RESEARCH · UNREVIEWED. Source publication is not a certification of authenticity.
hadith
ORIGINAL ARABIC SOURCE TEXT
7ـ عِدَّةٌ مِنْ أَصْحَابِنَا عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ خَالِدٍ عَنْ عُثْمَانَ بْنِ عِيسَى عَنْ مُفَضَّلِ بْنِ عُمَرَ قَالَ كُنْتُ عِنْدَ أَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيهِ السَّلام) فَذَكَرْنَا الأعْمَالَ فَقُلْتُ أَنَا مَا أَضْعَفَ عَمَلِي فَقَالَ مَهْ اسْتَغْفِرِ الله ثُمَّ قَالَ لِي إِنَّ قَلِيلَ الْعَمَلِ مَعَ التَّقْوَى خَيْرٌ مِنْ كَثِيرِ الْعَمَلِ بِلا تَقْوَى قُلْتُ كَيْفَ يَكُونُ كَثِيرٌ بِلا تَقْوَى قَالَ نَعَمْ مِثْلُ الرَّجُلِ يُطْعِمُ طَعَامَهُ وَيَرْفُقُ جِيرَانَهُ وَيُوَطِّئُ رَحْلَهُ فَإِذَا ارْتَفَعَ لَهُ الْبَابُ مِنَ الْحَرَامِ دَخَلَ فِيهِ فَهَذَا الْعَمَلُ بِلا تَقْوَى وَيَكُونُ الآخَرُ لَيْسَ عِنْدَهُ فَإِذَا ارْتَفَعَ لَهُ الْبَابُ مِنَ الْحَرَامِ لَمْ يَدْخُلْ فِيهِ.
Arabic source transcription, not a back-translation. Text nodes are preserved without spelling or diacritic changes. Printed-edition comparison is pending.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
7. A number of our people have narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Khalid from ‘Uthman ibn ‘Isa from Mufaddal ibn ‘Umar who has said the following: “Once I was in the presence of abu ‘Abd Allah عليه السلام . We spoke about deeds and I said, ‘My deeds are the weakest.’ The Imam said, ‘Calm down. Ask forgiveness from Allah.’ Then the Imam said to me, ‘A little deed with piety is better than a great deal of deeds without piety.’ I then asked, ‘Can there be a great deal of deeds without piety?’ The Imam said, ‘Yes, it is true. It is like a man who feeds people, who is kind to his neighbors and entertains people at his home, but when a door to unlawful matters opens he enters such a door. Such are deeds without piety. There can be another person who does not have such deeds but when a door to unlawful matters opens he does not enter into such doors.’”
Source & scholarly assessments
Al-Kafi, vol. 2, book 1, chapter 36, report 7
Open original digital source ↗
Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi · ضعيف على المشهور معتب ر · Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (8/56)
Shaykh Baqir al-Behbudi · لم يخرجه · Ṣaḥīḥ al-Kāfī
Digital-source transcription only. The recorded assessment is attributed to the named scholar; it does not establish absolute historical certainty.
Arabic witness SHA-256: aaaa76ef1544e25d85aa0580c488e5fca6c64763fb3c3940c3f8b320bbffaf72
Source: Thaqalayn (Stichting Thaqalayn), https://thaqalayn.com/hadith/2/1/36/7. Al-Kafi by al-Kulayni. English translation attributed by the digital catalogue to Muhammad Sarwar. CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. No endorsement implied.
Source: Thaqalayn (Stichting Thaqalayn), https://thaqalayn.com/hadith/2/1/36/7. Al-Kafi by al-Kulayni. English translation attributed by the digital catalogue to Muhammad Sarwar. CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. No endorsement implied.
