Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 20

The Book of Belief and Disbelief · Evaluation of Deeds · Volume 2, book 1, chapter 203, Hadith 20

Original Arabic text

20ـ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ يَحْيَى عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ بَعْضِ أَصْحَابِهِ عَنِ الْحَسَنِ بْنِ عَلِيِّ بْنِ أَبِي عُثْمَانَ عَنْ وَاصِلٍ عَنْ عَبْدِ الله بْنِ سِنَانٍ عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيهِ السَّلام) قَالَ جَاءَ رَجُلٌ إِلَى أَبِي ذَرٍّ فَقَالَ يَا أَبَا ذَرٍّ مَا لَنَا نَكْرَهُ الْمَوْتَ فَقَالَ لأنَّكُمْ عَمَرْتُمُ الدُّنْيَا وَأَخْرَبْتُمُ الآخِرَةَ فَتَكْرَهُونَ أَنْ تُنْقَلُوا مِنْ عُمْرَانٍ إِلَى خَرَابٍ فَقَالَ لَهُ فَكَيْفَ تَرَى قُدُومَنَا عَلَى الله فَقَالَ أَمَّا الْمُحْسِنُ مِنْكُمْ فَكَالْغَائِبِ يَقْدَمُ عَلَى أَهْلِهِ وَأَمَّا الْمُسِي‏ءُ مِنْكُمْ فَكَالآبِقِ يُرَدُّ عَلَى مَوْلاهُ قَالَ فَكَيْفَ تَرَى حَالَنَا عِنْدَ الله قَالَ اعْرِضُوا أَعْمَالَكُمْ عَلَى الْكِتَابِ إِنَّ الله يَقُولُ إِنَّ الأبْرارَ لَفِي نَعِيمٍ وَإِنَّ الْفُجَّارَ لَفِي جَحِيمٍ قَالَ فَقَالَ الرَّجُلُ فَأَيْنَ رَحْمَةُ الله قَالَ رَحْمَةُ الله قَرِيبٌ مِنَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ قَالَ أَبُو عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيهِ السَّلام) وَكَتَبَ رَجُلٌ إِلَى أَبِي ذَرٍّ رَضِيَ الله عَنْهُ يَا أَبَا ذَرٍّ أَطْرِفْنِي بِشَيْ‏ءٍ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ فَكَتَبَ إِلَيْهِ أَنَّ الْعِلْمَ كَثِيرٌ وَلَكِنْ إِنْ قَدَرْتَ أَنْ لا تُسِي‏ءَ إِلَى مَنْ تُحِبُّهُ فَافْعَلْ قَالَ فَقَالَ لَهُ الرَّجُلُ وَهَلْ رَأَيْتَ أَحَداً يُسِي‏ءُ إِلَى مَنْ يُحِبُّهُ فَقَالَ لَهُ نَعَمْ نَفْسُكَ أَحَبُّ الأنْفُسِ إِلَيْكَ فَإِذَا أَنْتَ عَصَيْتَ الله فَقَدْ أَسَأْتَ إِلَيْهَا.

Published English translation

20. Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from certain individuals of his people from al-Hassan ibn Ali ibn abu ‘Uthman from Wasil from ‘Abd Allah ibn Sinan from Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) who has said the following: “A man came to abu Dhar and asked, ‘O abu Dhar, why do we dislike death?’ He said, ‘It is because you have developed the world and destroyed the next life and you dislike moving from developed to that which is mined.’ The man asked, ‘How do you see our moving in the presence of Allah?’ He replied, ‘The people of good deeds among you will be like one coming home from a journey. The evil doers among you, however, will be like a runaway slave returned to his master.’ The man then asked, ‘How do you see our condition before Allah?’ He said, ‘Present your deeds before the book of Allah. Allah has said, ‘‘The virtuous ones will live in bounties and the evil doers will live in fire.” (82:14,15) The man than asked, ‘Where then is the mercy of Allah?’ He replied, ‘The mercy of Allah is very close to the people who do good deeds.’ “Abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.) then said, ‘A man wrote to abu Dhar, may Allah be pleased with him, “O abu Dhar instruct me with a few things of knowledge.” He wrote back to him, ‘Knowledge is of many kinds, however, if you are able not to disappoint those whom you love, then do so. Yes, your soul is the most beloved to you. When you disobey Allah, you are doing bad and disappointing things to your own soul.’”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

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/2/1/203/20
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
762cebb31ad1eaba6302170c15e78026460518383ce8036f46bf6512ab462f4c
source File Hash
d538c07d5f74e5fbc26b065897c076eab247d4d7c09e633fbb6184de9f37ee78
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/1/203/20
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.