Kitab al-Kafi

Al-Kafi (Arabic: ٱلْكَافِي, al-Kāfī, 'The Sufficient') is the most important and authoritative hadith collection in Shia Islam, compiled in the first half of the 10th century CE (early 4th century AH) by Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Kulaynī (c. 868–941). It is one of the Four Books (Kutub al Arba'a) of Shia Islam. It is divided into three sections: Uṣūl al-Kāfī, dealing with epistemology, theology, history, ethics, supplication, and the Qurʾān; Furūʿ al-Kāfī, which is concerned with practical and legal issues; and Rawdat (or Rawḍat al-Kāfī), which includes miscellaneous traditions, many of which are lengthy letters and speeches transmitted from the Twelve Imams. In total, al-Kāfī comprises 16,199 narrations. It reportedly took him twenty years to finish the book.