Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 9

The Book of Belief and Disbelief · Disbelief · Volume 2, book 1, chapter 165, Hadith 9

Original Arabic text

9ـ هَارُونُ عَنْ مَسْعَدَةَ بْنِ صَدَقَةَ قَالَ سَمِعْتُ أَبَا عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيهِ السَّلام) وَسُئِلَ مَا بَالُ الزَّانِي لا تُسَمِّيهِ كَافِراً وَتَارِكُ الصَّلاةِ قَدْ سَمَّيْتَهُ كَافِراً وَمَا الْحُجَّةُ فِي ذَلِكَ فَقَالَ لأنَّ الزَّانِيَ وَمَا أَشْبَهَهُ إِنَّمَا يَفْعَلُ ذَلِكَ لِمَكَانِ الشَّهْوَةِ لأنَّهَا تَغْلِبُهُ وَتَارِكُ الصَّلاةِ لا يَتْرُكُهَا إِلا اسْتِخْفَافاً بِهَا وَذَلِكَ لأنَّكَ لا تَجِدُ الزَّانِيَ يَأْتِي الْمَرْأَةَ إِلا وَهُوَ مُسْتَلِذٌّ لِإِتْيَانِهِ إِيَّاهَا قَاصِداً إِلَيْهَا وَكُلُّ مَنْ تَرَكَ الصَّلاةَ قَاصِداً إِلَيْهَا فَلَيْسَ يَكُونُ قَصْدُهُ لِتَرْكِهَا اللَّذَّةَ فَإِذَا نُفِيَتِ اللَّذَّةُ وَقَعَ الإسْتِخْفَافُ وَإِذَا وَقَعَ الإسْتِخْفَافُ وَقَعَ الْكُفْرُ قَالَ وَسُئِلَ أَبُو عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيهِ السَّلام) وَقِيلَ لَهُ مَا الْفَرْقُ بَيْنَ مَنْ نَظَرَ إِلَى امْرَأَةٍ فَزَنَى بِهَا أَوْ خَمْرٍ فَشَرِبَهَا وَبَيْنَ مَنْ تَرَكَ الصَّلاةَ حَتَّى لا يَكُونَ الزَّانِي وَشَارِبُ الْخَمْرِ مُسْتَخِفّاً كَمَا يَسْتَخِفُّ تَارِكُ الصَّلاةِ وَمَا الْحُجَّةُ فِي ذَلِكَ وَمَا الْعِلَّةُ الَّتِي تَفْرُقُ بَيْنَهُمَا قَالَ الْحُجَّةُ أَنَّ كُلَّمَا أَدْخَلْتَ أَنْتَ نَفْسَكَ فِيهِ لَمْ يَدْعُكَ إِلَيْهِ دَاعٍ وَلَمْ يَغْلِبْكَ غَالِبُ شَهْوَةٍ مِثْلَ الزِّنَى وَشُرْبِ الْخَمْرِ وَأَنْتَ دَعَوْتَ نَفْسَكَ إِلَى تَرْكِ الصَّلاةِ وَلَيْسَ ثَمَّ شَهْوَةٌ فَهُوَ الإسْتِخْفَافُ بِعَيْنِهِ وَهَذَا فَرْقُ مَا بَيْنَهُمَا.

Published English translation

9. Harun has narrated from Mas’adah ibn Sadaqa who has said the following: “I heard Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) when he was asked, ‘Why is it that a fornicator is not considered an unbeliever as one ignoring the prayer is? What is the reason and evidence?’ The Imam said, ‘A fornicator and so forth commits such act due to lust that influences him, while one ignoring the prayer does so due to his considering it insignificant. You do not find a fornicator contact a female for any other reason besides lust and desire that motivates him. One who ignores the prayer does not do so for pleasure. When you negate lust and pleasure then the motive is considering it insignificant, and when this happens it is disbelief.’ “The narrator has said that Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) was asked, ‘What is the difference between a person’s looking at a female, then fornicating or to wine, then drinking it and one who ignores the prayer? Why is it that in the two aforementioned cases it is not ‘considered insignificant’ as is the case with ignoring prayer? What is the proof and reason that establish a difference?’ The Imam said, ‘Proof is that whenever you place your soul in something without any urging motive like lust and so forth, that are found in fornication and wine. In a case such as prayer in which there is no lust and desire, then it (the motive) is considering it insignificant and that is the difference between this and the other two cases.’”

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 (1/117)

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/2/1/165/9
license
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
edition
Al-Kafi, volume 2, 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
5c51bb0c66fc09513f3ebf51eab21bbb2eee01379b048f58b3cec4307b6aee11
source File Hash
d538c07d5f74e5fbc26b065897c076eab247d4d7c09e633fbb6184de9f37ee78
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/1/165/9
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. Snapshot URL's erroneous volume 1 segment corrected to volume 2 using the reviewed file/book/volume metadata and publisher chapter structure; original URL retained for audit.
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.