Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 1

The Book of al-Zakat · Recipient Can Use Zakat as His Own Propert · Volume 3, book 5, chapter 37, Hadith 1

Original Arabic text

1ـ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ يَحْيَى عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ عُثْمَانَ بْنِ عِيسَى عَنْ سَمَاعَةَ عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيْهِ الْسَّلام) قَالَ إِذَا أَخَذَ الرَّجُلُ الزَّكَاةَ فَهِيَ كَمَالِهِ يَصْنَعُ بِهَا مَا يَشَاءُ قَالَ وَقَالَ إِنَّ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ فَرَضَ لِلْفُقَرَاءِ فِي أَمْوَالِ الأغْنِيَاءِ فَرِيضَةً لاَ يُحْمَدُونَ إِلاَّ بِأَدَائِهَا وَهِيَ الزَّكَاةُ فَإِذَا هِيَ وَصَلَتْ إِلَى الْفَقِيرِ فَهِيَ بِمَنْزِلَةِ مَالِهِ يَصْنَعُ بِهَا مَا يَشَاءُ فَقُلْتُ يَتَزَوَّجُ بِهَا وَيَحُجُّ مِنْهَا قَالَ نَعَمْ هِيَ مَالُهُ قُلْتُ فَهَلْ يُؤْجَرُ الْفَقِيرُ إِذَا حَجَّ مِنَ الزَّكَاةِ كَمَا يُؤْجَرُ الْغَنِيُّ صَاحِبُ الْمَالِ قَالَ نَعَمْ.

Published English translation

1. Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from ‘Uthman ibn ‘Isa from Sama‘ah who has said the following: “Abu ’Abd Allah (a.s.), has said, ‘When a person receives Zakat it is like his own property and one can use it as one likes.’ He (the Imam) then said, ‘Allah, most Majestic, most Glorious, has made a share in the wealth of the wealthy people obligatory for the needy. The affluent people are not appreciated until they pay it. That share is Zakat. Once it (Zakat) reaches in the hands of the needy, it then becomes like his own property and he uses it as he likes for marriage or Hajj. Yes, it is his property.’ I then asked, ‘Can a needy person who performs Hajj from Zakat receive the reward for Hajj as the wealthy person receives?’ He (the Imam) said, ‘Yes, the needy receive the same amount of reward.’”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: ضعيف

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (16/102)

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, p. 34

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/3/5/37/1
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
5a53c70a1348b7ff2926749888013bda8c5fc83a8a89a7c871e2ea8589a7a83d
source File Hash
c1963d9c5ae304c52e135f93552237f5ab876e0b12123bbc2d513a90dbd36cc2
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/5/37/1
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.