Al-Kafi (The Sufficient)

Al-Kafi (Arabic: الكافي), "The Sufficient," is the most important and most comprehensive hadith collection in Shia Islam. It was compiled by Shaykh al-Kulayni (d. 941 CE) over a period of 20 years and contains over 16,000 narrations from the Prophet Muhammad and the twelve Imams (peace be upon them all).

Al-Kafi is divided into three main sections: Usul al-Kafi (The Fundamentals of Faith — on tawhid, imamat, belief and disbelief), Furu' al-Kafi (The Branches of Faith — on fiqh/jurisprudence, including prayer, fasting, zakat, hajj, etc.), and Rawdat al-Kafi (The Garden — miscellaneous narrations and stories). Kitab al-Salah (The Book of Prayer) in Furu' al-Kafi is one of the most comprehensive collections of prayer-related narrations in Islamic literature.

Kitab al-Salah in Al-Kafi covers: prayer times, wudu, ghusl, adhan, iqamah, the obligatory and recommended parts of prayer, qunut, tashahhud, taslim, nawafil, congregational prayer, the traveler's prayer, the sick person's prayer, the funeral prayer, Salat al-Eid, Salat al-Ayat, and many other topics. Almost all the fiqh rules mentioned in this dictionary can be traced back to narrations in Al-Kafi.

Shaykh al-Kulayni was extremely careful in his collection and only included narrations with reliable chains of transmission (isnad). He lived during the "lesser occultation" period (260-329 Hijri), when the four special representatives of Imam al-Mahdi were still active, giving him access to authentic narrations. Al-Kafi is — together with Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih, Tahdhib al-Ahkam, and Al-Istibsar — one of the four canonical hadith books (al-kutub al-arba'ah) in Shia Islam.