Usul al-Kafi

Questions for Further Study

• 1.: This document invites comparison with the Hadith presented in Sahih al-Bukhari. In comparing the documents, do you detect any differences in underlying viewpoints, concerns, or beliefs? What might account for these differences?
• 2.: Both Usul al-Kafi and, in China, the Book of Rites were written partly in response to social and political upheaval. Explain how the two documents are similar—and how they differ—in responding to that upheaval and speculate on the factors that might have caused these similarities and differences.
• 3.: Why, in the view of Shia (and Sunni) Islam are the Hadith even necessary? How would you respond to a statement to the effect that the Qur’an is the only text necessary for Muslims?
• 4.: Considerable emphasis is placed on the authenticity of the Hadith. Yet the Hadith in Usul al-Kafi were compiled some two centuries after Muhammad. How do you think Islamic scholars in the Middle Ages were able to document the authenticity of the Hadith? How did they know they could trust their sources?
• 5.: If Usul al-Kafi “provided a much-needed explanation of the faith,” as the entry states, in what respect could it be regarded as bearing similarities to the Nicene Creed and the function that document fulfilled for Christianity? Explain.