Kitab al-Kafi

The "Kitab al-Kafi" is a Twelver Shia hadith collection compiled by Mohammad Ya'qub Kulainy. It is divided into three sections: "Usul al-Kafi", which is concerned with the principle of religion, "Furu al-Kafi", which is concerned with the details of religious law, and "Rawdat" (or" Rauda") "al-Kafi", which is concerned with various religious aspects and includes some writings of the imams.Citation
last =Howard
first =I. K. A.
title ='Al-Kafi' by Al-Kulayni
journal =Al-Serat: A Journal of Islamic Studies
volume =2
issue =1
pages =
date =1976
url =http://al-islam.org/al-serat/default.asp?url=kulayni-howard.htm] Like all Shia hadith books, every single hadith must be individually examined through the science of hadith.

"Usul al-Kafi"

"Usul al-Kafi" (literally, "Sufficing fundamentals") includes 15,176 traditions. If the traditions reported in different sections are counted, an additional 1,000 must be added to the total amount. Of the basic traditions, 5,072 are considered sahih (sound); 144 are regarded as hasan (good), second category; 178 are held to be muwaththaq (trustworthy), third category; 302 are adjudged to be qaui (strong), fourth category; and 9,484 are considered da'if (weak), fifth category.

Khomeini (a prominent 20th centry Shi'a scholar) said: "Do you think it is enough for our religious life to have its laws summed up in "Al-Kafi" and then placed upon a shelf?" [Al-Hukumah Al-Islamiyyah page 72] . [
Shaikh Saduq, the famous Shi'a scholar, didn't believe complete authenticity of "Al-Kafi".
Khoei points this out in his Mu'jam Rijaal al-Hadith, or "Collection of Men of Narrations", in which he states

أنّ الشيخ الصدوق : قدّس سرّه : لم يكن يعتقد صحّة جميع مافي الكافي "Shaykh as-Sadūq did not regard all of the traditions in "al-Kafi" to be Sahih (truthful)." [ [http://www.alkhoei.net/data/almaktaba/m_r/01/p3.html (Arabic reference)] ]

Al-Khoei, also a prominent 20th century Shi'a scholar, also states in his "Mu'jam" (on the same referenced page):

"لانّ فيها مرسلات وفيها روايات في اسنادها مجاهيل، ومن إشتهر بالوضع والكذب،" :There is within it ("al-Kafi") traditions, whose chains of narration contain (known) ignorants, liars and fabricators."

The scholars have made these remarks, to remind the people that one cannot simply pick the book up, and take whatever they like from it as truthful. Rather, an exhaustive process of authentication must be applied, which leaves the understanding of the book in the hands of the learned.

Furu al-Kafi

"Furu al-Kafi" is one of the most authoritative Shia hadith collections, containing eight volumes. It consists of books and sections on jurisprudence and is one of the authoritative reference books for deduction and independent reasoning (ijtihad) from Islamic law for the Shi'a jurisprudents (fiqh).

Rawdat al-Kafi

"Rawdat al-Kafi" is the third section. It is a collection of traditions outlining various points of religious interest. Included are letters and speeches of the 12 Holy Imams.

References

ee also

*List of Shi'a books
*Shahr Usul al-Kafi, a commentary on the "Usul al-Kafi"
*Branches of Religion, "Furu al-din"
*Sharif al-Kafi

External links

* [http://www.al-shia.com/html/eng/books/hadith/al-kafi/ Kitab al-Kafi text]
* [http://almahdi.4t.com/issue4/page8.html Selections from Usul al-Kafi]
* [http://www.al-islam.org/al-tawhid/kafi/ Selections from Usul al-Kafi]