Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 4

The Book of Prayer · One Joining a Row, Alone in One Row or Away From the Prayer Leader More Than One Step · Volume 3, book 4, chapter 57, Hadith 4

Original Arabic text

4ـ عَلِيُّ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ عَنْ أَبِيهِ عَنْ حَمَّادِ بْنِ عِيسَى عَنْ حَرِيزٍ عَنْ زُرَارَةَ عَنْ أَبِي جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيْهِ الْسَّلام) قَالَ إِنْ صَلَّى قَوْمٌ وَبَيْنَهُمْ وَبَيْنَ الإِمَامِ مَا لاَ يُتَخَطَّى فَلَيْسَ ذَلِكَ الإِمَامُ لَهُمْ بِإِمَامٍ وَأَيُّ صَفٍّ كَانَ أَهْلُهُ يُصَلُّونَ بِصَلاَةِ إِمَامٍ وَبَيْنَهُمْ وَبَيْنَ الصَّفِّ الَّذِي يَتَقَدَّمُهُمْ قَدْرَ مَا لاَ يُتَخَطَّى فَلَيْسَ تِلْكَ لَهُمْ فَإِنْ كَانَ بَيْنَهُمْ سُتْرَةٌ أَوْ جِدَارٌ فَلَيْسَتْ تِلْكَ لَهُمْ بِصَلاَةٍ إِلاَّ مَنْ كَانَ مِنْ حِيَالِ الْبَابِ قَالَ وَقَالَ هَذِهِ الْمَقَاصِيرُ لَمْ يَكُنْ فِي زَمَانِ أَحَدٍ مِنَ النَّاسِ وَإِنَّمَا أَحْدَثَهَا الْجَبَّارُونَ لَيْسَتْ لِمَنْ صَلَّى خَلْفَهَا مُقْتَدِياً بِصَلاَةِ مَنْ فِيهَا صَلاَةٌ قَالَ وَقَالَ أَبُو جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيْهِ الْسَّلام) يَنْبَغِي أَنْ يَكُونَ الصُّفُوفُ تَامَّةً مُتَوَاصِلَةً بَعْضُهَا إِلَى بَعْضٍ لاَ يَكُونُ بَيْنَ صَفَّيْنِ مَا لاَ يُتَخَطَّى يَكُونُ قَدْرُ ذَلِكَ مَسْقَطَ جَسَدِ الإِنْسَانِ.

Published English translation

4. Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father from Hammad ibn ‘Isa from Hariz from Zurarah who has said the following: “Abu Ja‘far (a.s.), has said, ‘If a people perform Salah (prayer) and there is a space between them and the Imam, which cannot be covered by one step, that Imam is not their Imam. Any row which performs Salah (prayer) following an Imam and the space between this and the row in front is more than can be covered by one step it is not of that (row). If there is a barrier or wall in between, it is not a Salah (prayer) for them unless one is in front of a door.’ He (the narrator) has said that he (the Imam) said, ‘These arches did not exist in the time of anyone. The tyrants have invented them. Salah (prayer) of those who perform behind them, following those who perform inside is not valid Salah (prayer).’ Abu Ja‘far (a.s.), has said, ‘The rows must be complete, connected with each other and there must be a space of one step between two rows. The space must be of the length of human body that falls (when in Sajdah (prostration)).”’

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: حسن

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (5/283)

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: صحيح

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Kāfī, vol. 1, p. 309

Assessment transcribed from the source's named scholar and reference. No new grading or consensus is asserted; differing entries remain separate.

Source, rights, and attribution

dataset Name
Thaqalayn public library, via ThaqalaynAPI snapshot
source Url
https://thaqalayn.com/hadith/3/4/57/4
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
0703c2ef989089872ddb38c0aa5869a57404ff6807426a7c8004e5f598059e34
source File Hash
c1963d9c5ae304c52e135f93552237f5ab876e0b12123bbc2d513a90dbd36cc2
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/4/57/4
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.