Al-Kafi · Hadith 2

The Book on Oneness of Allah (God) · Chapter on the minimum degree of knowledge of the existence of Allah · Volume 1, book 3, chapter 4, Hadith 2

Original Arabic text

2ـ عَلِيُّ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ سَهْلِ بْنِ زِيَادٍ عَنْ طَاهِرِ بْنِ حَاتِمٍ فِي حَالِ اسْتِقَامَتِهِ أَنَّهُ كَتَبَ إِلَى الرَّجُلِ مَا الَّذِي لا يُجْتَزَأُ فِي مَعْرِفَةِ الْخَالِقِ بِدُونِهِ فَكَتَبَ إِلَيْهِ لَمْ يَزَلْ عَالِماً وَسَامِعاً وَبَصِيراً وَهُوَ الْفَعَّالُ لِمَا يُرِيدُ وَسُئِلَ أَبُو جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) عَنِ الَّذِي لا يُجْتَزَأُ بِدُونِ ذَلِكَ مِنْ مَعْرِفَةِ الْخَالِقِ فَقَالَ لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْ‏ءٌ وَلا يُشْبِهُهُ شَيْ‏ءٌ لَمْ يَزَلْ عَالِماً سَمِيعاً بَصِيراً.

Published English translation

2. Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from Sahl ibn Ziyad, from Tahir ibn Hatam when he was normal and wrote to the man (meaning thereby Imam abul Hassan al-Rida (a.s.). “What is it that without which one’s acknowledgement of the existence of Allah can not be considered sufficient?” In answer the Imam (a.s.) replied, “That He is All-knowing, All-hearing All-awareness and that He acts as He wills.” Imam abu Ja‘far (a.s.) was asked about the minimum required degree of knowledge about Allah without which an acknowledgement would not be considered sufficient. The Imam (a.s.) said, “There is nothing similar to or like Him. He is All-knowing, All-hearing and All-awareness.”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: ضعيف وآخره مرسل

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (1/302)

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/1/3/4/2
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: 8efc8613cbe718920cf6b796df792a0445a56b70e8a7852451eda46b75d807b9
source File Hash: 30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url: https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/3/4/2
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.