Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 1

The Book on Oneness of Allah (God) · The Capabilities · Volume 1, book 3, chapter 31, Hadith 1

Original Arabic text

عَلِيُّ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ عَنِ الْحَسَنِ بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ عَلِيِّ بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ الْقَاسَانِيِّ عَنْ عَلِيِّ بْنِ أَسْبَاطٍ قَالَ سَأَلْتُ أَبَا الْحَسَنِ الرِّضَا (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) عَنِ الاسْتِطَاعَةِ فَقَالَ يَسْتَطِيعُ الْعَبْدُ بَعْدَ أَرْبَعِ خِصَالٍ أَنْ يَكُونَ مُخَلَّى السَّرْبِ صَحِيحَ الْجِسْمِ سَلِيمَ الْجَوَارِحِ لَهُ سَبَبٌ وَارِدٌ مِنَ الله قَالَ قُلْتُ جُعِلْتُ فِدَاكَ فَسِّرْ لِي هَذَا قَالَ أَنْ يَكُونَ الْعَبْدُ مُخَلَّى السَّرْبِ صَحِيحَ الْجِسْمِ سَلِيمَ الْجَوَارِحِ يُرِيدُ أَنْ يَزْنِيَ فَلا يَجِدُ امْرَأَةً ثُمَّ يَجِدُهَا فَإِمَّا أَنْ يَعْصِمَ نَفْسَهُ فَيَمْتَنِعَ كَمَا امْتَنَعَ يُوسُفُ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) أَوْ يُخَلِّيَ بَيْنَهُ وَبَيْنَ إِرَادَتِهِ فَيَزْنِيَ فَيُسَمَّى زَانِياً وَلَمْ يُطِعِ الله بِإِكْرَاهٍ وَلَمْ يَعْصِهِ بِغَلَبَةٍ.

Published English translation

Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from al-Hassan ibn Muhammad from Ali ibn Muhammad al-Qasani from Ali ibn Asbat who said the following: “Once I asked Imam abu al-Hassan al-Rida (a.s.), about capability. The Imam said, ‘A servant (of Allah) has the capability if four things exist. That he is free and on his own, that he is physically well and of sound limbs and that for him there is reason and means from Allah.’ I asked, ‘May Allah keep my soul in the service for your cause, please explain it to me.’ The Imam said, ‘Being free and on one’s own, physically well and of sound limbs means that one is willing to commit adultery but does not find a female party and then he finds her. He may now protect his soul and stay away from sin just as Joseph (peace be upon him) did or allow his desire to act and commit adultery and in this case he is called an adulterer. He has not obeyed Allah in coercion and disobeyed Him with defeat.’”

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 (2/213)

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/1/3/31/1
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
58b6d8e0c67592228767949cb4ce871a3754725d179ac715bc54482f26aed1f5
source File Hash
30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/3/31/1
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.