Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 9

The Book about people with Divine Authority · The Criterion to Discern the Truthful and False Claims of Entitlement to Imamat (Leadership with Divine Authority) · Volume 1, book 4, chapter 81, Hadith 9

Original Arabic text

9ـ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ يَحْيَى وَأَحْمَدُ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ الْحَسَنِ عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ الْحُسَيْنِ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ الطَّيِّبِ عَنْ عَبْدِ الْوَهَّابِ بْنِ مَنْصُورٍ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ أَبِي الْعَلاءِ قَالَ سَمِعْتُ يَحْيَى بْنَ أَكْثَمَ قَاضِيَ سَامَرَّاءَ بَعْدَ مَا جَهَدْتُ بِهِ وَنَاظَرْتُهُ وَحَاوَرْتُهُ وَوَاصَلْتُهُ وَسَأَلْتُهُ عَنْ عُلُومِ آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ فَقَالَ بَيْنَا أَنَا ذَاتَ يَوْمٍ دَخَلْتُ أَطُوفُ بِقَبْرِ رَسُولِ الله (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِه) فَرَأَيْتُ مُحَمَّدَ بْنَ عَلِيٍّ الرِّضَا (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) يَطُوفُ بِهِ فَنَاظَرْتُهُ فِي مَسَائِلَ عِنْدِي فَأَخْرَجَهَا إِلَيَّ فَقُلْتُ لَهُ وَالله إِنِّي أُرِيدُ أَنْ أَسْأَلَكَ مَسْأَلَةً وَإِنِّي وَالله لاسْتَحْيِي مِنْ ذَلِكَ فَقَالَ لِي أَنَا أُخْبِرُكَ قَبْلَ أَنْ تَسْأَلَنِي تَسْأَلُنِي عَنِ الامَامِ فَقُلْتُ هُوَ وَالله هَذَا فَقَالَ أَنَا هُوَ فَقُلْتُ عَلامَةً فَكَانَ فِي يَدِهِ عَصًا فَنَطَقَتْ وَقَالَتْ إِنَّ مَوْلايَ إِمَامُ هَذَا الزَّمَانِ وَهُوَ الْحُجَّةُ.

Published English translation

9. Muhammad ibn Yahya and Ahmad ibn Muhammad have narrated from Muhammad ibn al-Hassan from Ahmad ibn al-Husayn from Muhammad ibn at-Tayyib from ‘Abd al-Wahhab ibn Mansur from Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-‘Ala’ who has said the following. “I heard from Yahya ibn Aktham, the judge in the city of Samarra, Iraq his words herein below. It happened only after serious debates, conversations, maintaining good relations and asking him about the knowledge of the members of the family of Muhammad (s.a). He said, “Once when was walking around the grave of the Messenger of Allah I saw Muhammad ibn Ali al-Rida (a.s.) also walk around the grave of the Messenger of Allah. We debated over the issues that I needed to understand. He explained them to me. I then said, “By Allah, I want to ask you a question, but I swear by Allah that I feel shy.” He then said, “I can tell you what you want to ask before you will ask me about it. You want to ask me about Imamat (Leadership with Divine Authority).” I then said, “By Allah, this is it?” He said, “I am he.” I then asked, “Is there any evidence and proof to support it?” He had a staff in his hand and it spoke, “My master certainly is the Imam of this time and he is the Hujja (Leader with Divine Authority)>“

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: مجهول أو ضعيف بأبي يحي ى

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (4/99)

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/1/4/81/9
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
54fe7603395157819d9fea573df493ae75ab97610735a296e8bc2be8e4f02b3a
source File Hash
30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/4/81/9
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.