Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 16

The Book of Belief and Disbelief · Greeting with Handshake · Volume 2, book 1, chapter 78, Hadith 16

Original Arabic text

16ـ عَلِيُّ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ عَنْ أَبِيهِ عَنْ حَمَّادٍ عَنْ رِبْعِيٍّ عَنْ زُرَارَةَ عَنْ أَبِي جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيهِ السَّلام) قَالَ سَمِعْتُهُ يَقُولُ إِنَّ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ لا يُوصَفُ وَكَيْفَ يُوصَفُ وَقَالَ فِي كِتَابِهِ وَما قَدَرُوا الله حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ فَلا يُوصَفُ بِقَدَرٍ إِلا كَانَ أَعْظَمَ مِنْ ذَلِكَ وَإِنَّ النَّبِيَّ (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وآلِه) لا يُوصَفُ وَكَيْفَ يُوصَفُ عَبْدٌ احْتَجَبَ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ بِسَبْعٍ وَجَعَلَ طَاعَتَهُ فِي الأرْضِ كَطَاعَتِهِ فِي السَّمَاءِ فَقَالَ وَما آتاكُمُ الرَّسُولُ فَخُذُوهُ وَما نَهاكُمْ عَنْهُ فَانْتَهُوا وَمَنْ أَطَاعَ هَذَا فَقَدْ أَطَاعَنِي وَمَنْ عَصَاهُ فَقَدْ عَصَانِي وَفَوَّضَ إِلَيْهِ وَإِنَّا لا نُوصَفُ وَكَيْفَ يُوصَفُ قَوْمٌ رَفَعَ الله عَنْهُمُ الرِّجْسَ وَهُوَ الشَّكُّ وَالْمُؤْمِنُ لا يُوصَفُ وَإِنَّ الْمُؤْمِنَ لَيَلْقَى أَخَاهُ فَيُصَافِحُهُ فَلا يَزَالُ الله يَنْظُرُ إِلَيْهِمَا وَالذُّنُوبُ تَتَحَاتُّ عَنْ وُجُوهِهِمَا كَمَا يَتَحَاتُّ الْوَرَقُ عَنِ الشَّجَرِ.

Published English translation

16. Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father from Hammad from Rib’i from Zurara who has said the following: “I heard abu Ja’far (a.s.) saying, ‘Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Holy, cannot be described and how can He be described when He says in His book, “They have not revered (honored and respected) Allah properly. . . .” (22:74) He cannot be described through measurement. He is greater than such measures of respect. The Holy Prophet cannot be described and respected. How can a servant (of Allah) be described whom Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Holy, has veiled with seven things (no explanation for this seven is available). He has made obedience to him on earth like the obedience to His own self in heavens saying, ‘Take only what the Messenger gives to you and desist from what he forbids you,’ (59:7) whoever obeys him has obeyed Me and whoever disobeys him has disobeyed Me. He (Allah) made him to be the in charge person of the affairs. We also cannot be described and how can a people be described from whom Allah has removed all rijs (uncleanness), which, applies to doubt (doubt is uncleanness). The believing people also cannot be described. When the believer meets his brother (in belief) and they shake hands Allah continues looking at them and the sins fall from their faces like leaves fall off trees.’”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: حسن كالصحيح

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (9/70)

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/2/1/78/16
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
0eb74c20e24ae9e73de3c00fbcb6f3f24ca670828294b6bf9a62194a829441fa
source File Hash
d538c07d5f74e5fbc26b065897c076eab247d4d7c09e633fbb6184de9f37ee78
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/1/78/16
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.