Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 9

The Book about people with Divine Authority · Knowing the Imam (a.s.) and Belief in His Divine Authority · Volume 1, book 4, chapter 7, Hadith 9

Original Arabic text

9ـ الْحُسَيْنُ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ مُعَلَّى بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ جُمْهُورٍ عَنْ عَبْدِ الله بْنِ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ عَنِ الْهَيْثَمِ بْنِ وَاقِدٍ عَنْ مُقَرِّنٍ قَالَ سَمِعْتُ أَبَا عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) يَقُولُ جَاءَ ابْنُ الْكَوَّاءِ إِلَى أَمِيرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) فَقَالَ يَا أَمِيرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَعَلَى الاعْرافِ رِجالٌ يَعْرِفُونَ كُلاً بِسِيماهُمْ فَقَالَ نَحْنُ عَلَى الاعْرَافِ نَعْرِفُ أَنْصَارَنَا بِسِيمَاهُمْ وَنَحْنُ الاعْرَافُ الَّذِي لا يُعْرَفُ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ إِلا بِسَبِيلِ مَعْرِفَتِنَا وَنَحْنُ الاعْرَافُ يُعَرِّفُنَا الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ عَلَى الصِّرَاطِ فَلا يَدْخُلُ الْجَنَّةَ إِلا مَنْ عَرَفَنَا وَعَرَفْنَاهُ وَلا يَدْخُلُ النَّارَ إِلا مَنْ أَنْكَرَنَا وَأَنْكَرْنَاهُ إِنَّ الله تَبَارَكَ وَتَعَالَى لَوْ شَاءَ لَعَرَّفَ الْعِبَادَ نَفْسَهُ وَلَكِنْ جَعَلَنَا أَبْوَابَهُ وَصِرَاطَهُ وَسَبِيلَهُ وَالْوَجْهَ الَّذِي يُؤْتَى مِنْهُ فَمَنْ عَدَلَ عَنْ وَلايَتِنَا أَوْ فَضَّلَ عَلَيْنَا غَيْرَنَا فَإِنَّهُمْ عَنِ الصِّرَاطِ لَنَاكِبُونَ فَلا سَوَاءٌ مَنِ اعْتَصَمَ النَّاسُ بِهِ وَلا سَوَاءٌ حَيْثُ ذَهَبَ النَّاسُ إِلَى عُيُونٍ كَدِرَةٍ يَفْرَغُ بَعْضُهَا فِي بَعْضٍ وَذَهَبَ مَنْ ذَهَبَ إِلَيْنَا إِلَى عُيُونٍ صَافِيَةٍ تَجْرِي بِأَمْرِ رَبِّهَا لا نَفَادَ لَهَا وَلا انْقِطَاعَ.

Published English translation

9. Al-Husayn ibn Muhammad has narrated from Mu‘alla ibn Muhammad from Muhammad ibn Jumhur from ‘Abdallah ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman from al-Haytham ibn Waqid from Muqrin who has said the following. “I heard abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.) saying, ‘Ibn al-Kawwa came to Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s.) and asked, “O Amir al-Mu’minin,(what do you say about; “There will be people on the Heights who know everyone by their faces . .” (7:46). The Imam said, “we will be on the Heights. We will recognize our supporters from their faces. We are the Heights without whose knowing there is no other way to know Allah, the Most Holy, the Most High. We are the Heights that Allah on the Day of Judgment will make known to everyone on the bridge. No one will enter paradise without knowing us and our knowing them. No one will enter hell except those would not know us and we will ignore them. If Allah, the Most Holy, the Most High, would want to let people know Him He may do so but He has made us the door to knowing Him, the bridge, the path and the aspect to Him. Whoever would deviate from our authority and guardianship or would consider others more excellent than us such people will down off the bridge. People are the same in following guidance. They are not equal with those who have found the sparkling fountains with those who have gathered around polluted waters that fall over other such waters. Such are not equal with those who have found the sparkling fountains that flow by the order of the Lord without ceasing and reduction.”

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 (2/316)

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/1/4/7/9
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
b8679326f78875404931cddaa6d1dc09549570b062edee8f504207021ec3b10f
source File Hash
30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/4/7/9
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.