Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 23

The Book of Intelligence and Ignorance · The Book of Intelligence and Ignorance · Volume 1, book 1, chapter 0, Hadith 23

Original Arabic text

23ـ عِدَّةٌ مِنْ أَصْحَابِنَا عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ مُرْسَلاً قَالَ قَالَ أَبُو عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) دِعَامَةُ الانْسَانِ الْعَقْلُ وَالْعَقْلُ مِنْهُ الْفِطْنَةُ وَالْفَهْمُ وَالْحِفْظُ وَالْعِلْمُ وَبِالْعَقْلِ يَكْمُلُ وَهُوَ دَلِيلُهُ وَمُبْصِرُهُ وَمِفْتَاحُ أَمْرِهِ فَإِذَا كَانَ تَأْيِيدُ عَقْلِهِ مِنَ النُّورِ كَانَ عَالِماً حَافِظاً ذَاكِراً فَطِناً فَهِماً فَعَلِمَ بِذَلِكَ كَيْفَ وَلِمَ وَحَيْثُ وَعَرَفَ مَنْ نَصَحَهُ وَمَنْ غَشَّهُ فَإِذَا عَرَفَ ذَلِكَ عَرَفَ مَجْرَاهُ وَمَوْصُولَهُ وَمَفْصُولَهُ وَأَخْلَصَ الْوَحْدَانِيَّةَ لله وَالاقْرَارَ بِالطَّاعَةِ فَإِذَا فَعَلَ ذَلِكَ كَانَ مُسْتَدْرِكاً لِمَا فَاتَ وَوَارِداً عَلَى مَا هُوَ آتٍ يَعْرِفُ مَا هُوَ فِيهِ وَلايِّ شَيْ‏ءٍ هُوَ هَاهُنَا وَمِنْ أَيْنَ يَأْتِيهِ وَإِلَى مَا هُوَ صَائِرٌ وَذَلِكَ كُلُّهُ مِنْ تَأْيِيدِ الْعَقْلِ.

Published English translation

23. A number of our people has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad in a mursal manner that Abu ‘Abdillah (al-Sadiq) (as) said: “Intelligence is the support for man. From intelligence come intelligence, understanding, memorization and knowledge and with intelligence he gains perfection. Intelligence is his guide, his instructor and the key to his affairs. When his intelligence is supported with light he becomes a scholar, a keeper (of knowledge), an intelligent re-caller and a man of understanding. Through intelligence he learns the answer to how, why and where or when. He learns who helps and who harm him. When he learns these (facts) he learns the channels, the connections and the differentiating factors. He then establishes pure faith in the oneness of Allah and acknowledges the need to obey Him. When he does so he finds the proper remedy for what he has lost and the right approach to whatever may come in. He knows well his present involvement, for what reason is he here, wherefrom has he come and to what end is he going. He will have all these because of intelligence.”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: مرسل

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (1/81)

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/1/1/0/23
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
1fc021134e1f72899065066ff83c5084268d11e128327f2e8aa3461e1d6607ff
source File Hash
30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/1/0/23
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.