Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 2

The Book about people with Divine Authority · The Imams (a.s.) hear from the angels as Muhaddathun and are of Perfect Understanding · Volume 1, book 4, chapter 54, Hadith 2

Original Arabic text

2ـ مُحَمَّدٌ عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنِ ابْنِ مَحْبُوبٍ عَنْ جَمِيلِ بْنِ صَالِحٍ عَنْ زِيَادِ بْنِ سُوقَةَ عَنِ الْحَكَمِ بْنِ عُتَيْبَةَ قَالَ دَخَلْتُ عَلَى عَلِيِّ بن الحسين (عَلَيْهما السَّلام) يَوْماً فَقَالَ يَا حَكَمُ هَلْ تَدْرِي الايَةَ الَّتِي كَانَ عَلِيُّ بْنُ أَبِي طَالِبٍ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) يَعْرِفُ قَاتِلَهُ بِهَا وَيَعْرِفُ بِهَا الامُورَ الْعِظَامَ الَّتِي كَانَ يُحَدِّثُ بِهَا النَّاسَ قَالَ الْحَكَمُ فَقُلْتُ فِي نَفْسِي قَدْ وَقَعْتُ عَلَى عِلْمٍ مِنْ عِلْمِ عَلِيِّ بْنِ الْحُسَيْنِ أَعْلَمُ بِذَلِكَ تِلْكَ الامُورَ الْعِظَامَ قَالَ فَقُلْتُ لا وَالله لا أَعْلَمُ قَالَ ثُمَّ قُلْتُ الايَةُ تُخْبِرُنِي بِهَا يَا ابْنَ رَسُولِ الله قَالَ هُوَ وَالله قَوْلُ الله عَزَّ ذِكْرُهُ وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِكَ مِنْ رَسُولٍ وَلا نَبِيٍّ وَلا مُحَدَّثٍ وَكَانَ عَلِيُّ بْنُ أَبِي طَالِبٍ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) مُحَدَّثاً فَقَالَ لَهُ رَجُلٌ يُقَالُ لَهُ عَبْدُ الله بْنُ زَيْدٍ كَانَ أَخَا عَلِيٍّ لامِّهِ سُبْحَانَ الله مُحَدَّثاً كَأَنَّهُ يُنْكِرُ ذَلِكَ فَأَقْبَلَ عَلَيْنَا أَبُو جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) فَقَالَ أَمَا وَالله إِنَّ ابْنَ أُمِّكَ بَعْدُ قَدْ كَانَ يَعْرِفُ ذَلِكَ قَالَ فَلَمَّا قَالَ ذَلِكَ سَكَتَ الرَّجُلُ فَقَالَ هِيَ الَّتِي هَلَكَ فِيهَا أَبُو الْخَطَّابِ فَلَمْ يَدْرِ مَا تَأْوِيلُ الْمُحَدَّثِ وَالنَّبِيِّ.

Published English translation

2. Muhammad from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from ibn Mahbub from Jamil ibn Salih from Ziyad ibn Suqah from al-Hakam ibn ‘Utaybah who has said the following. “One day I went to see Ali ibn al-Husayn (a.s.).” He said, “O Hakam do you know the verse (of the Holy Quran) from which Ali ibn abu Talib had learned who his assassin was and the extremely great matters of which he would speak to people? “ Al-Hakam has said that I said to myself in my mind, “ I have now a chance to learn of the knowledge of Ali ibn al-Husayn (a.s.) with which I will learn of those extremely great matters.” The narrator has said that he replied the Imam (a.s.), “No, O son of the Messenger of Allah, I do not know.” He has said that he then said, “Please tell me, O son of the Messenger of Allah, which verse is it?” the Imam (a.s.) said, “It, I swear by Allah, is the words of Allah, Majestic is Whose mention, “We have not sent any messenger or prophet before you (or a Muhahhdath) one who hears from the angels. (22:52) Ali ibn abu Talib (a.s.) was a Muhaddath. At this point a man called ‘Abdallah ibn Zayd who was a brother of Ali from his mother’s side said, “Glory belongs to Allah. A Muhaddath1!” It seemed as if he did not believe it. Abu Ja‘far (a.s.) then turned to us and said, “Do not have any doubts, I swear by Allah, that the son of your mother after all did have knowledge of this fact.” The narrator has said that when the Imam (a.s.) said so the man kept silent. The Imam (a.s.) then said, “This is the issue in which abu al-Khattab perished. He never learned what was the explanation of the prophet and a Muhaddath.”

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 (3/162)

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/1/4/54/2
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
3ee189ddf43f7a23ab94768e4b285a0c3989379135cabef4a46b60e0631faeda
source File Hash
30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/4/54/2
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.