Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 4

The Book on Dying People · Ghusl (bath) for Children and Salah (Prayer) for Them · Volume 3, book 3, chapter 73, Hadith 4

Original Arabic text

4ـ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ يَحْيَى عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عِيسَى عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ خَالِدٍ وَالْحُسَيْنِ بْنِ سَعِيدٍ عَنِ النَّضْرِ بْنِ سُوَيْدٍ عَنْ يَحْيَى بْنِ عِمْرَانَ عَنِ ابْنِ مُسْكَانَ عَنْ زُرَارَةَ قَالَ مَاتَ ابْنٌ لأَبِي جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيْهِ الْسَّلام) فَأُخْبِرَ بِمَوْتِهِ فَأَمَرَ بِهِ فَغُسِّلَ وَكُفِّنَ وَمَشَى مَعَهُ وَصَلَّى عَلَيْهِ وَطُرِحَتْ خُمْرَةٌ فَقَامَ عَلَيْهَا ثُمَّ قَامَ عَلَى قَبْرِهِ حَتَّى فَرَغَ مِنْهُ ثُمَّ انْصَرَفَ وَانْصَرَفْتُ مَعَهُ حَتَّى إِنِّي لأَمْشِي مَعَهُ فَقَالَ أَمَا إِنَّهُ لَمْ يَكُنْ يُصَلَّى عَلَى مِثْلِ هَذَا وَكَانَ ابْنَ ثَلاَثِ سِنِينَ كَانَ عَلِيٌّ (عَلَيْهِ الْسَّلام) يَأْمُرُ بِهِ فَيُدْفَنُ وَلاَ يُصَلَّى عَلَيْهِ وَلَكِنَّ النَّاسَ صَنَعُوا شَيْئاً فَنَحْنُ نَصْنَعُ مِثْلَهُ قَالَ قُلْتُ فَمَتَى تَجِبُ الصَّلاَةُ عَلَيْهِ فَقَالَ إِذَا عَقَلَ الصَّلاَةَ وَكَانَ ابْنَ سِتِّ سِنِينَ قَالَ قُلْتُ فَمَا تَقُولُ فِي الْوِلْدَانِ فَقَالَ سُئِلَ رَسُولُ الله (صلّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِه) عَنْهُمْ فَقَالَ الله أَعْلَمُ بِمَا كَانُوا عَامِلِينَ.

Published English translation

4. Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Isa from Muhammad ibn Khalid and al-Husayn ibn Sa‘id from al-Nadr ibn Suwayd from Yahya ibn ‘Imran from ibn Muskan from Zurarah from who has said the following: “One of the sons of Abu Ja‘far (a.s.), died. He (the Imam) was informed of his death and he commanded for Ghusl (bath) and shroud. He (the Imam) walked in his funeral and performed Salah (prayer). A prayer mat was spread and he (the Imam) stood on it, then he (the Imam) stood on his grave until he was free, then moved away and I (the narrator) also moved away. I walked along with him (the Imam). He (the Imam) said that Salah (prayer) was not performed in such cases, but people did things and we also do like them. I (the narrator) then asked, ‘When Salah (prayer) is obligatory?’ He (the Imam) said, ‘It is necessary when he understands Salah (prayer) and he is six years old. I (the narrator) asked, ‘What do you say about children?’ He (the Imam) said, ‘The Messenger of Allah was asked about them and he said that Allah knows best about what they have done.’”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: صحيح

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (4/135)

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. 244

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/3/3/73/4
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
bb0661719262d0a13d953e91d116551fbc3e25802bebe94cec08df6dba4d829a
source File Hash
c1963d9c5ae304c52e135f93552237f5ab876e0b12123bbc2d513a90dbd36cc2
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/3/73/4
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.