Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 5

The Book of Prayer · Facing Doubts about Salah (Prayer) As a Whole, Not Knowing if It Is Increased or Decreased, One Facing Mistakes Very Often, Mistakes in Optional Salah (prayer) and Mistakes of an Imam and Those behind Him · Volume 3, book 4, chapter 43, Hadith 5

Original Arabic text

5ـ عَلِيُّ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عِيسَى عَنْ يُونُسَ عَنْ رَجُلٍ عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيْهِ الْسَّلام) قَالَ سَأَلْتُهُ عَنِ الإِمَامِ يُصَلِّي بِأَرْبَعَةِ أَنْفُسٍ أَوْ خَمْسَةِ أَنْفُسٍ وَيُسَبِّحُ اثْنَانِ عَلَى أَنَّهُمْ صَلَّوْا ثَلاَثاً وَيُسَبِّحُ ثَلاَثَةٌ عَلَى أَنَّهُمْ صَلَّوْا أَرْبَعاً وَيَقُولُ هَؤُلاَءِ قُومُوا وَيَقُولُ هَؤُلاَءِ اقْعُدُوا وَالإِمَامُ مَائِلٌ مَعَ أَحَدِهِمَا أَوْ مُعْتَدِلُ الْوَهْمِ فَمَا يَجِبُ عَلَيْهِ قَالَ لَيْسَ عَلَى الإِمَامِ سَهْوٌ إِذَا حَفِظَ عَلَيْهِ مَنْ خَلْفَهُ سَهْوَهُ بِإِيقَانٍ مِنْهُمْ وَلَيْسَ عَلَى مَنْ خَلْفَ الإِمَامِ سَهْوٌ إِذَا لَمْ يَسْهُ الإِمَامُ وَلاَ سَهْوَ فِي سَهْوٍ وَلَيْسَ فِي الْمَغْرِبِ وَالْفَجْرِ سَهْوٌ وَلاَ فِي الرَّكْعَتَيْنِ الأوَّلَتَيْنِ مِنْ كُلِّ صَلاَةٍ وَلاَ فِي نَافِلَةٍ فَإِذَا اخْتَلَفَ عَلَى الإِمَامِ مَنْ خَلْفَهُ فَعَلَيْهِ وَعَلَيْهِمْ فِي الاحْتِيَاطِ الإِعَادَةُ وَالأخْذُ بِالْجَزْمِ.

Published English translation

5. Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from Muhammad ibn ‘Isa from Yunus from a man who has said the following: “I once asked abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about the case of an Imam who leads four or five people in Salah (prayer). Of these people two of them say Tasbih (Allah is free of all defects) indicating that it is three Rak‘at and three of them say Tasbih (Allah is free of all defects) to indicate that it is four Rak‘at. These ones say to stand up, these ones say to sit down, and the Imam is inclined toward one side or has equal guess about both sides. What is he to do? He (the Imam) said, ‘Imam does not have mistakes if those behind him preserve (the order of Salah) with their certainty and those behind the Imam do not have mistakes if the Imam does not have mistakes. There is no mistake (applicable) in mistakes, (about the number of Rak‘at) correctable in al-Maghrib, in the morning Salah (prayer), in the first two Rak‘at of every Salah (prayer) and in optional Salah (prayer). If those behind the Imam differ with the Imam then it is upon him and upon them to observe caution by performing again for ascertainment.’”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: مرسل

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (5/209)

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/3/4/43/5
license
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
edition
Al-Kafi, volume 3, 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
2f45fc10d35bfad03ada3fd353cf4cd1c30ba6470ab066bdcc277d6e6fe59dcd
source File Hash
c1963d9c5ae304c52e135f93552237f5ab876e0b12123bbc2d513a90dbd36cc2
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/4/43/5
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 3 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.