Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 5

The Book about people with Divine Authority · The Spirit with which the Imams (a.s.) are Protected · Volume 1, book 4, chapter 56, Hadith 5

Original Arabic text

5ـ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ يَحْيَى عَنْ عِمْرَانَ بْنِ مُوسَى عَنْ مُوسَى بْنِ جَعْفَرٍ عَنْ عَلِيِّ بْنِ أَسْبَاطٍ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ الْفُضَيْلِ عَنْ أَبِي حَمْزَةَ قَالَ سَأَلْتُ أَبَا عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) عَنِ الْعِلْمِ أَ هُوَ عِلْمٌ يَتَعَلَّمُهُ الْعَالِمُ مِنْ أَفْوَاهِ الرِّجَالِ أَمْ فِي الْكِتَابِ عِنْدَكُمْ تَقْرَءُونَهُ فَتَعْلَمُونَ مِنْهُ قَالَ الامْرُ أَعْظَمُ مِنْ ذَلِكَ وَأَوْجَبُ أَ مَا سَمِعْتَ قَوْلَ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ وَكَذلِكَ أَوْحَيْنا إِلَيْكَ رُوحاً مِنْ أَمْرِنا ما كُنْتَ تَدْرِي مَا الْكِتابُ وَلا الايمانُ ثُمَّ قَالَ أَيَّ شَيْ‏ءٍ يَقُولُ أَصْحَابُكُمْ فِي هَذِهِ الايَةِ أَ يُقِرُّونَ أَنَّهُ كَانَ فِي حَالٍ لا يَدْرِي مَا الْكِتَابُ وَلا الايمَانُ فَقُلْتُ لا أَدْرِي جُعِلْتُ فِدَاكَ مَا يَقُولُونَ فَقَالَ لِي بَلَى قَدْ كَانَ فِي حَالٍ لا يَدْرِي مَا الْكِتَابُ وَلا الايمَانُ حَتَّى بَعَثَ الله تَعَالَى الرُّوحَ الَّتِي ذُكِرَ فِي الْكِتَابِ فَلَمَّا أَوْحَاهَا إِلَيْهِ عَلَّمَ بِهَا الْعِلْمَ وَالْفَهْمَ وَهِيَ الرُّوحُ الَّتِي يُعْطِيهَا الله تَعَالَى مَنْ شَاءَ فَإِذَا أَعْطَاهَا عَبْداً عَلَّمَهُ الْفَهْمَ.

Published English translation

5. Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from ‘Imran ibn Musa from Musa ibn Ja‘far from Ali ibn Asbat from Muhammad ibn Fudayl from abu Hamzah who has said the following. “I asked abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.) about the knowledge. Is it a knowledge that the scholar learns from the mouths of the people or it is in the with you from which you read and then learn therefrom.” The Imam (a.s.) said, “The issue is greater and more urgently needed. Have you not heard the words of Allah, the Most Holy, the Most High, “Thus, We have revealed a Spirit to you, (Muhammad), by Our command. Before, you did not even know what a Book or Faith was, . .” (42:52)?” The The Imam (a.s.) said, “What does your people say about this verse? Do they read that he was as such that he did not know what the or the was?” I said, “I do not know, “May Allah take my soul in service for your cause, what they say.” The Imam (a.s.) then said, “Yes, he lived in a condition wherein he did not know the book and the faith untill Allah, the Most High, sent the Spirit who is mentioned in the book. When the Spirit was inspired (sent) to him he learned through him the knowledge and understanding. He is the Spirit whom Allah, the Most High grants to whoever He wants. When He grants him to a servant he teaches him understanding.”

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 (3/173)

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/1/4/56/5
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
d357b3858ee03d4059fa21ba7daef0f9ed65e032326b96525be907441affeb18
source File Hash
30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/4/56/5
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.