RESEARCH · UNREVIEWED. Source publication is not a certification of authenticity.
hadith
ORIGINAL ARABIC SOURCE TEXT
5ـ عِدَّةٌ مِنْ أَصْحَابِنَا عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ خَالِدٍ عَنِ ابْنِ فَضَّالٍ عَنِ الْعَلاءِ بْنِ رَزِينٍ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ مُسْلِمٍ قَالَ سَمِعْتُ أَبَا جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيهِ السَّلام) يَذْكُرُ أَنَّهُ أَتَى رَسُولَ الله (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وآلِه) مَلَكٌ فَقَالَ إِنَّ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ يُخَيِّرُكَ أَنْ تَكُونَ عَبْداً رَسُولاً مُتَوَاضِعاً أَوْ مَلِكاً رَسُولاً قَالَ فَنَظَرَ إِلَى جَبْرَئِيلَ وَأَوْمَأَ بِيَدِهِ أَنْ تَوَاضَعْ فَقَالَ عَبْداً مُتَوَاضِعاً رَسُولاً فَقَالَ الرَّسُولُ مَعَ أَنَّهُ لا يَنْقُصُكَ مِمَّا عِنْدَ رَبِّكَ شَيْئاً قَالَ وَمَعَهُ مَفَاتِيحُ خَزَائِنِ الأرْضِ.
Arabic source transcription, not a back-translation. Text nodes are preserved without spelling or diacritic changes. Printed-edition comparison is pending.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
5. A number of our people have narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Khalid from ibn Faddal from al-‘Ala’ ibn Razin from Muhammad ibn Muslim who has said the following: “I heard abu Ja’far عليه السلام saying, ‘Once an angel came to the Messenger of Allah and said, ‘‘Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Holy, gives you the choice to be a servant and a humble messenger, or to be an angel and a messenger.” He looked to Jibril who made a gesture with his hand to be humble. He (the Messenger of Allah) said, “I want to be a humble servant and a messenger.” The messenger (the angel) said, “Despite this, there is no reduction in what is with your Lord.” The Imam said, “With him were the keys to the treasures of earth.’””
Source & scholarly assessments
Al-Kafi, vol. 2, book 1, chapter 59, report 5
Open original digital source ↗
Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi · موثق كالصحيح · Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (8/248)
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: be8805c6bf86785dc2c2a7dd48e68411f01fdc9cce48b0fb382efeb90b57daef
Source: Thaqalayn (Stichting Thaqalayn), https://thaqalayn.com/hadith/2/1/59/5. 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/2/1/59/5. 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.
