Al-Kafi · Hadith 21

Original Arabic text

Published English translation

21. Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from ‘Abd Allah ibn Ja’far from al-Sayyari from Muhammad ibn Bakr from abu al-Jarud from al-Asbagh ibn Nubatah from Amir al-Mu’minin, Ali ibn abu Talib (a.s.) who has said the following: “I swear by the One who sent Muhammad (a.s.) with the truth and honored his family, all supplications for protection is in the Holy Quran. In the Holy Quran there is protection against fire, theft, straying of animals from the owner, lost items, or runaway persons. Whoever wants to know, ask me. The narrator has said that a man then stood up and said, ‘Instruct me in something against fire and drowning’ The Imam said, ‘Read this verse: “The (true) Guardian is certainly Allah Who has revealed the Book and is the Guardian of the righteous ones.” (7:196) and ‘They have not paid due respect to Allah. The whole earth will be gripped in His hands on the Day of Judgment and the heavens will be just like a scroll in His right hand. Allah is by far more Glorious and High to be considered equal to their idols.’ (39:67) Whoever reads them will be safe from burns and drowning. [The man read them and fire broke out in the homes of his neighbors. His house was in the middle but remained unaffected]. Then another man stood up and said, ‘O Amir al-Mu’Minin (a.s.) my horse is unyielding and I am afraid of it.’ The Imam said, ‘Read in his right ear: “. . . all that is in the heavens and the earth have submitted themselves to His will, either by their own free will or by force? To Allah all things do return.” (3:83) [He read the above verse and his horse became subservient]. Another man stood up and said, ‘O Amir al- Mu’Minin, my land is filled with wild beasts. They overwhelm my house to get their prey.’ The Imam said, ‘Read: “A Messenger from your own people has come to you. Your destruction and suffering is extremely distressful to him. He really cares about you and is very compassionate and merciful to the believers.”’ (9:128) (Muhammad), if they turn away from you, say, ‘Allah is sufficient (support) for me. No one deserves to be worshipped except Allah. In Him 1 trust and He is the Owner of the Great Throne.’ (9:129) [This man also was saved from the beasts after reading the Quranic reading]. “Thereafter another man stood up and said, ‘O Amir al- Mu’Minin, in my stomach there is yellow water. Is there any cure for it?’ The Imam said yes, without dirham and dinar, ‘Write verse 255 of Chapter 2 of the Holy Quran on your stomach, then wash and drink it to save it in your stomach, you will be cured by the will of Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Holy.’ [This man also followed the instruction and was cured]. Another man stood up and asked about his straying animal. The Imam said, ‘Read Chapter 36 in two Rak’at (a prayer consisting of two times bowing down on one’s knees) prayer and say, “O guide of the straying, return my straying animal to me.’ [This man also followed the instruction and his animal was returned]. Another man stood up and said, ‘O Amir al-Mu’minin, tell me about a runaway.’ The Imam said, ‘Read: “Or they (the deeds of the unbelievers) are like the darkness of a deep, stormy sea with layers of giant waves, covered by dark clouds. It is darkness upon darkness whereby even if one stretches out his hands, he cannot see them. One can have no light unless Allah gives him light.’” (24:40) [He followed the instruction and his runaway person was found]. Thereafter another man stood up and said, ‘O Amir al-Mu’minin, tell me about theft. Every night they steal my things.’ The Imam said, ‘When going to bed read, “(Muhammad), tell them, ‘It is all the same whether you call Him Allah or the Beneficent. All the good names belong to Him. (Muhammad), do not be very loud or slow in your prayer. Choose a moderate way of praying.’ (17:110) Say, ‘It is only Allah who deserves all praise. . . .’ (17:111) Amir al-Mu’minin, Ali ibn abu Talib (a.s.) has said, ‘If one is in an uninhabited land at night the angels will guard him and devils move away from him upon his reading this: ‘Your Lord is Allah Who established His dominion over the Throne (of the realm) after having created the heavens and the earth in six days. He made the night darken the day, which it pursues at a (considerable) speed and He made the sun and the moon submissive to His command. Is it not He who creates and governs all things? Blessed is Allah, the Cherisher of the Universe.’ (7:54) The narrator has said that a man traveled and stayed at a mined town without reading the above verse of the Holy Quran, Satan overwhelmed him and was holding his face. His (Satan’s) friend told him to wait. It made the man wake up and read the above verse of the Holy Quran. Satan then said to his friend, ‘May Allah humiliate you, now stay here to guard him till morning.’ In the morning he came to Amir al-Mu’minin, Ali ibn abu Talib (a.s.) and informed him of the incident saying, ‘In your words I found cure and truth.’ After sunrise he went to the place and he found a bunch of the hairs of the devil on the ground.’”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Source, rights, and attribution

dataset Name

Thaqalayn public library, via ThaqalaynAPI snapshot

source Url

https://thaqalayn.com/hadith/2/3/13/21

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

ea779efb5b1cc40e3fcf565dd26e55d53f31f0d1a87ad5af0ca3d2561f00f9c4

source File Hash

d538c07d5f74e5fbc26b065897c076eab247d4d7c09e633fbb6184de9f37ee78

original Source Url

https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/3/13/21

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.