Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 2

The Book about people with Divine Authority · The Unique Ahadith about the hidden facts · Volume 1, book 4, chapter 45, Hadith 2

Original Arabic text

2ـ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ يَحْيَى عَنْ عَبْدِ الله بْنِ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عِيسَى عَنِ الْحَسَنِ بْنِ مَحْبُوبٍ عَنْ عَلِيِّ بْنِ رِئَابٍ عَنْ سَدِيرٍ الصَّيْرَفِيِّ قَالَ سَمِعْتُ حُمْرَانَ بْنَ أَعْيَنَ يَسْأَلُ أَبَا جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) عَنْ قَوْلِ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ بَدِيعُ السَّماواتِ وَالارْضِ قَالَ أَبُو جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) إِنَّ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ ابْتَدَعَ الاشْيَاءَ كُلَّهَا بِعِلْمِهِ عَلَى غَيْرِ مِثَالٍ كَانَ قَبْلَهُ فَابْتَدَعَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالارَضِينَ وَلَمْ يَكُنْ قَبْلَهُنَّ سَمَاوَاتٌ وَلا أَرَضُونَ أَ مَا تَسْمَعُ لِقَوْلِهِ تَعَالَى وَكانَ عَرْشُهُ عَلَى الْماءِ فَقَالَ لَهُ حُمْرَانُ أَ رَأَيْتَ قَوْلَهُ جَلَّ ذِكْرُهُ عالِمُ الْغَيْبِ فَلا يُظْهِرُ عَلى‏ غَيْبِهِ أَحَداً فَقَالَ أَبُو جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) إِلا مَنِ ارْتَضى‏ مِنْ رَسُولٍ وَكَانَ وَالله مُحَمَّدٌ مِمَّنِ ارْتَضَاهُ وَأَمَّا قَوْلُهُ عالِمُ الْغَيْبِ فَإِنَّ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ عَالِمٌ بِمَا غَابَ عَنْ خَلْقِهِ فِيمَا يَقْدِرُ مِنْ شَيْ‏ءٍ وَيَقْضِيهِ فِي عِلْمِهِ قَبْلَ أَنْ يَخْلُقَهُ وَقَبْلَ أَنْ يُفْضِيَهُ إِلَى الْمَلائِكَةِ فَذَلِكَ يَا حُمْرَانُ عِلْمٌ مَوْقُوفٌ عِنْدَهُ إِلَيْهِ فِيهِ الْمَشِيئَةُ فَيَقْضِيهِ إِذَا أَرَادَ وَيَبْدُو لَهُ فِيهِ فَلا يُمْضِيهِ فَأَمَّا الْعِلْمُ الَّذِي يُقَدِّرُهُ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ فَيَقْضِيهِ وَيُمْضِيهِ فَهُوَ الْعِلْمُ الَّذِي انْتَهَى إِلَى رَسُولِ الله (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِه) ثُمَّ إِلَيْنَا.

Published English translation

2. Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from ‘Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Isa from al-Hassan ibn Mahbub from Ali ibn Ri’ab from Sadir al-Sayrafi who has said that he heard Humran ibn A‘yan ask abu Ja‘far (a.s.) about the words of Allah, the Most Holy, the Most High Allah, “. . One Who is the Originator of the heavens and the earth. .” (6:101) Abu Ja‘far (a.s.) said, “Allah, the Most Holy, the Most High, originated all things through His knowledge in unprecedentedly. He Invented the heavens and eath and there was heavens and earths before. Have you not considered the words of Allah, “. .His Throne existed on water. .” (11:7) Humran then said, “Have you considered His words, Majestic is Whose mention, ‘He knows the unseen and He does not allow anyone to know His secrets. .” (72:26). Abu Ja‘far (a.s.) then said, “ except those of His Messengers whom He chooses. (72:26) Muhammad (s.a.), I swear by Allah, was one of those whom Allah had chosen. However, there are His words “He knows the hidden facts.” The fact that Allah, the Most Holy, the Most High, through what is hidden from His creatures of the things that He measures and determines and decrees in His knowledge before creating it and before assigning to the angels it is because of the following. O Humran, there is the knowledge withheld before Him in which He has a wish. He then decrees it when He wills. Bada’ may take place in it and He then will not decree it. The knowledge that, however, Allah, the Most Holy, the Most High, measures and determines and approves is the knowledge that reaches the Messenger of Allah 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: مجهول

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (3/111)

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/1/4/45/2
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
7db8f26b38ef0f55c53d423f783ce34a7cf7c9d308bad384ae244d3f4d7f87dc
source File Hash
30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/4/45/2
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.