Al-Kafi, Kulaini greatest contribution (Part 1)

Al-Kafi:

The Kafi is divided into 3 parts: 2 volumes of Usool e Kafi, comprising ahadith on beliefs, 5 volumes of Furoo’ e kafi containing ahadith on jurisprudence, and 1 volume of Rawdhatul Kafi. Rawdha means garden. It is a type of Shea encyclopedia, containing ahadith not covered in the other volumes. Thus it contains assorted ahadith about, eg, the life and times of our Aimma and their opponents. About the background and importance of Kafi: Conditions during the times of our Imam were very hostile for the shies. Still the companions and students went to the Imam to gain some knowledge, but before they left home they used to inform their families about their final will, because they could never be sure of returning home. Thus during the 6th Imams’ time, too, his students came to him to learn something, so much so that the Imams’ teachings began to spread everywhere. There was a time during the 6th Imams’ time when Banu Abbas and the Banu Umayyah were fighting for power. They each had already had an enemy to contend with, and could not give much attention to the happenings in Madina.Later when Banu Abbas came to power; Masoor Dawanaqi decided to shift the capital from Damascus. Thus a new city, Baghdad, was built which again diverted is attention away from medina. His students managed to write books, 400 of which were very important. These are called Usool. But then the tyrant rulers got scared and tried to stem this knowledge from spreading. False mujtahids were brought in, and the “Ulema” attached to the court started issuing fatwa and relating ahadith  .Going to the Imam to solve ones problems or to learn from him was taken to mean that one was working against the ruler. Hence we have the case of a man in Kufa, who had divorced his wife but later regretted his actions. He did not know what to do, When someone told him to go to Medina to get his problem solved by the 6th Imam, he came to Medina. But in Medina he found out that anyone going to meet the 6th Imam was sure to be beheaded. Thus he disguised himself as a vegetable vendor, and started selling vegetables in the streets of Medina. When he reached the Imams’ house, he quietly went inside and got the solution to his problem. Thus anyone suspected of possessing any Hadith or a book of Hadith of the Imam was immediately arrested.  On investigation if the suspicion was confirmed he was put to death, the house harboring the book was burnt, and the book itself was either burnt or thrown into a body of water.

Ali bin Yakteen was a close companion of the Imam, and a minister in the court of Haroon al Rasheed, by the imams’ permission. Once Ali was gifted a very expensive dress by the King. When the dress remained unused for 1 year, Ali sent it to the Imam as part of khums. In those days the khums had to be paid only to the king. Giving khums to anyone else meant instant death. The Imam accepted all other articles, but returned this dress with the message: keep it, you will need it. Later it so happened that Ali fired one of his slaves. The slave went and told the king that Ali has close ties with the Imam of Medina, and has even sent him the dress you gave him, as part of khums. The king immediately summoned Ali and asked him to get the dress. Now Ali understood why the Imam had returned the dress. Ali sent a slave home to fetch the dress. On seeing the dress, Haroon was pleased and ordered the slave to be killed as punishment, and thus Ali bin Yakteen was saved. Ishaaq bin abi Umair was a companion of the 6th Imam, and had compiled many books. When the ruler got wind of his activities, the police came to arrest him. While the police were arresting him, his sister dug a hole in the courtyard and buried the books there. She exhibited this presence of mind, because she knew very well that she may not see her brother again, but the books must be saved. Thus Abi Umair was arrested, but the sister was unable to meet him. The house was searched by the police, but not a single book was found. Still Abi Umair was not released for 14 years. When he was released, 14 long years had passed. As soon as he came home, the first question he asked was not about his wife or children. The first question he asked was about the books. The sister informed him about their whereabouts. She had been too afraid to retrieve the books, for fear of spies. After 14 years when Abi Umair retrieved them, some of the paper had decomposed; some of the ink had faded. However a major portion of the work was saved. These are the conditions in which the Imam was propagating Islam. Bear in mind that till the time of the 11th Imam, the Shias were not overly concerned about preserving ahadith, because whenever they were faced with a problem an Imam was there to solve it. Even during the initial stages of the minor occultation, they had recourse to the Imam through his nominated representatives. But when Husain bin Rouh was appointed the representative, the Shias grew concerned as their Imam was in occultation and Hussein bin Rouh was in taqayyeh on the orders of the Imam.

Source: coiradio.com

Other links:

Grand Ayatollah Mar`ashi Najafi Public Library

Seyyed Jamal al-Din Asad Abadi (Part 2)

Ayatollah Bahauddini’s Life in Detail

Short Life History of Allama Majlisi