Book

al-Kāfī

Abū Jaʿfar, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb b. Isḥāq al-Kulaynī Al-Rāzī

Researcher

Abū Jaʿfar, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb b. Isḥāq al-Kulaynī Al-Rāzī

Discription of This Book

Author Al-Kāfī (Arabic: الکافي, the Sufficient) is a collection of hadith of the Twelver Shi'a. It is the most important and authentic collection among the Four Books. It was compiled by thiqat al-Islam al-Kulayni (d. 329/941) in the period of the Minor Occultation. Al-Kafi consists of three parts: Usul (principles), Furu' (branches), and Rawda (miscellaneous issues); Usul is the most important part. Al-Kulayni tried to collect hadiths in such a way that they agree with the consensus and there is no incompatibility between them and the Qur'an. Al-Kafi consists of three main sections: usul al-kafi, which contains hadiths regarding beliefs, furu' al-kafi which contains fiqhi hadiths and rawda which is about history. Usul al-kafi contains a few books in itself including Kitab al-Hujja.

General Data

The full information of the hadith is given below

Title of Book

al-Kāfī

Author

Abū Jaʿfar, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb b. Isḥāq al-Kulaynī Al-Rāzī

Date of death of the author

Researcher/Editor

Subject

Language

Arabic

Number of volumes

Publisher

Dar al-Hadith

Author

<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:justify">Abū Jaʿfar, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb b. Isḥāq al-Kulaynī Al-Rāzī (Arabic: <span dir="RTL">ابوجعفر، محمّد بن یعقوب بن اسحاق الرازی</span>) (c. 255/868-9 - 329/941) was among the greatest Shi'a hadith scholars and the author of al-Kafi, the most authentic Shi'a hadith collection and one the Four Books. He was born after the martyrdom of Imam al-'Askari (a), at the time of Imam al-Mahdi (a) and met some hadith transmitters who directly had heard hadiths from Imam al-Hadi (a) and Imam al-'Askari (a). It is said that al-Kulayni was very accurate in transmitting hadiths. Ibn Qulawayh, Muhammad b. Ali Majilawayh al-Qummi, Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Zurari were among his students.</p>