Al-Kafi · Hadith 19

The Book of Belief and Disbelief · Good Relation with Relatives · Volume 2, book 1, chapter 68, Hadith 19

Original Arabic text

19ـ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ يَحْيَى عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عِيسَى عَنْ عُثْمَانَ بْنِ عِيسَى عَنْ يَحْيَى عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيهِ السَّلام) قَالَ قَالَ أَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ (عَلَيهِ السَّلام) لَنْ يَرْغَبَ الْمَرْءُ عَنْ عَشِيرَتِهِ وَإِنْ كَانَ ذَا مَالٍ وَوَلَدٍ وَعَنْ مَوَدَّتِهِمْ وَكَرَامَتِهِمْ وَدِفَاعِهِمْ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ وَأَلْسِنَتِهِمْ هُمْ أَشَدُّ النَّاسِ حِيطَةً مِنْ وَرَائِهِ وَأَعْطَفُهُمْ عَلَيْهِ وَأَلَمُّهُمْ لِشَعَثِهِ إِنْ أَصَابَتْهُ مُصِيبَةٌ أَوْ نَزَلَ بِهِ بَعْضُ مَكَارِهِ الأمُورِ وَمَنْ يَقْبِضْ يَدَهُ عَنْ عَشِيرَتِهِ فَإِنَّمَا يَقْبِضُ عَنْهُمْ يَداً وَاحِدَةً وَتُقْبَضُ عَنْهُ مِنْهُمْ أَيْدِي كَثِيرَةٌ وَمَنْ يُلِنْ حَاشِيَتَهُ يَعْرِفْ صَدِيقُهُ مِنْهُ الْمَوَدَّةَ وَمَنْ بَسَطَ يَدَهُ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ إِذَا وَجَدَهُ يُخْلِفِ الله لَهُ مَا أَنْفَقَ فِي دُنْيَاهُ وَيُضَاعِفْ لَهُ فِي آخِرَتِهِ وَلِسَانُ الصِّدْقِ لِلْمَرْءِ يَجْعَلُهُ الله فِي النَّاسِ خَيْراً مِنَ الْمَالِ يَأْكُلُهُ وَيُوَرِّثُهُ لا يَزْدَادَنَّ أَحَدُكُمْ كِبْراً وَعِظَماً فِي نَفْسِهِ وَنَأْياً عَنْ عَشِيرَتِهِ إِنْ كَانَ مُوسِراً فِي الْمَالِ وَلا يَزْدَادَنَّ أَحَدُكُمْ فِي أَخِيهِ زُهْداً وَلا مِنْهُ بُعْداً إِذَا لَمْ يَرَ مِنْهُ مُرُوَّةً وَكَانَ مُعْوِزاً فِي الْمَالِ وَلا يَغْفُلُ أَحَدُكُمْ عَنِ الْقَرَابَةِ بِهَا الْخَصَاصَةُ أَنْ يَسُدَّهَا بِمَا لا يَنْفَعُهُ إِنْ أَمْسَكَهُ وَلا يَضُرُّهُ إِنِ اسْتَهْلَكَهُ.

Published English translation

19. Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Isa from ‘Uthman ibn ‘Isa from Yahya from Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) who has said the following: “Amir al-Mu’minin (Ali ibn abu Talib) (a.s.) has said, ‘A man must never turn away from his relatives, even if he is wealthy and has many children. He must not fail to love them, must not ignore their honor, their defense with his hands and tongue. They are the strongest defending power behind him and the most kind to him, who care the most for his affairs if a misfortune may befall him or is suffering from a hardship. One who holds back from his kin’s people only holds back one hand, and they hold back many hands from him. Whoever shows kindness to his friends finds love with them. Whoever extends his hands in charitable ways when he is able to do so Allah replaces for him in this world and will grant manifold of rewards in the next life. The truthful tongue of a man is a thing that Allah makes serve him among the people better than the property that he consumes or leaves as his legacy. No one of you must ever assume boastfulness and arrogance in his soul and distance himself from his relatives, even if he is a wealthy one. No one of you must ever reduce his good relations with his brother or distance from him when he is poor. No one of you must ever neglect relatives. Kindred relation has a characteristic that holding back from it does not benefit one and spending for it does not harm a person.’”

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 (8/376)

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/2/1/68/19
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: 8a091e2b5af85d95e185109ff424a4743a1c45963cda2520a14839852f92997d
source File Hash: d538c07d5f74e5fbc26b065897c076eab247d4d7c09e633fbb6184de9f37ee78
original Source Url: https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/1/68/19
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.