Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 3

The Book of Belief and Disbelief · Intending to Perform a Good or an Evil Deed · Volume 2, book 1, chapter 190, Hadith 3

Original Arabic text

3ـ عَنْهُ عَنْ عَلِيِّ بْنِ حَفْصٍ الْعَوْسِيِّ عَنْ عَلِيِّ بْنِ السَّائِحِ عَنْ عَبْدِ الله بْنِ مُوسَى بْنِ جَعْفَرٍ عَنْ أَبِيهِ قَالَ سَأَلْتُهُ عَنِ الْمَلَكَيْنِ هَلْ يَعْلَمَانِ بِالذَّنْبِ إِذَا أَرَادَ الْعَبْدُ أَنْ يَفْعَلَهُ أَوِ الْحَسَنَةِ فَقَالَ رِيحُ الْكَنِيفِ وَرِيحُ الطِّيبِ سَوَاءٌ قُلْتُ لا قَالَ إِنَّ الْعَبْدَ إِذَا هَمَّ بِالْحَسَنَةِ خَرَجَ نَفَسُهُ طَيِّبَ الرِّيحِ فَقَالَ صَاحِبُ الْيَمِينِ لِصَاحِبِ الشِّمَالِ قُمْ فَإِنَّهُ قَدْ هَمَّ بِالْحَسَنَةِ فَإِذَا فَعَلَهَا كَانَ لِسَانُهُ قَلَمَهُ وَرِيقُهُ مِدَادَهُ فَأَثْبَتَهَا لَهُ وَإِذَا هَمَّ بِالسَّيِّئَةِ خَرَجَ نَفَسُهُ مُنْتِنَ الرِّيحِ فَيَقُولُ صَاحِبُ الشِّمَالِ لِصَاحِبِ الْيَمِينِ قِفْ فَإِنَّهُ قَدْ هَمَّ بِالسَّيِّئَةِ فَإِذَا هُوَ فَعَلَهَا كَانَ لِسَانُهُ قَلَمَهُ وَرِيقُهُ مِدَادَهُ وَأَثْبَتَهَا عَلَيْهِ.

Published English translation

3. It is narrated from him (narrator of the Hadith above) from Ali ibn Hafs al-‘Awsi from Ali ibn al-Sa’ih from ‘Abd Allah ibn Musa ibn Ja’far from his father (a.s.) who has said the following: “Once I asked him (a.s.) if the two angels know the sin or good deed that a servant (of Allah) may intend to perform. The Imam said, ‘Are the smell of a trash collection site and a sweet smelling substance the same?’ I said, ‘No, they are not the same.’ The Imam said, ‘Whenever a servant (of Allah) intends to perform a good deed his breath comes out with a good smell and the angel on the right side says to the one on the left side, ‘Stand up; he intends to perform a good deed.’ When he performs it his tongue serves as his pen and his saliva as ink and he writes it down for him. Whenever he intends to commit an evil deed his breath comes out with a foul smell. The angel on the left says to the one on the right, ‘Stop; he intends to commit an evil deed.’ For an evil act his tongue serves as the pen and his saliva as ink and he writes it down against him.’”

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 (1/292)

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/2/1/190/3
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
381d991b68751c15e1b03597e96e769526dd67e2c17007c1671207eb12dfc8c5
source File Hash
d538c07d5f74e5fbc26b065897c076eab247d4d7c09e633fbb6184de9f37ee78
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/1/190/3
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.