Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 1

The Book on Oneness of Allah (God) · Chapter on (the Issue) that only He is proof of His Own Existence · Volume 1, book 3, chapter 3, Hadith 1

Original Arabic text

1ـ عَلِيُّ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ عَمَّنْ ذَكَرَهُ عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عِيسَى عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ حُمْرَانَ عَنِ الْفَضْلِ بْنِ السَّكَنِ عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) قَالَ قَالَ أَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) اعْرِفُوا الله بِالله وَالرَّسُولَ بِالرِّسَالَةِ وَأُولِي الامْرِ بِالامْرِ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَالْعَدْلِ وَالاحْسَانِ. وَمَعْنَى قَوْلِهِ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) اعْرِفُوا الله بِالله يَعْنِي أَنَّ الله خَلَقَ الاشْخَاصَ وَالانْوَارَ وَالْجَوَاهِرَ وَالاعْيَانَ فَالاعْيَانُ الابْدَانُ وَالْجَوَاهِرُ الارْوَاحُ وَهُوَ جَلَّ وَعَزَّ لا يُشْبِهُ جِسْماً وَلا رُوحاً وَلَيْسَ لاحَدٍ فِي خَلْقِ الرُّوحِ الْحَسَّاسِ الدَّرَّاكِ أَمْرٌ وَلا سَبَبٌ هُوَ الْمُتَفَرِّدُ بِخَلْقِ الارْوَاحِ وَالاجْسَامِ فَإِذَا نَفَى عَنْهُ الشَّبَهَيْنِ شَبَهَ الابْدَانِ وَشَبَهَ الارْوَاحِ فَقَدْ عَرَفَ الله بِالله وَإِذَا شَبَّهَهُ بِالرُّوحِ أَوِ الْبَدَنِ أَوِ النُّورِ فَلَمْ يَعْرِفِ الله بِالله.

Published English translation

1. Ali ibn Muhammad has narrated from the people he mentioned from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Isa from Muhammad ibn Humran from al- Fadl ibn al-Sakan from Imam abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.) who has narrated the following. “Imam Ali (a.s.) has said, ‘Recognize Allah by Allah’s Own-Self, recognize the Messenger through his message and the people with Divine authority through their commanding others to do what is obligatory, the practice of justice and kindness.’” Al-Kulayni had made the following comment on the above passage. “Acknowledge the existence of Allah by His own self” means that Allah has created the individuals, the light, the substance and the objects. The objects are the bodies, the substance stand for the spirits and He is not similar to the bodies or spirit in any of the creatures. No one has any part or effect in the creation of the spirits that comprehend and feel. He is the only one who has created the spirits and the bodies. When similarity to both kinds of creatures; similarity to the bodies and spirits is negated from Him, then one has acknowledge the existence of Allah by Allah’s own self. If one considers Him similar to the spirits, lights or bodies he has not acknowledged His existence by His own self.

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 (1/294)

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/1/3/3/1
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
18bdb57f2de307706e440f5b9434cf569234bdc484419b0303d44ee28d29b568
source File Hash
30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/3/3/1
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.