Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 13

The Book on Dying People · Washing of Persons of opposite Gender · Volume 3, book 3, chapter 29, Hadith 13

Original Arabic text

13ـ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ يَحْيَى عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عِيسَى عَنْ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنِ سَالِمٍ عَنْ مُفَضَّلِ بْنِ عُمَرَ قَالَ قُلْتُ لأَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيْهِ الْسَّلام) مَنْ غَسَّلَ فَاطِمَةَ (عَلَيْهِا الْسَّلام) قَالَ ذَاكَ أَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ (عَلَيْهِ الْسَّلام) كَأَنَّكَ اسْتَفْظَعْتَ ذَلِكَ مِنْ قَوْلِهِ فَقَالَ لِي كَأَنَّكَ ضِقْتَ مِمَّا أَخْبَرْتُكَ فَقُلْتُ قَدْ كَانَ ذَلِكَ جُعِلْتُ فِدَاكَ فَقَالَ لِي لاَ تَضِيقَنَّ فَإِنَّهَا صِدِّيقَةٌ لَمْ يَكُنْ يُغَسِّلُهَا إِلاَّ صِدِّيقٌ أَ مَا عَلِمْتَ أَنَّ مَرْيَمَ (عَلَيْهِ الْسَّلام) لَمْ يُغَسِّلْهَا إِلاَّ عِيسَى (عَلَيْهِ الْسَّلام) قُلْتُ جُعِلْتُ فِدَاكَ فَمَا تَقُولُ فِي الْمَرْأَةِ تَكُونُ فِي السَّفَرِ مَعَ الرِّجَالِ لَيْسَ لَهَا مَعَهُمْ ذُو مَحْرَمٍ وَلاَ مَعَهُمُ امْرَأَةٌ فَتَمُوتُ الْمَرْأَةُ مَا يُصْنَعُ بِهَا قَالَ يُغْسَلُ مِنْهَا مَا أَوْجَبَ الله عَلَيْهِ التَّيَمُّمَ وَلاَ تُمَسُّ وَلاَ يُكْشَفُ شَيْ‏ءٌ مِنْ مَحَاسِنِهَا الَّذِي أَمَرَ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ بِسَتْرِهِ قُلْتُ كَيْفَ يُصْنَعُ بِهَا قَالَ يُغْسَلُ بَطْنُ كَفَّيْهَا وَوَجْهُهَا وَيُغْسَلُ ظَهْرُ كَفَّيْهَا.

Published English translation

13. Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Isa from ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Salim from Mufaddal ibn ‘Umar who has said the following: “I once asked abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), ‘Who gave Ghusl (bath) to Fatimah, ‘Alayha al- Salam ? He (the Imam) said, ‘That was ’Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s.). It seems as if you find it astonishing to hear such words.’ He (the Imam) said to me, ‘It seems you are strained because of what I told you.’ I said, ‘I pray to Allah to keep my soul in service for your cause, that is true.’ He (the Imam) said to me, ‘You must not be stressed out; she was a truthful one and no one other than a truthful one could give her Ghusl (bath). Consider the case of Maryam (Mary) who was given Ghusl (bath) by no one other than Jesus (a.s.) .’ I then said, ‘I pray to Allah to keep my soul in service for your cause, what do you say about the case of a woman who dies during a journey in the company of men among whom there is no one of her relatives or other woman. What they must do?’ He (the Imam) said, ‘Only those parts of her body are washed which Allah has made obligatory to be used for Tayammum. She is not touched and neither anything of her beauty which Allah, most Majestic, most Glorious, has covered must be exposed.’ I then asked, ‘What they must do?’ He (the Imam) said, ‘Only her palms, face and the backs of her hands are washed.’”

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 (13/339)

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/3/3/29/13
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
5c1142ab0f48edff9c9d8f077bebf503d5669e77e5c002bfeadb13af04772c0b
source File Hash
c1963d9c5ae304c52e135f93552237f5ab876e0b12123bbc2d513a90dbd36cc2
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/3/29/13
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.