Al-Kafi · Hadith 2

The Book about people with Divine Authority · The Imams (a.s.) have with all the books that Allah, the Most Holy, the Most High, has revealed and that they know them even the language in them are different · Volume 1, book 4, chapter 34, Hadith 2

Original Arabic text

2ـ عَلِيُّ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ وَمُحَمَّدُ بْنُ الْحَسَنِ عَنْ سَهْلِ بْنِ زِيَادٍ عَنْ بَكْرِ بْنِ صَالِحٍ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ سِنَانٍ عَنْ مُفَضَّلِ بْنِ عُمَرَ قَالَ أَتَيْنَا بَابَ أَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) وَنَحْنُ نُرِيدُ الاذْنَ عَلَيْهِ فَسَمِعْنَاهُ يَتَكَلَّمُ بِكَلامٍ لَيْسَ بِالْعَرَبِيَّةِ فَتَوَهَّمْنَا أَنَّهُ بِالسُّرْيَانِيَّةِ ثُمَّ بَكَى فَبَكَيْنَا لِبُكَائِهِ ثُمَّ خَرَجَ إِلَيْنَا الْغُلامُ فَأَذِنَ لَنَا فَدَخَلْنَا عَلَيْهِ فَقُلْتُ أَصْلَحَكَ الله أَتَيْنَاكَ نُرِيدُ الاذْنَ عَلَيْكَ فَسَمِعْنَاكَ تَتَكَلَّمُ بِكَلامٍ لَيْسَ بِالْعَرَبِيَّةِ فَتَوَهَّمْنَا أَنَّهُ بِالسُّرْيَانِيَّةِ ثُمَّ بَكَيْتَ فَبَكَيْنَا لِبُكَاءِكَ قَالَ نَعَمْ ذَكَرْتُ إِلْيَاسَ النَّبِيَّ وَكَانَ مِنْ عُبَّادِ أَنْبِيَاءِ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ فَقُلْتُ كَمَا كَانَ يَقُولُ فِي سُجُودِهِ ثُمَّ انْدَفَعَ فِيهِ بِالسُّرْيَانِيَّةِ فَلا وَالله مَا رَأَيْنَا قَسّاً وَلا جَاثَلِيقاً أَفْصَحَ لَهْجَةً مِنْهُ بِهِ ثُمَّ فَسَّرَهُ لَنَا بِالْعَرَبِيَّةِ فَقَالَ كَانَ يَقُولُ فِي سُجُودِهِ أَ تُرَاكَ مُعَذِّبِي وَقَدْ أَظْمَأْتُ لَكَ هَوَاجِرِي أَ تُرَاكَ مُعَذِّبِي وَقَدْ عَفَّرْتُ لَكَ فِي التُّرَابِ وَجْهِي أَ تُرَاكَ مُعَذِّبِي وَقَدِ اجْتَنَبْتُ لَكَ الْمَعَاصِيَ أَ تُرَاكَ مُعَذِّبِي وَقَدْ أَسْهَرْتُ لَكَ لَيْلِي قَالَ فَأَوْحَى الله إِلَيْهِ أَنِ ارْفَعْ رَأْسَكَ فَإِنِّي غَيْرُ مُعَذِّبِكَ قَالَ فَقَالَ إِنْ قُلْتَ لا أُعَذِّبُكَ ثُمَّ عَذَّبْتَنِي مَا ذَا أَ لَسْتُ عَبْدَكَ وَأَنْتَ رَبِّي قَالَ فَأَوْحَى الله إِلَيْهِ أَنِ ارْفَعْ رَأْسَكَ فَإِنِّي غَيْرُ مُعَذِّبِكَ إِنِّي إِذَا وَعَدْتُ وَعْداً وَفَيْتُ بِهِ.

Published English translation

2. Ali ibn Muhammad and Muhammad ibn al-Hassan have narrated from Sahl ibn Ziyad from Bakr ibn Salih from Muhammad ibn Sinan from Mufaddal ibn ‘Umar who said the following: “We went to Abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.) and wanting to seek his permission. We heard him speaking in a language that was not Arabic, we imagined it was Syriac, then he cried and we cried because of his crying. Then the boy (his servant) came out and allowed us to enter. So we entered and I said, “May Allah keep you well, we came to ask permission for a meeting and we heard you speak in a non-Arabic language and we thought it was the Syriac language. Then we heard you weeping and because of that we also wept.” The Imams (a.s.) said, “Yes, I remembered Prophet Ilyas, one of the Israelite prophets devoted in worship. I then said what he used to say in his prostration. He then went into it in the Syriac language, by Allah, we had not seen any monk or minister as eloquent in it as he is. He then explained it to us in Arabic, “Ilyas would say in his prostration, ‘O Lord, will I find you punishing me although you know of thirst in the heat of the midday? Will I find you punishing me although you know that I rub my face on earth to worship you? Will I find you to punish me although you know that I give up sins for you? Will I find you punishing me although you know that I stay awake all night just for you?” The Imam (a.s.) then said, “Allah then told him through inspiration, “Rise your head from the earth. I will not punish you.” The Imam (a.s.) then said that he said to Allah, “If you say you will not punish me, and then you do, what then? Am I not your servant and you are my Lord?” The Imam (a.s.) said, “Allah then spoke to him through inspiration, “Rise your head. I will not punish you because when I make a promise, I fulfill it”

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 (3/28)

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/1/4/34/2
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: c07dab7f066350e78917f5df2cd10e2a551348ffd0d9072033c9477a733a2d71
source File Hash: 30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url: https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/4/34/2
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.