Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 1

The Book of Social Manners · Those Whose Association and Friendship Is Undesirable · Volume 2, book 4, chapter 4, Hadith 1

Original Arabic text

1ـ عِدَّةٌ مِنْ أَصْحَابِنَا عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ خَالِدٍ عَنْ عَمْرِو بْنِ عُثْمَانَ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ سَالِمٍ الْكِنْدِيِّ عَمَّنْ حَدَّثَهُ عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيهِ السَّلام) قَالَ كَانَ أَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ (عَلَيهِ السَّلام) إِذَا صَعِدَ الْمِنْبَرَ قَالَ يَنْبَغِي لِلْمُسْلِمِ أَنْ يَتَجَنَّبَ مُوَاخَاةَ ثَلاثَةٍ الْمَاجِنِ الْفَاجِرِ وَالأحْمَقِ وَالْكَذَّابِ فَأَمَّا الْمَاجِنُ الْفَاجِرُ فَيُزَيِّنُ لَكَ فِعْلَهُ وَيُحِبُّ أَنَّكَ مِثْلُهُ وَلا يُعِينُكَ عَلَى أَمْرِ دِينِكَ وَمَعَادِكَ وَمُقَارَبَتُهُ جَفَاءٌ وَقَسْوَةٌ وَمَدْخَلُهُ وَمَخْرَجُهُ عَارٌ عَلَيْكَ وَأَمَّا الأحْمَقُ فَإِنَّهُ لا يُشِيرُ عَلَيْكَ بِخَيْرٍ وَلا يُرْجَى لِصَرْفِ السُّوءِ عَنْكَ وَلَوْ أَجْهَدَ نَفْسَهُ وَرُبَّمَا أَرَادَ مَنْفَعَتَكَ فَضَرَّكَ فَمَوْتُهُ خَيْرٌ مِنْ حَيَاتِهِ وَسُكُوتُهُ خَيْرٌ مِنْ نُطْقِهِ وَبُعْدُهُ خَيْرٌ مِنْ قُرْبِهِ وَأَمَّا الْكَذَّابُ فَإِنَّهُ لا يَهْنِئُكَ مَعَهُ عَيْشٌ يَنْقُلُ حَدِيثَكَ وَيَنْقُلُ إِلَيْكَ الْحَدِيثَ كُلَّمَا أَفْنَى أُحْدُوثَةً مَطَرَهَا بِأُخْرَى مِثْلِهَا حَتَّى إِنَّهُ يُحَدِّثُ بِالصِّدْقِ فَمَا يُصَدَّقُ وَيُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ بِالْعَدَاوَةِ فَيُنْبِتُ السَّخَائِمَ فِي الصُّدُورِ فَاتَّقُوا الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ وَانْظُرُوا لأنْفُسِكُمْ.

Published English translation

1. A number of our people have narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Khalid from ‘Amr Aban ibn ‘Uthman ‘Uthman from Muhammad ibn Salim al-Kindy from those whom he has mentioned (in his book) from Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) who has said the following: “When Amir al-Mu’minin, Ali ibn abu Talib (a.s.) were to take his place on the pulpit he would say, ‘A Muslim, must avoid friendship with three kinds of people: A bold-faced indecent, an idiot and a liar. A bold-faced- indecent person attempts to make his acts seem attractive to you and loves that you behave like he does. Fie does not assist you in your religious matters and the matters of the hereafter. Closeness to him is injustice, hardheartedness, and his coming and going is disgrace for you. ‘An idiotic person does not indicate anything good for you, nor is there any hope in him to remove any bit of evil from you even if he may try his best. Perhaps he may want to benefit you, instead he only harms you. His death is better than his living, his silence is better than his speaking, and his being at a distance is better than his being nearby. ‘The liar is one with whom you can never have a happy life. Fie carries your words out and others’ words in to you. Whenever he may run out of words he then mixes them with others so much so that even when speaking the truth is not believed and he causes differences among people with animosity to sow envy in the hearts. You must be pious before Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Floly, and look after your own souls.’”

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 (12/533)

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/2/4/4/1
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
e45f9e71edce210c2c4e17bd11943611b669a039003af87132d70c303681458e
source File Hash
d538c07d5f74e5fbc26b065897c076eab247d4d7c09e633fbb6184de9f37ee78
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/4/4/1
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.