Kitab Al-Kafi - Authenticity

Authenticity

Shia scholars do not make any assumptions about the authenticity of a hadith book. Shias believe that there are no "sahih" hadith books that are completely reliable. Hadith books are compiled by fallible people, and thus realistically, they inevitably have a mixture of strong and weak hadiths. Kulayni himself stated in his preface that he only collected hadiths he thought were important and sufficient for Muslims to know, and he left the verification of these hadiths up to later scholars. Kulayni also states, in reference to hadiths:

"whatever (hadith) agrees with the Book of God (the Qur'an), accept it. And whatever contradicts it, reject it"

Mulla Baqir Majlisi stating in his commentary on al-Kafi, named Mir’at al-’Uqul, that 58% of narrations in al-Kafi are unreliable.

According to the great Imami scholar Zayn al-Din al-`Amili, known as al-Shahid al-Thani (911-966/1505-1559), who examined the asnad or the chains of transmission of al-Kafi's traditions, 5,072 are considered sahīh (sound); 144 are regarded as hasan (good), second category; 1,118 are held to be muwaththaq (trustworthy), third category; 302 are adjudged to be qawī‘ (strong) and 9485 traditions which are categorized as da'if (weak).