Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 12

The Book on Oneness of Allah (God) · Chapter On Prohibition on Attributing to Allah What He Himself has not Done so · Volume 1, book 3, chapter 10, Hadith 12

Original Arabic text

12ـ عَلِيُّ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ سَهْلِ بْنِ زِيَادٍ وَعَنْ غَيْرِهِ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ سُلَيْمَانَ عَنْ عَلِيِّ بْنِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ عَنْ عَبْدِ الله بْنِ سِنَانٍ عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) قَالَ قَالَ إِنَّ الله عَظِيمٌ رَفِيعٌ لا يَقْدِرُ الْعِبَادُ عَلَى صِفَتِهِ وَلا يَبْلُغُونَ كُنْهَ عَظَمَتِهِ لا؛ّّ تُدْرِكُهُ الابْصَارُ وَهُوَ يُدْرِكُ الابْصَارَ وَهُوَ اللَّطِيفُ الْخَبِيرُ وَلا يُوصَفُ بِكَيْفٍ وَلا أَيْنٍ وَحَيْثٍ وَكَيْفَ أَصِفُهُ بِالْكَيْفِ وَهُوَ الَّذِي كَيَّفَ الْكَيْفَ حَتَّى صَارَ كَيْفاً فَعُرِفَتِ الْكَيْفُ بِمَا كَيَّفَ لَنَا مِنَ الْكَيْفِ أَمْ كَيْفَ أَصِفُهُ بِأَيْنٍ وَهُوَ الَّذِي أَيَّنَ الايْنَ حَتَّى صَارَ أَيْناً فَعُرِفَتِ الايْنُ بِمَا أَيَّنَ لَنَا مِنَ الايْنِ أَمْ كَيْفَ أَصِفُهُ بِحَيْثٍ وَهُوَ الَّذِي حَيَّثَ الْحَيْثَ حَتَّى صَارَ حَيْثاً فَعُرِفَتِ الْحَيْثُ بِمَا حَيَّثَ لَنَا مِنَ الْحَيْثِ فَالله تَبَارَكَ وَتَعَالَى دَاخِلٌ فِي كُلِّ مَكَانٍ وَخَارِجٌ مِنْ كُلِّ شَيْ‏ءٍ لا تُدْرِكُهُ الابْصَارُ وَهُوَ يُدْرِكُ الابْصَارَ لا إِلَهَ إِلا هُوَ الْعَلِيُّ الْعَظِيمُ وَهُوَ اللَّطِيفُ الْخَبِيرُ.

Published English translation

12. Ali ibn Muhammad has narrated from Sahl ibn Ziyad and others from Muhammad ibn Sulayman from Ali ibn Ibrahim from ‘Abdallah ibn Sinan from abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.) who has said the following. “Allah is Great and High. People cannot describe Him nor can they reach the depth of His Greatness. ‘ No mortal eyes can see Him, but He can see all eyes. He is All-kind and All-aware.’” (6:103) He cannot be described by means of how and where. How can I describe Him by means of any condition? He Himself has created the conditions and how and so it came into being. We came to know conditions because of His designing them for us. How can I describe Him by means of space? It is He, Who spaced the space so it became space. I, thus, came to know space by means of what He has made it into space. How can I describe Him by means of positions when He Himself has given position to positions so it came into position. I, thus, came to know the position by means of what He has made to come into position. Allah, the Holy, the Most High, is in every place but is out of everything. ‘ No mortal eyes can see Him, but He can see all eyes. He is All-kind and All-aware.’” (6:103)

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: ضعيف

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (1/353)

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/1/3/10/12
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
9687d0023e31ae7ff0a356bde079d63c1e638713316f0e3f2388c03878c6cb22
source File Hash
30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/3/10/12
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.