Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 11

The Book about people with Divine Authority · The case of those who would claim to be the Imam but is not qualified, the case of those who would reject all or some of the Imams and the case of those who argue in support of one who is not a qualified Imam. · Volume 1, book 4, chapter 85, Hadith 11

Original Arabic text

11ـ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ يَحْيَى عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عِيسَى عَنِ الْحَسَنِ بْنِ مَحْبُوبٍ عَنْ عَمْرِو بْنِ ثَابِتٍ عَنْ جَابِرٍ قَالَ سَأَلْتُ أَبَا جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) عَنْ قَوْلِ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَتَّخِذُ مِنْ دُونِ الله أَنْداداً يُحِبُّونَهُمْ كَحُبِّ الله قَالَ هُمْ وَالله أَوْلِيَاءُ فُلانٍ وَفُلانٍ اتَّخَذُوهُمْ أَئِمَّةً دُونَ الامَامِ الَّذِي جَعَلَهُ الله لِلنَّاسِ إِمَاماً فَلِذَلِكَ قَالَ وَلَوْ يَرَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا إِذْ يَرَوْنَ الْعَذابَ أَنَّ الْقُوَّةَ لله جَمِيعاً وَأَنَّ الله شَدِيدُ الْعَذابِ. إِذْ تَبَرَّأَ الَّذِينَ اتُّبِعُوا مِنَ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوا وَرَأَوُا الْعَذابَ وَتَقَطَّعَتْ بِهِمُ الاسْبابُ. وَقالَ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوا لَوْ أَنَّ لَنا كَرَّةً فَنَتَبَرَّأَ مِنْهُمْ كَما تَبَرَّؤُا مِنَّا كَذلِكَ يُرِيهِمُ الله أَعْمالَهُمْ حَسَراتٍ عَلَيْهِمْ وَما هُمْ بِخارِجِينَ مِنَ النَّارِ ثُمَّ قَالَ أَبُو جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) هُمْ وَالله يَا جَابِرُ أَئِمَّةُ الظَّلَمَةِ وَأَشْيَاعُهُمْ.

Published English translation

11. Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Isa from al-Hassan ibn Mahbub from ‘Umar ibn Thabit from Jabir who has said the following. “I asked abu Ja‘far (a.s.) about the words of Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most gracious, “Some people consider certain things equal to God and love them just as one should love God. . .” (2:165) The Imam (a.s.) said, “They, by Allah, are the friends of so and so and so and so whom they have taken as their Imams and not the Imam, Leaders with Divine Authority, who are appoint for people as suCh For this reason He has said, “. . Had the unjust been able to reflect about their condition, when facing the torment, they would have had no doubt that to God belongs All-power and that He is stern in His retribution. (2:165) When the leaders see the torment and lose all their resources, they will denounce their followers (2:166). The followers will say, “Had we had the chance we also would have denounced our leaders.” That is how God will show them their regrettable deeds. They will not be able to escape from hell fire.” (2:167).) Then abu Ja‘far (a.s.) said, “By Allah, O Jabir, they are the unjust Imams and their followers.”

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 (4/210)

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/1/4/85/11
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
2062acc4ee06b77c9448a7a32d04388d739ea3ebb797b7de551518d4ae8bd543
source File Hash
30bc491c96eb3860f3d3dfe97f46353a88858d7cb9e06d662ebdd04252ac5a3e
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/4/85/11
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.