9cfb4
source File Hash
30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/4/117/4
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.