Shia View of Al-Kafi Relative To Other Hadith Books
Khoei's opinion was not unique; practically all Shia scholars are adamant that al-Kafi is not 100% authentic, but that it is the best primary hadith book currently available . Shia Muslims 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.
Over a fourth of the hadiths in al-Kafi are Sahih, which (according to Shia scholars) is a better proportion than any of the Sunni Sahih books or any of the other primary Shia books, if the hadiths are objectively scrutinized according to the science of Ilm ar-Rijal. (As a side note, the "secondary" Shia hadith books, most of which were written during the 16th century under Safavid sponsorship, tend to have much more rigorous research and higher percentage of authentic hadiths than the primary ones written in the 11th century. Some notable examples are Wasael ush-Shia and Haqq al-Yaqeen).
Shia Muslims categorically reject the assumption that the Sunni collections of Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim are "infallible" books, since they claim these books lack of full chains of narration, their posthumous inclusion of weak narrators that both Imams Bukhari and Muslim distrusted during their lifetimes, and their large content of hadiths from politically motivated narrators or false Sahaba who became hypocrites after Muhammad's death (according to the Shia point of view). (Most Sunni scholars also believe that traditions, including those in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, need individual scrutiny of their reliability.)
Kulayni himself stated in his preface that he only collected hadiths he thought were important and sufficient for Muslims to know (at a time when many Muslims were illiterate and ignorant of the true beliefs of Islam, and heretical Sufi and gnostic sects were gaining popularity), 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" .
The author of al-Kafi never intended for it to be politicized as "infallible", he only compiled it to give sincere advice based on authentic Islamic law (regardless of the soundess of any one particular hadith), and to preserve rare hadiths and religious knowledge in an easily accessible collection for future generations to study.
It is however must be written that AlKafi is rated as number one among Shia Muslims book as Sahih Bukhari for Sunni Muslims.
Read more about this topic: Kitab Al-Kafi
Famous quotes containing the words view, relative and/or books:
“I will go lose myself,
And wander up and down to view the city.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.”
—Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876)
“An author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)