Usul al-Kafi

Impact

The impact of the Kitab al-Kafi, and the Usul al-Kafi contained therein, on the evolution of Shia Islam cannot be overestimated. The quality of its scholarship was immediately recognized by the tenth-century Persian theologian and historian Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, who wrote that “al-Kafi among the four Shia books is like the sun among the stars.” It rapidly became one of the four canonical Shia texts of Hadith, the other three being Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih, Tahdhib al-Ahkam, and Al-Istibsar. The Kitab al-Kafi is the largest of these collections and one of the oldest.

Part of the reason for the quick acceptance of this text was that it provided a much-needed explanation of the faith to a growing body of faithful. The succession problems that gave rise to the Shia began immediately upon the death of Muhammad. These early years were marked by a series of unsuccessful insurrections against the Sunnis. The Usul al-Kafi was written during a significant gap in that cycle of insurrection and persecution, during which Shia Islam gained footholds in India, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Egypt. During this time, the focus of the Shia faithful was more intellectual than military. In providing a justification for their faith and an explanation of its practices, the Usul al-Kafi met an enormous need.

Today, Shia continues to be the dominant strand of Islam in Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain. There is also a sizable Shia minority in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, India, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. It is not coincidental that some of these regions—such as Iran, Iraq, Syria, and India—correspond to the regions of Shia separatism established in the tenth century.

The Usul al-Kafi continues to have contemporary legal application in countries such as Iran that practice Shia Sharia law. Sharia law involves applying religious doctrine to resolve civil and criminal disputes. Legal scholars look to both the Qur’an and the Hadith when searching for legal rules and precedents. Reliance on the Hadith constitutes part of the foundation for what is referred to as the dominant usuli-rationalist approach in legal theory and, by extension, contemporary jurisprudence. Today, the Usul al-Kafi is referred to in the most seemingly unlikely matters of Islamic law and Islamic finances.

The Usul al-Kafi also had a profound impact on Shia philosophy, when philosophy became integrated into the Shia intellectual world in the thirteenth century. This philosophy is particularly rooted in the sayings of the imams. Without the preservation of the sixteen thousand Hadith contained in al-Kulayni’s work, this philosophy would be impoverished indeed.