Muʿjam al-Aḥādīth al-Muʿtabara · Hadith 3

Book of Intellect and Knowledge · Some of the Reasons for Differences in the Narrations · Volume 1, book 1, chapter 15, Hadith 3

Original Arabic text

[3/75] الكافي: أحمد بن إدريس، عن محمد بن عبدالجبار، عن الحسن بن علي، عن ثعلبة بن ميمون، عن زرارة بن أعين، عن أبي جعفر عليه السلام قال: سألته عن مسألة فأجابني ثم جاء ه رجل فسأله عنها فأجابه بخلاف ما أجابني، ثم جاء رجل آخر فأجابه بخلاف ما أجابني وأجاب صاحبي، فلما خرج الرجلان قلت: يا ابن رسول الله رجلان من اهل العراق من شيعتكم قدما يسألان فأجبت كل واحد منهما بغير ما أجبت به صاحبه؟ فقال: يا زرارة! إن هذا خير لنا وأبقى لنا ولكن ولو اجتمعتم على أمر واحد لصدقكم الناس علينا ولكان أقل لبقائنا وبقائكم قال: ثم قلت لابي عبدالله عليه السلام: شيعتكم لو حملتموهم على الاسنة أو على النار لمضوا وهم يخرجون من عندكم مختلفين، قال: فأجابني بمثل جواب أبيه

Published English translation

3. [3/75] al-Kafi: Ahmad b. Idris from Muhammad b. Abd al-Jabbar from al-Hasan b. Ali from Tha’laba b. Maymun from Zurara b. A’yan from Abi Ja’far عليه السلام, he (Zurara) said: I asked him about a matter so he answered me, then a man came to him and asked him about it so he answered him with a different answer to mine, then another man came so he answered him with a different answer to the one he gave me and the first man, so when the two men had exited I said: O the son of the messenger of Allāh – two men from the people of Iraq from among your followers came to ask you – but you answered each one of them with a different answer? He said: O Zurara, this is better and more safe for us and you, for if you were all to unite upon one position the people would believe you [in what you say] about us and that would be a threat to both our and your survival, he (Zurara) said: then I [later] said to Abi Abdillah عليه السلام: your followers – if you were to make them move in the face of arrows or on fire they would do it but they come out from you having differences! He said: so he answered me with the same reply as his father.

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Shaykh Asif al-Mohseni: معتبر

Muʿjam al-Aḥādīth al-Muʿtabara

Assessment transcribed from the source's named scholar and reference. No new grading or consensus is asserted; differing entries remain separate.

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translator: Ammaar Muslim
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