Al Kafi (volume One)

Introduction

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

All praise be to Allah Who is praised for His bounties, worshipped for His Might, obeyed in His reign, feared for His Majesty. He possesses all things that allure, His commands pervade all through His creation. He is elevated to the extent He liked. He is too near to find, too high for everyone to see, Whose beginning has no beginning and Whose eternity has no end, Who existed before the existence of all things and Who is an eternal supporter of all things.

The Conqueror Whom the preservation of the things does not tire. The Almighty Who is in a class by Himself in His sublimity throughout His realm, the unique in His Might because of His power. Who, out of His Wisdom, manifested His signs (proofs) and mercy for His creation. Who out of His Might and grief it will be on his Wisdom originated all things anew from the very beginning. Nothing existed (at that time) to falsify His being the originator (of all things), nor did any other cause (of creation) exist to nullify His being the (first) originator.

All alone He created what He liked and as He liked to manifest His Wisdom and the truth of His being the Nourisher. Reason cannot grasp Him. Imagination cannot reach Him. Eyes cannot see Him. Measurement cannot encompass Him. Every explanation fails in His description. Eyes are blurred in seeing Him. Attributing different qualities to Him goes astray in His description.

He is veiled without any veil and is concealed without any covering. He is recognized without being seen and has been described as being formless. He is described as having no corporal form. There no God save Him, the great the elevated. Imagination goes astray in trying to reach the reality about Him (Godhood).

Thoughts get con-founded in trying to reach His finality. No flight of fancy can touch Him. He is all knowing, all hearing. He (Allah) has offered proofs (of truth and reality) through His messengers (peace be upon them) and has explained things through reasons. He has sent His messengers with glad tidings and due warnings. So that, if, thereafter one comes to own account and if he comes to success it will also be on his own account, so that people should understand what they do not know about their Lord and they should recognise God's Lordship after their having denied it.

And, so that people should believe in His unity after believing in His plurality. To Him (Allah) do we accord such a praise as is the solace of the souls, as secures God's pleasure and as will acquit us of our gratitude for His perfect bounties, abundant favours and graceful tests.

I am a witness to there being no God save Him. Who has no partner, the one, the eternally Besought and Who has taken no wife nor a son. And I have been witness to Muhammad (peace be upon him and his progeny), His select slave, and to his being sent as a messenger when the coming of such messengers had been suspended.

The period when the nations were in deep slumber, when ignorance prevailed, distress and affliction were rampant, firm pledges were being violated, people were blinded against all truth, when oppression was in great vogue and honesty was being obliterated.

So (under the circumstances such as these) did Allah send His book to him (Muhammad, the prophet) containing description and explanation (of all good), a book readable (Qur'an) in Arabic language totally free from all slant, so that mankind may guard itself against every evil. This book (Qur'an) describes clearly before the people the distinct path (of truth) with reason and knowledge. It also elucidates the (divine) religion, describing the imperatives imposed on them by Allah, the things which God has revealed and announced for the people. This book contains guidance for salvation, and is a milestone leading towards the right path.

The Prophet delivered what he received (from God) and acknow-ledged whatever was ordained. He bore the weight of the responsibilities of prophethood on him. He exercised patience to please His Lord. He strove in the way of God and consulted his people and called them towards their salvation. He roused them to the remembrance of God and guided them towards the right path. Afterwards he built the highways and erected the light house for the guidance of mankind and raised minarets, the flags of which fluttered high for the-people to watch. All this He did so that people should not go astray, since he (the Prophet) was very kind and merciful to them.

When his (Prophet's) period of life ended and his days were done, God took out his soul and brought it to Himself. Now he is with God in a state where God is pleased with each of his actions. He is venerable and his share of divine rewards is the greatest. He departed (from the 6 world) and has left behind him the book of Allah and his deputy (nominated executor, ،¥Ali ibn Ab. Tƒlalib) the chief of the believers and the guide (Imam) for those who guard themselves against evil. May peace of Allah be upon him.

Both of them (the Prophet and `Ali, his executor) were comrades and close associates. Each one of whom bore witness to the integrity of the other. (،¥Ali) the Imam spoke for God about (the import) of His book (Qur'an) in respect of the imperatives, God has imposed upon the people for His obedience and the obedience of the Imam (the divinely appointed guide). He also spoke (towards God), about the rule and rights of the Imam, through whom God intended perfecting His religion, expressing His commands, offering His reasons and arguments and (finally) His effulgence (guidance).

He did all this through those who were the fountain spring of all divinely chosen, the unique, the righteous, belonging to the house (progeny) of our Prophet Muhammad, may peace of Allah be upon him and upon his progeny. God the Almighty explained His religion through them and lighted through them the path that leads to Him and through them He unearthed the deep springs of divine knowledge.

God appointed them as the milestones on the highways of God conscious-ness, sign posts for His religion and ushers between Himself and His creation. He made them the doorways which lead to divine rights, secrets and the realisation of obligations of God consciousness. Further, God informed them His secrets and mysteries.

Whoever among the Imams died, he used to nominate after him his successor as a declared luminous, righteous guide (Imam). Who would guide people (towards the Truth) and would be constant in his guidance. These guides (Imams) called the people towards Allah as His demonstrators and are designated by God as the patrons for His crea-tion. Because of their guidance the people adopt religion and Godliness and due to them the cities get illuminated (with Truth and guidance).

God the Almighty designated them as the life and soul of the people, beacon lights in darkness, keys to the fort of knowledge and as the bedrock of His religion (Islam). God determined obedience and sub-mission to the Imams as obedience and acme of submission to Himself and His religion, in respect of the commands known to them.

Regarding God's commands unknown to them, God wanted them to refer to Imam (to know the Truth), forbidding all other people to pass hasty verdicts. God also forbade them from rejecting them and not accepting the verdicts passed by the Imams in respect of those divine commands they do not know. God did all this at the time He intended redeeming the people, He liked, from the curse of darkness (of misguidance), from the rampant ambiguity (in faith). May peace of Allah be upon Muhammad and upon the folk of his house, the righteous, from whom Allah wish as to wipe out uncleanliness away from them (the folk of the house) and cleanse them with thorough cleansing.

To come to the point, I have fully comprehended your complaint about the people of our lime how proverbially they are accustomed to ignorance and how they assist and help each other in rehabilitating its ways and means and in getting farther away from learnings and from the men of learning. Until the plant of learning not only gets dried up but is also completely uprooted from their life. It is because they have all helped in elevating the state of ignorance in wiping off learning and the men of learning.

And you have asked me whether it is proper for the people to take up a stand in ignorance and to adopt religion without knowing religion, behaving all its theories and concepts in all excellence, and also following it in every way. But they are doing it all blindly in following their fore-fathers, ancestors and their chiefs, completely relying upon their thoughts and reasons in matters (of religion) small or big.

Know thou, my brother, may God be merciful to you, verily, God the Almighty has brought human beings into existence as distinct from the animals, in respect of intelligence and understanding of which they are compounded, and has imposed upon them the load of imperatives and preventives. Afterwards Allah of the highest praised, has divided them into two categories ،X the healthy, the sound and the second the unhealthy and disable.

God has singled out the former category for the enforcement of His imperatives and preventives after perfecting in them the (intelligence and understanding) the instrument of His (arduous) responsibility, and has relieved the disabled and the unhealthy of this heavy task of responsibility, as they have been created as beings quite unfit for the task of discipline and education.

God has made the people of sound health the instrument of safety and preservation of the later category. And has made discipline and education as the instrument of safety and preservation of the former. Should ignorance have been made permissive for the former, the very responsibility (of imperatives and preventives)-would have been taken away from them. Once this is made permissible, the entire structure of divine books, prophet and education falls to the ground.

In this case, the divine books, the prophets and their education would have been nullified and the whole set up would have come to naught. In that case we would have had to turn to the beliefs and concepts of atheism. Hence, Providence in its justice and wisdom requires from men (of sagacity) that they should, in view of their nature and the very purpose of their creation, single themselves out to shoulder the burden of certain imperatives and prohibitions, lest their existence may not be regarded as in vain and purposeless. And so that they should glorify God, regard Him as one, and acknowledge His Lordship.

And so that they should know God to be the creator and their All-giver, since the evidence of His Lordship is manifest, His arguments are self-evident and His symbols are unmistakable. They (people of health, peace and sagacity) should invite mankind towards Unity of Allah, the Almighty. They themselves bear witness, on the basis of their own existence that they have their creator, Who is their Lord, Who is worshipped. It is because there are wonderful signs of His Providence within themselves.

Allah Himself accorded to them God consciousness since, for Him it was not proper for such people to remain without His awareness and in ignorance of (His) religion and His commandments. It is because Allah in His Wisdom deems ignorance about Him and the denial of His religion highly improper, as He Himself has said:

"Has not the compact of the Book been taken touching them, that they should say concerning God nothing but the truth? ..." (al-A،¥raf, 7:169).

Allah has (also) said:

". . . No; but they have cried lies to that whereof they comprehended not the knowledge, . . ." (Y.nus, 10:39)

So mankind has been earmarked for (divine) imperatives and prohibitions and it has been ordained to speak the truth. Men have not been allowed to remain in ignorance (regarding the ultimate truth and the divine imperatives and prohibitions). Hence Allah has ordained mankind to be interrogative (in this connection) and to acquire understanding in the religion (of Allah) saying:

". . . but why should not a party of every section of them go forth, to become learned in religion, and to warn their people when' they return to them . . ." (at-Tawbah, 9:122)

Allah has further said: ". . . Question the people of the remembrance, if it should be that you do not know ..." (an-Nahƒul, 16:43). If it had been proper for the people of health and peace to remain ignorant, then God would have never ordered them to be interrogative, and the need for sending the prophets with the books and the codes would never have arisen. In that case all mankind would have been maimed and disabled and would have remained on the animal plane. Had all this been so, then all mankind would have been set at naught within the twinkling of an eye. When there is no justification for its (mankind) existence without a code and education, then it is incumbent on each and every perfectly sound individual to have a teacher, a guide, a director, a preventer, a code, an education and interrogation to discharge his responsibilities.

The privilege of a sage and a lucky rightful and a brilliant statesman, is to endeavour in the acquisition of the know-ledge of religion and God consciousness on account of which God is worshipped by His creation, which (in essence) is God's unity, divine code, divine commandments, divine imperatives and preventives. His admonitions and His etiquette.

If it is established that the divine proofs are there, that our responsibilities are evident, that our life span is very short, that evasion and procrastination are unacceptable, then the divine condition, on account of which God is worshipped by His creatures, is to discharge all divine obligations consciously, in true belief and with due insight, so that (the divine obligations) performer be deemed praiseworthy in the eye of God and be entitled to divine rewards in high compensation. Since the one who performs divine obligations without knowledge and insight,

does not really know what he has performed and in whose obedience he has done so; and because the ignorant can neither have any confidence in what have they done in the performance of divine obligations, nor can he truly believe in his deeds, for the simple reason that the believer can never believe unless he is the knower of the things he believes in, without the least doubt; and because of this reason, neither can the sceptic be like those who in all submission long for and fear God, nor can they have that nearness to God which a sage with true belief has. Thus has God observed:

"... Save such as have testified to the truth and that knowingly" (az-Zukhruf, 43:86).

Evidence is acceptable on the basis of the knowledge of what is, witnessed. Evidence without the knowledge of what is witnessed is not at all acceptable. In the case of a person performing divine duties in a state of doubt and uncertainty without the knowledge of insight (into them) is left to Allah's Will either to accept it in His grace, or to reject it totally since the indispensable condition laid by God on the person for whom they (divine duties) are made imperative, is to act upon them with knowledge, insight and conviction, so that such people