Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 5

The Book on Oneness of Allah (God) · Chapter On The Meanings of the Names of Allah and their Derivatives · Volume 1, book 3, chapter 16, Hadith 5

Original Arabic text

5ـ أَحْمَدُ بْنُ إِدْرِيسَ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عَبْدِ الْجَبَّارِ عَنْ صَفْوَانَ بْنِ يَحْيَى عَنْ فُضَيْلِ بْنِ عُثْمَانَ عَنِ ابْنِ أَبِي يَعْفُورٍ قَالَ سَأَلْتُ أَبَا عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) عَنْ قَوْلِ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ هُوَ الاوَّلُ وَالاخِرُ وَقُلْتُ أَمَّا الاوَّلُ فَقَدْ عَرَفْنَاهُ وَأَمَّا الاخِرُ فَبَيِّنْ لَنَا تَفْسِيرَهُ فَقَالَ إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ شَيْ‏ءٌ إِلا يَبِيدُ أَوْ يَتَغَيَّرُ أَوْ يَدْخُلُهُ التَّغَيُّرُ وَالزَّوَالُ أَوْ يَنْتَقِلُ مِنْ لَوْنٍ إِلَى لَوْنٍ وَمِنْ هَيْئَةٍ إِلَى هَيْئَةٍ وَمِنْ صِفَةٍ إِلَى صِفَةٍ وَمِنْ زِيَادَةٍ إِلَى نُقْصَانٍ وَمِنْ نُقْصَانٍ إِلَى زِيَادَةٍ إِلا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ فَإِنَّهُ لَمْ يَزَلْ وَلا يَزَالُ بِحَالَةٍ وَاحِدَةٍ هُوَ الاوَّلُ قَبْلَ كُلِّ شَيْ‏ءٍ وَهُوَ الاخِرُ عَلَى مَا لَمْ يَزَلْ وَلا تَخْتَلِفُ عَلَيْهِ الصِّفَاتُ وَالاسْمَاءُ كَمَا تَخْتَلِفُ عَلَى غَيْرِهِ مِثْلُ الانْسَانِ الَّذِي يَكُونُ تُرَاباً مَرَّةً وَمَرَّةً لَحْماً وَدَماً وَمَرَّةً رُفَاتاً وَرَمِيماً وَكَالْبُسْرِ الَّذِي يَكُونُ مَرَّةً بَلَحاً وَمَرَّةً بُسْراً وَمَرَّةً رُطَباً وَمَرَّةً تَمْراً فَتَتَبَدَّلُ عَلَيْهِ الاسْمَاءُ وَالصِّفَاتُ وَالله جَلَّ وَعَزَّ بِخِلافِ ذَلِكَ.

Published English translation

5. Ahmad ibn Idris has narrated from Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Jabbar from Safwan ibn Yahya from Fudayl ibn ‘Uthman from ibn Abi Ya‘fur who has said the following: “I asked abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.), about the words of Allah, The Mighty and Glorious, ‘He (Allah) is the first and the last.’ (57:3) As for him being the first, we have understood that, but explain for us the meaning of Him being the last.” He (the Imam) said, “Nothing exists except that it is subject to annihilation, alteration, change, decay, transition from one color to another, from one shape to another and from one quality to another, from increase to decrease, and from decrease to increase, except for the Lord of the worlds. He alone is always existed and will always exist in one state. He is the first, before every thing, and the last, eternally. His attributes and names do not change as they do in the case of others, such as man , who at one time is dust, at another time flesh and blood, at another time decaying bones and finally becomes dust. A piece of date at one time is raw, at another time ripe, mature and then it dries up. With every change, the names and attributes also change. Allah, the Mighty and Glorious is different from all such things.”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: صحيح

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (2/40)

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: صحيح

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Kāfī, vol. 1, pp. 16, 17

Assessment transcribed from the source's named scholar and reference. No new grading or consensus is asserted; differing entries remain separate.

Source, rights, and attribution

dataset Name
Thaqalayn public library, via ThaqalaynAPI snapshot
source Url
https://thaqalayn.com/hadith/1/3/16/5
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
861a39daf8258e9834a3028e387ad9bd841fa2a7f5f6667eab25f70be0b3cb1c
source File Hash
30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/3/16/5
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.