Al-Kafi · Hadith 20

The Book of Belief and Disbelief · Condemnation of Worldly Matters and Abstaining Thereby · Volume 2, book 1, chapter 61, Hadith 20

Original Arabic text

20ـ عَلِيُّ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عِيسَى عَنْ يَحْيَى بْنِ عُقْبَةَ الأزْدِيِّ عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيهِ السَّلام) قَالَ قَالَ أَبُو جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيهِ السَّلام) مَثَلُ الْحَرِيصِ عَلَى الدُّنْيَا كَمَثَلِ دُودَةِ الْقَزِّ كُلَّمَا ازْدَادَتْ عَلَى نَفْسِهَا لَفّاً كَانَ أَبْعَدَ لَهَا مِنَ الْخُرُوجِ حَتَّى تَمُوتَ غَمّاً قَالَ وَقَالَ أَبُو عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيهِ السَّلام) كَانَ فِيمَا وَعَظَ بِهِ لُقْمَانُ ابْنَهُ يَا بُنَيَّ إِنَّ النَّاسَ قَدْ جَمَعُوا قَبْلَكَ لأوْلادِهِمْ فَلَمْ يَبْقَ مَا جَمَعُوا وَلَمْ يَبْقَ مَنْ جَمَعُوا لَهُ وَإِنَّمَا أَنْتَ عَبْدٌ مُسْتَأْجَرٌ قَدْ أُمِرْتَ بِعَمَلٍ وَوُعِدْتَ عَلَيْهِ أَجْراً فَأَوْفِ عَمَلَكَ وَاسْتَوْفِ أَجْرَكَ وَلا تَكُنْ فِي هَذِهِ الدُّنْيَا بِمَنْزِلَةِ شَاةٍ وَقَعَتْ فِي زَرْعٍ أَخْضَرَ فَأَكَلَتْ حَتَّى سَمِنَتْ فَكَانَ حَتْفُهَا عِنْدَ سِمَنِهَا وَلَكِنِ اجْعَلِ الدُّنْيَا بِمَنْزِلَةِ قَنْطَرَةٍ عَلَى نَهَرٍ جُزْتَ عَلَيْهَا وَتَرَكْتَهَا وَلَمْ تَرْجِعْ إِلَيْهَا آخِرَ الدَّهْرِ أَخْرِبْهَا وَلا تَعْمُرْهَا فَإِنَّكَ لَمْ تُؤْمَرْ بِعِمَارَتِهَا وَاعْلَمْ أَنَّكَ سَتُسْأَلُ غَداً إِذَا وَقَفْتَ بَيْنَ يَدَيِ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ عَنْ أَرْبَعٍ شَبَابِكَ فِيمَا أَبْلَيْتَهُ وَعُمُرِكَ فِيمَا أَفْنَيْتَهُ وَمَالِكَ مِمَّا اكْتَسَبْتَهُ وَفِيمَا أَنْفَقْتَهُ فَتَأَهَّبْ لِذَلِكَ وَأَعِدَّ لَهُ جَوَاباً وَلا تَأْسَ عَلَى مَا فَاتَكَ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا فَإِنَّ قَلِيلَ الدُّنْيَا لا يَدُومُ بَقَاؤُهُ وَكَثِيرَهَا لا يُؤْمَنُ بَلاؤُهُ فَخُذْ حِذْرَكَ وَجِدَّ فِي أَمْرِكَ وَاكْشِفِ الْغِطَاءَ عَنْ وَجْهِكَ وَتَعَرَّضْ لِمَعْرُوفِ رَبِّكَ وَجَدِّدِ التَّوْبَةَ فِي قَلْبِكَ وَاكْمُشْ فِي فَرَاغِكَ قَبْلَ أَنْ يُقْصَدَ قَصْدُكَ وَيُقْضَى قَضَاؤُكَ وَيُحَالَ بَيْنَكَ وَبَيْنَ مَا تُرِيدُ.

Published English translation

20. Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from Muhammad ibn ‘Isa from Yahya ibn ‘Aqaba al-Azdi from Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) who has said the following: “Abu Ja’far (a.s.) has said, ‘The case of a person who is greedy in worldly matters is like the case of a silkworm. The more it wraps silk around itself the more difficult it becomes for it to get out until at last it dies therein in sorrow.’ The narrator has said that Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) then said, ‘Of the advice of Luqman to his son was this: ‘My son, people before you collected for their children but their collection never remained in place, nor were those for whom the collection was made. You are only a servant for hire. You are ordered to perform a deed and receive payment for it. Do your deed and receive payment. Do not be like the sheep who, finds a green farm and keeps eating until fatness kills it. Take the world as a bridge to cross a river and leave it when you are on the other side. Never return to it until the end of time. Destroy it and never repair it; you are not ordered to build it. “Bear in mind that tomorrow you will be questioned before Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Holy, of four things. You will be asked about your youth, how you made it old, about your life span, how you finished it, and about your properties, how you earned them and how you spent them. Wake up for these questions and prepare the answers. Do not regret for what you have missed of worldly things. The little worldly things do not last very long and more of the worldly things are not without misfortune. Be cautious, work hard in your affairs, remove the curtain before you. Get involved in the lawful matters of your Lord, renew repentance in your heart, work hard when you are free and before you are targeted (by the angel of death) for dying and judgment is issued that separates you from your goal.’”

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 (8/302)

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/2/1/61/20
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: 9def0b4026f06493d08a90d43803ea4f24837455191b891e7d29863b6ce7e49d
source File Hash: d538c07d5f74e5fbc26b065897c076eab247d4d7c09e633fbb6184de9f37ee78
original Source Url: https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/1/61/20
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.