Usul al-Kafi

About the Author

Since the Hadith in a collection are previously written works that have been handed down through time, we speak of who compiled them rather than who wrote them. Thus, we speak of al-Kulayni as the compiler of the Kitab al-Kafi. Few details are known about his early life other than that he came from a scholarly family from the town of Kulayn, near modern-day Tehran. He was a scholar, teacher, and writer who was reasonably well traveled. Like his father, he was recognized as a muhaddithun—a scholar who specializes in Hadith. While we know that his writings went far beyond the Kitab al-Kafi, few of them have been preserved.

Al-Kulayni began the Kitab al-Kafi when he moved to Baghdad in 921, and he continued work on the compilation for the last twenty years of his life. A gloss of reliability is extended to the work because it was compiled during the minor occultation; the Shia presume that the Mahdi would have spoken out through one of his deputies if the text was erroneous. Twelver Muslims believe that every century has one outstanding Islamist scholar, or mujadid. The Kitab al-Kafi is such a far-reaching and reliable work that al-Kulayni is credited with being the mujadid of the third century (corresponding roughly to the ninth century of the Christian era, in that the Islamic calendar begins with Muhammad’s flight to Mecca in 622). Al-Kulayni is also known by the title thiqat al-Islam, meaning “reliable narrator.” Al-Kulayni died in Baghdad in 940. He is buried in Kufah, roughly 110 miles south of Baghdad.