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Introduction of Al-Kafi

Numerous books covering all aspects regarding the basic principles of Islam and Islamic jurisprudence have been compiled by eminent Shia and Sunni Muslim Scholars during the last fourteen centuries. Among the books compiled by Shia scholars, four occupy the most prominent position. Collectively they are called “Kutube Arba,” which means, “The Four Books.” Among these four books, “Al-Kafi” has unanimously been accepted as the most important.
“Al-Kafi” consists of three Volumes: ‘Usul’, ‘Furu’ and ‘Rawda’.
The usul, or Roots, presents traditions concerning the principles of religion. The furu, or Branches, covers the traditions elaborating religious law, while the rawda presents traditions clarifying various points of religious interest and also includes letters and speeches of the Imams.

Each volume is divided into a number of books and the books are divided into chapters and the chapters are then divided into Ahadith (traditions). A ‘tradition’ in Arabic is termed as ‘Hadith.’ Its plural is ‘Ahadith’ which means sayings, instructions, orders or maxims of the Prophets or of the Imams (Divine leaders) available to us through a chain of narrators. ‘Ahadith’ are like a torch being handed from one person to another illuminating the minds and intellects of the torchbearers and the transmitters. These ‘traditions’ disseminate knowledge and awaken the readers into a world not bound by time and space. All these are originally in Arabic and are the collection compiled by Siquatul Islam Abu Jaffer Mohammed Ibne Yakub Kulayni.

This website presents the English translation exclusively of one volume, the ‘USUL’ (The Roots), from its origin in Arabic, divided into eight books.

The compiler, Sheik Al-Kulayni, has taken into consideration several factors in order to establish and accept authenticity of a ‘tradition.’ The necessity of the correct evaluation of a ‘tradition’ has brought into existence an independent field of knowledge called “ilmurrijal’ which means the evaluation of the knowledge of the narrators of the ‘tradition.’ In order to assign a degree of credibility to a tradition, they have been divided into twenty-four categories. The category that occupies the first and foremost position among the traditions is called ‘Saheeh’ which means ‘the authentic.’ In this category, all the narrators are reliable and every narrator is a contemporary of the one from whom the ‘tradition’ was received and also of the one to whom it is passed to after.
Next in order come the traditions called ‘Hassan’. This tradition possesses all the essential features of the previous category except that the integrity of one or more narrators has not been fully established. Thus its degree of reliability is less than that of the ‘Saheeh’ tradition. In short, the degree of credibility gradually lessens as we go down to the last of the twenty-four categories of the traditions, which is termed as ‘Zaeef,’ which means weak or unreliable.
The compiler, Sheik Al-Kulayni, traveled for years to far places and collected thousands of traditions. His life span may not have been enough to have carefully studied all the thousands he personally collected, wrote and compiled. The other possibility of some unreliable traditions in Al-Kafi might have come in the process of manually written copies by others and later printed through a number of generations for over a thousand years. This may be the reason that these books are not challenged with the title of ‘saheeh’ meaning true, authentic or reliable. Whereas, this very title of ‘saheeh’ meaning authentic is attached to the popular books of traditions of AhlSunnah namely ‘Saheeh Al Bukhari’ or ‘Saheeh Al Muslim’, though these books have a few traditions that damage the image of the Prophet (p) of his purity and thus should be treated as unreliable traditions and the books as Non-Saheeh. In fact, though the Shia scholars treat Al-Kafi as the most important book after the Noble Quran, and yet not having named it as ‘Saheeh’ suggests that they believe no book could be ‘Saheeh’ except the Noble Qur’an. It is only the Qur’an, the word of Allah that is ‘Saheeh’ and remains unpolluted forever, since Allah has made this clear in the Book.
In fact some of the Shia scholars of high authority, like Alama Baqir Majlisi in his commentary on Al-Kafi, wrote about ‘zayef’ (unreliable) traditions found in this book. Therefore it is not relevant if some one from AhlSunnah points out this open fact, but with the awareness of the ‘zayef’ (unreliable) traditions in ‘Bukhari’ or ‘Muslim’ though titled as ‘Saheeh’. It is these very ‘zayef’ (unreliable) traditions that provide fuel for those who take advantage of such traditions to abase or abuse Islam.
Al-Kafi has to be brought into the light of world wide academic values as a unique piece of literature, with thought provoking ideologies and in-depth knowledge of Islam to color and shape life in accordance to the Will of Allah.