Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 11

The Book of al-Zakat · The Obligation of al-Zakat (charity) and Necessary Payments from Properties · Volume 3, book 5, chapter 1, Hadith 11

Original Arabic text

11ـ عَنْهُ عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنِ الْحَسَنِ بْنِ مَحْبُوبٍ عَنْ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنِ الْحَجَّاجِ عَنِ الْقَاسِمِ بْنِ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ الأنْصَارِيِّ قَالَ سَمِعْتُ أَبَا جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيْهِ الْسَّلام) يَقُولُ إِنَّ رَجُلاً جَاءَ إِلَى أَبِي عَلِيِّ بْنِ الْحُسَيْنِ (عَلَيْهِما الْسَّلام) فَقَالَ لَهُ أَخْبِرْنِي عَنْ قَوْلِ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ وَالَّذِينَ فِي أَمْوالِهِمْ حَقٌّ مَعْلُومٌ. لِلسَّائِلِ وَالْمَحْرُومِ مَا هَذَا الْحَقُّ الْمَعْلُومُ فَقَالَ لَهُ عَلِيُّ بْنُ الْحُسَيْنِ (عَلَيْهِما الْسَّلام) الْحَقُّ الْمَعْلُومُ الشَّيْ‏ءُ يُخْرِجُهُ الرَّجُلُ مِنْ مَالِهِ لَيْسَ مِنَ الزَّكَاةِ وَلاَ مِنَ الصَّدَقَةِ الْمَفْرُوضَتَيْنِ قَالَ فَإِذَا لَمْ يَكُنْ مِنَ الزَّكَاةِ وَلاَ مِنَ الصَّدَقَةِ فَمَا هُوَ فَقَالَ هُوَ الشَّيْ‏ءُ يُخْرِجُهُ الرَّجُلُ مِنْ مَالِهِ إِنْ شَاءَ أَكْثَرَ وَإِنْ شَاءَ أَقَلَّ عَلَى قَدْرِ مَا يَمْلِكُ فَقَالَ لَهُ الرَّجُلُ فَمَا يَصْنَعُ بِهِ قَالَ يَصِلُ بِهِ رَحِماً وَيَقْرِي بِهِ ضَيْفاً وَيَحْمِلُ بِهِ كَلاًّ أَوْ يَصِلُ بِهِ أَخاً لَهُ فِي الله أَوْ لِنَائِبَةٍ تَنُوبُهُ فَقَالَ الرَّجُلُ الله يَعْلَمُ حَيْثُ يَجْعَلُ رِسَالاَتِهِ.

Published English translation

11. It is a narration from him (narrator of previous Hadith) by Ahmad ibn Muhammad from af-Hassan ibn Mahbub from ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Hajjaj from al-Qasim ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman af-Ansariy who has said the following: “I heard abu Ja‘far (a.s.), say, ‘Once a man came to my father, Ali ibn al-Husayn (a.s.), and said, “Please tell me about the expression ‘certain share’. The words of Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Glorious, say, ‘They are those who assign a certain share of their property (70:24) for the needy and the deprived.’ (70:25) What is this ‘certain share’?”’ Ali ibn al-Husayn (a.s.), said to him, ‘The ‘certain share’ is what a man pays from his property. It is not zakat or obligatory charity.’ He then asked, ‘If it is not of zakat or obligatory charity, then what is it?’ The Imam replied, ‘It is what a person pays from his property in small or larger amounts according to his ability.’ The man then asked, ‘What does he do with it?’ The Imam replied, ‘He thereby keeps good relation with relatives, entertains guest, relieves a burden, keeps good relations with a brother in faith, for the sake of Allah or fends off thereby a misfortune.’ The man then said, ‘Allah knows best where to keep (whom to entrust with) His message.’”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: مجهول

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (16/10)

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. 2, pp. 7, 8

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/3/5/1/11
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
4d67e1feb4bfb2fe1285d34dac6957cc8cf3a4af30b2b17b0b06b3e1abbd77eb
source File Hash
c1963d9c5ae304c52e135f93552237f5ab876e0b12123bbc2d513a90dbd36cc2
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/5/1/11
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.