Kitab Al-Kafi - HolyBooks.com

Muhammad Sarwar
New York
8/15/99
Abbreviations, conventions, special terms and symbols
A Work of the nature of al-kafi would require a great deal of the use of special terms, conventions
and symbols. The translation work is still in progress. Of the available explanations the following are
a few.
‘Allah’SupremeCovenantBody’
The Holy Ahl al-Bayt, the Holy Prophet and the thirteen other Holy persons, the twelve Imams and
Fatima al-Zahra are infallible people. In the case of the infallible personalities, after their names, titles
or titles such as Arabic words ‘abu’ or ‘ibn’, meaning father or son of so and so, the expression
‘Allah’SupremeCovenantBody’ is used in this translation. To conserve space between the words is
deleted and the print size is made smaller. In English the use of words such as ‘peace be on him /upon
them etc.’ has been a usual practice. The replacement of such expression in this translation is because
of Hadith 39 of chapter 111, part four, al-Kafi vol. 1. According to the usual practice ‘peace be on
him’, expresses a form of prayer. However, ‘ A member of Allah’s Supreme Covenant Body’ is the
mention of a special entitlement in Divine Providence and a prominent position.
Hadith its plural Ahadith
The literal meaning of this term is a statement, conversation, a report or something new.
In the Islamic literature it sometimes is used to replace the word ‘Sunnah’. The Sunnah of Prophet
Muhammad and the other infallible personalities consists of three issues.
a. Their statements
b. Their deeds
c. Their approval or disapproval of a certain act, practice or statements.