Al-Kāfi - Volume 8


Book 1, Chapter 150

Prohibition on sitting with the sinners
1 Ḥadīth

عِدَّةٌ مِنْ أَصْحَابِنَا عَنْ سَهْلِ بْنِ زِيَادٍ عَنْ صَفْوَانَ بْنِ يَحْيَى عَنِ الْحَارِثِ بْنِ الْمُغِيرَةِ قَالَ قَالَ أَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ (عليه السلام) لآَخُذَنَّ الْبَرِي‏ءَ مِنْكُمْ بِذَنْبِ السَّقِيمِ وَ لِمَ لَا أَفْعَلُ وَ يَبْلُغُكُمْ عَنِ الرَّجُلِ مَا يَشِينُكُمْ وَ يَشِينُنِي فَتُجَالِسُونَهُمْ وَ تُحَدِّثُونَهُمْ فَيَمُرُّ بِكُمُ الْمَارُّ فَيَقُولُ هَؤُلَاءِ شَرٌّ مِنْ هَذَا فَلَوْ أَنَّكُمْ إِذَا بَلَغَكُمْ عَنْهُ مَا تَكْرَهُونَ زَبَرْتُمُوهُمْ وَ نَهَيْتُمُوهُمْ كَانَ أَبَرَّ بِكُمْ وَ بِي.


150. A number of our companions, from Sahl Bin Ziyad, from Safwaan Bin Yahya, from Al-Haris Bin Al-Mugheira who said: Abu Abdullah (a.s) said: ‘I hold the innocent ones among you to be responsible for the sins of the morbid ones. And why should I (a.s) not do so, and there reaches you from that (evil) man which shames you as well as shames me (a.s), but you are (still like to) sit with them and narrate from them. So a passer-by passes by, so he says, ‘They are more evil than this one’. So if there reaches you from them what you dislike, express your abhorrence to them, and forbid them. That would be better for you and for me (a.s)’.