Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 5

The Book on Dying People · Dead People Visit Their Families · Volume 3, book 3, chapter 86, Hadith 5

Original Arabic text

5ـ عَنْهُ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ سِنَانٍ عَنْ إِسْحَاقَ بْنِ عَمَّارٍ قَالَ قُلْتُ لأَبِي الْحَسَنِ الأوَّلِ (عَلَيْهِ الْسَّلام) يَزُورُ الْمُؤْمِنُ أَهْلَهُ فَقَالَ نَعَمْ فَقُلْتُ فِي كَمْ قَالَ عَلَى قَدْرِ فَضَائِلِهِمْ مِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَزُورُ فِي كُلِّ يَوْمٍ وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَزُورُ فِي كُلِّ يَوْمَيْنِ وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَزُورُ فِي كُلِّ ثَلاَثَةِ أَيَّامٍ قَالَ ثُمَّ رَأَيْتُ فِي مَجْرَى كَلاَمِهِ أَنَّهُ يَقُولُ أَدْنَاهُمْ مَنْزِلَةً يَزُورُ كُلَّ جُمْعَةٍ قَالَ قُلْتُ فِي أَيِّ سَاعَةٍ قَالَ عِنْدَ زَوَالِ الشَّمْسِ وَمِثْلِ ذَلِكَ قَالَ قُلْتُ فِي أَيِّ صُورَةٍ قَالَ فِي صُورَةِ الْعُصْفُورِ أَوْ أَصْغَرَ مِنْ ذَلِكَ فَيَبْعَثُ الله تَعَالَى مَعَهُ مَلَكاً فَيُرِيهِ مَا يَسُرُّهُ وَيَسْتُرُ عَنْهُ مَا يَكْرَهُ فَيَرَى مَا يَسُرُّهُ وَيَرْجِعُ إِلَى قُرَّةِ عَيْنٍ.

Published English translation

5. It is narrated from him (narrator of above Hadith) from Muhammad ibn Sinan from Ishaq ibn ‘Ammar who has said the following: “I asked abu al-Hassan al-Awwal (a.s.), ‘Does a believing deceased person visit his family?’ He replied, ‘Yes, he does.’ I then asked, ‘How often does he visit them?’ He replied, ‘It depends upon their merits. Certain ones among them visit every day, others visit every other day, and still others among them visit after every three days.’ I then found in the course of his conversation indications that said, ‘The least among them in merits visit their family once every Friday.’ I then asked, ‘What time of the day do such visits take place?’ He replied, ‘It takes place very soon after midday or so.’ I then asked, ‘In what form does he come?’ He replied, ‘He comes in the form of a sparrow or smaller than a sparrow. Allah sends with him an angel who shows what he likes and hides from him what he dislikes. He then observes what makes him happy and returns very much delighted.’”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: ضعيف على المشهور

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (14/197)

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/3/3/86/5
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
d2b686d17d5688c11fd27a00c431aaa9123af677327e0b5a7b0cba71361a0409
source File Hash
c1963d9c5ae304c52e135f93552237f5ab876e0b12123bbc2d513a90dbd36cc2
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/3/86/5
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.