Al-Kafi · Hadith 3

The Book about people with Divine Authority · Would the Imams (a.s.) not receive new knowledge their previous know would be Exhausted · Volume 1, book 4, chapter 43, Hadith 3

Original Arabic text

3ـ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ يَحْيَى عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنِ ابْنِ أَبِي نَصْرٍ عَنْ ثَعْلَبَةَ عَنْ زُرَارَةَ قَالَ سَمِعْتُ أَبَا جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) يَقُولُ لَوْ لا أَنَّا نَزْدَادُ لانْفَدْنَا قَالَ قُلْتُ تَزْدَادُونَ شَيْئاً لا يَعْلَمُهُ رَسُولُ الله (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِه) قَالَ أَمَا إِنَّهُ إِذَا كَانَ ذَلِكَ عُرِضَ عَلَى رَسُولِ الله (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِه) ثُمَّ عَلَى الائِمَّةِ ثُمَّ انْتَهَى الامْرُ إِلَيْنَا.

Published English translation

3. Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from abu Nasr from Tha‘labah from Zurarah who has said that he heard abu Ja‘far (a.s.) say the following. “Would we not receive additional (knowledge) we would diminish (in knowledge).” The narrator has said that he asked the Imams (a.s.) “Do receive additional something that the Messenger of Allah does not know?” The Imam (a.s.) said, “The fact of the matter is that when that happens, it is presented to the Messenger of Allah then to the Imams and then it reaches us.”

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 (3/107)

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

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edition: Al-Kafi, volume 1, Thaqalayn digital edition / Muhammad Sarwar translation
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