Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 8

The Book of al-Zakat · The Obligation of al-Zakat (charity) and Necessary Payments from Properties · Volume 3, book 5, chapter 1, Hadith 8

Original Arabic text

8ـ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ يَحْيَى عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ عُثْمَانَ بْنِ عِيسَى عَنْ سَمَاعَةَ بْنِ مِهْرَانَ عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيْهِ الْسَّلام) قَالَ إِنَّ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ فَرَضَ لِلْفُقَرَاءِ فِي أَمْوَالِ الأغْنِيَاءِ فَرِيضَةً لاَ يُحْمَدُونَ إِلاَّ بِأَدَائِهَا وَهِيَ الزَّكَاةُ بِهَا حَقَنُوا دِمَاءَهُمْ وَبِهَا سُمُّوا مُسْلِمِينَ وَلَكِنَّ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ فَرَضَ فِي أَمْوَالِ الأغْنِيَاءِ حُقُوقاً غَيْرَ الزَّكَاةِ فَقَالَ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ وَالَّذِينَ فِي أَمْوالِهِمْ حَقٌّ مَعْلُومٌ فَالْحَقُّ الْمَعْلُومُ مِنْ غَيْرِ الزَّكَاةِ وَهُوَ شَيْ‏ءٌ يَفْرِضُهُ الرَّجُلُ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ فِي مَالِهِ يَجِبُ عَلَيْهِ أَنْ يَفْرِضَهُ عَلَى قَدْرِ طَاقَتِهِ وَسَعَةِ مَالِهِ فَيُؤَدِّي الَّذِي فَرَضَ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ إِنْ شَاءَ فِي كُلِّ يَوْمٍ وَإِنْ شَاءَ فِي كُلِّ جُمْعَةٍ وَإِنْ شَاءَ فِي كُلِّ شَهْرٍ وَقَدْ قَالَ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ أَيْضاً أَقْرَضُوا الله قَرْضاً حَسَناً وَهَذَا غَيْرُ الزَّكَاةِ وَقَدْ قَالَ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ أَيْضاً يُنْفِقُوا مِمَّا رَزَقْناهُمْ سِرًّا وَعَلانِيَةً وَالْمَاعُونَ أَيْضاً وَهُوَ الْقَرْضُ يُقْرِضُهُ وَالْمَتَاعُ يُعِيرُهُ وَالْمَعْرُوفُ يَصْنَعُهُ وَمِمَّا فَرَضَ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ أَيْضاً فِي الْمَالِ مِنْ غَيْرِ الزَّكَاةِ قَوْلُهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ الَّذِينَ يَصِلُونَ ما أَمَرَ الله بِهِ أَنْ يُوصَلَ وَمَنْ أَدَّى مَا فَرَضَ الله عَلَيْهِ فَقَدْ قَضَى مَا عَلَيْهِ وَأَدَّى شُكْرَ مَا أَنْعَمَ الله عَلَيْهِ فِي مَالِهِ إِذَا هُوَ حَمِدَهُ عَلَى مَا أَنْعَمَ الله عَلَيْهِ فِيهِ مِمَّا فَضَّلَهُ بِهِ مِنَ السَّعَةِ عَلَى غَيْرِهِ وَلِمَا وَفَّقَهُ لأَدَاءِ مَا فَرَضَ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ عَلَيْهِ وَأَعَانَهُ عَلَيْهِ.

Published English translation

8. Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from ‘Uthman ibn ‘Isa from Sama‘ah ibn Mehran who has said the following: “Abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), has said that Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Glorious, has made it compulsory on affluent people to pay the share of the needy people from their properties and the affluent people will not be praised unless they pay the share of needy people. This share is zakat. Paying zakat protects their lives and because of paying zakat, they are called Muslims. However, Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Glorious, has assigned other shares in the properties of the affluent people, which are other than zakat. This is what a man considers necessary to pay from his property as Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Glorious, has mentioned in His book: ‘They are those who assign a certain share of their property (70:24) for the needy and the deprived (70:25).’ The ‘certain share’ is something other than zakat. It is what one considers necessary to pay to the needy. He must, however, do so according to his financial abilities and then pay what he has considered necessary. He may pay every day, every Friday or every month. Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Glorious, has also said, ‘The charitable men and women who give a virtuous loan to Allah will receive double from Him in addition to their honorable reward.’ (57:18) This also is something other than zakat. Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Glorious, has said again, ‘. . . My believing servants . . . spend for the cause of their Lord, both in private and in public, out of what We have given them. . . .’ (14:31) Assistance is a form of loan, borrowing a certain item or lending a helping hand are also of matters Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Glorious, has made necessary and they are other than zakat. Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Glorious, has said, ‘Those who fulfill their promise to and covenant with Allah (13:20), who maintain all the proper relations that Allah has commanded them to maintain, who have fear of their Lord and the hardships of the Day of Judgment’ (13:21). Those who pay what Allah has made compulsory have fulfilled their duties and have paid thanks to Allah for His bounties in his properties. In this way he has thanked Allah for what Allah has granted him and has given him preference over others as wealthier than others and has given him the opportunity to fulfill his duty toward Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Glorious, and has helped him to do so.”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: موثق

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (6/8)

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/3/5/1/8
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
512bbe1f84986dadf3c52245843b52e94c5bf77f3d496e2ad97144373593f1a5
source File Hash
c1963d9c5ae304c52e135f93552237f5ab876e0b12123bbc2d513a90dbd36cc2
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/5/1/8
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.