Seeking Nearness to Allah Through the Supplication of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the Hadith of the Blind Man

The questioner : He says: If we wanted to ask Allah the Mighty and Majestic for a need, we should perform wudu, pray two rak'ahs, and supplicate to Allah the Mighty and Majestic to give us such and such, based on this hadith you referred to, just as the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) instructed the blind man to perform wudu, pray two rak'ahs, and ask for his need through the supplication of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him).

The Shaykh : No, this is a specific case. Because many people imagine that the blind man sought nearness to Allah through the person of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and that because of this seeking nearness, Allah healed him. This is a mistake.
This is because the blind man only sought nearness through the supplication of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), not through his person or self. Several matters in this hadith indicate this. The first matter is that the blind man asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) for his supplication, saying to him: "O Messenger of Allah, supplicate to Allah to grant me health." Another matter is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not order him to be patient; rather, he gave him the choice between two things: one was that he would supplicate for him, which is what the man chose. Since the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) gave him the choice between the two, it means that he would respond to what he chose. So when he chose that he would supplicate for him, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had to supplicate for him to fulfill his promise, and he is the most truthful of people in fulfilling promises. It ends here.
The evidence that the blind man sought nearness through his supplication (peace and blessings be upon him) is summarized as follows: he came asking for supplication, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) promised him that he would supplicate for him. These are two proofs, and there is a third proof. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not say to him, "Go on my behalf, and I will take care of the rest." Rather, he said to him, "Go to the place of wudu, perform wudu, and pray two rak'ahs to Allah." So he occupied him with obedience and directed him to obedience.
This is related to a type of prescribed seeking nearness, from which the masses have turned away because of impermissible seeking nearness. Impermissible seeking nearness is seeking nearness through the prophets, the awliya (close friends of Allah), and the righteous. As for prescribed seeking nearness, it is seeking nearness through righteous deeds. Therefore, he said to him, "Go to the place of wudu, perform wudu, and pray two rak'ahs to Allah." This is exactly like the hadith of another Companion, whose name I have forgotten now. He served the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) at night, standing at his door in case the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had a need at night that no one else would fulfill, so that he could be the one to fulfill it. And the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), being the most perfect of all people and the best of them in character, as described by Allah the Mighty and Majestic in the Qur'an , undoubtedly knew the value and effort of this Companion who does not sleep at night for the sake of precaution. I do not say this for serving the Messenger at night, because undoubtedly, if his work and service to him (peace and blessings be upon him) at night were less than staying awake waiting for a task assigned to him by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), that would be because his preoccupation with service distracts him from sleep and from anything else, whereas staying awake like this, waiting for a task issued by the Messenger to him, requires steadfastness and self-discipline.
So undoubtedly, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) knew the value of this man, and therefore he said to him one day, "O so-and-so, ask for whatever you wish." And the man was sensible, not like the first man who preferred the immediate over the deferred. He said to him, "O Messenger of Allah, give me three days." This is the conduct of a sensible person. The Messenger of Allah says to him, "Ask for whatever you wish." So the first thing that comes to his mind to ask for would be a loss; naturally, he would ask for a guaranteed request. Three days later, he came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said, "O Messenger of Allah, I have considered this world and found it to be temporary. Then I considered the Hereafter and found it to be the abiding home. And I know that you are in the highest ranks of Paradise, so I ask to be with you in Paradise." Or something similar. Yes. Yes.
So he (peace and blessings be upon him) responded affirmatively, but he said to him, "You will have that, but I will help you with it by increasing your prostrations." He did not leave him idle, for if a person is promised a great deal of wealth, would he stop working? He would put his money in a safe place, as they say in our area, and rest. He said, "You will have that, but I will help you with it by increasing your prostrations." This is the way of the Messenger in his discipline and upbringing of his Companions; he helps them toward good, but he knows that the nature of man is to become lazy in doing good, so he does not turn him away from it but encourages him to do it. Similarly, he said to the blind man, after promising him one of the two things and he chose supplication, "Go to the place of wudu, perform wudu, and pray two rak'ahs to Allah." And the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) added that he ordered him to supplicate by saying, "O Allah, I turn to You by Your Prophet, the Prophet of Mercy. O Muhammad, I have turned to You by him to my Lord to grant me health. O Allah, accept his intercession for me." And there is another phrase in it. Here is the final proof. What does "O Allah, accept his intercession for me" mean? It means, "O Allah, accept his supplication for me." What is his intercession? It is the supplication he promised him. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) taught him to say, "O Allah, accept his intercession for me," meaning, accept his supplication for me. So he is seeking nearness, a third proof, seeking nearness to Allah through the supplication of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). And a fourth proof, in reality, which returns to the previous meaning, which is the supplication, where he said, "And grant me health through it."
As for "O Allah, accept his intercession for me," it is accepted by all people that this blind man is asking Allah to accept the intercession of the Messenger for him. But how does the intercession of the blind man for the Messenger work? Does the Messenger need the intercession of the blind man? Of course not. But this has a very high meaning, as we said, "O Allah, accept his intercession for me," meaning, accept his supplication for me. Similarly, "And grant me health through it," meaning, accept my supplication in that You accept his supplication for me. So the whole matter returns to him, not to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). But the whole matter, from beginning to end, returns to seeking nearness through the supplication of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), plus the seeking nearness of that man through his righteous deeds before the supplication he will direct to Allah Blessed and Exalted is He. And when this reality becomes clear, which is that the blind man only sought nearness through the supplication of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and not through his self or person, then it becomes easy for us to understand a phrase that has passed, namely his saying in his supplication, "O Allah, I ask You and turn to You by Your Prophet." For many of the later scholars understand this phrase, indeed the whole hadith, incorrectly and inverted. They say, for example, that the blind man said , "I ask You by Your Prophet." And undoubtedly, this phrase, in terms of Arabic style, cannot be understood as "by Your Prophet" without assuming a deleted additional element. Without assuming a deleted additional element, just as it is necessary to assume something in the saying of the Exalted , "How can we ask the village?" The village does not speak; the caravan does not speak. The intended meaning is the people of the village and the people of the caravan. Similarly here, "I ask You by Your Prophet," it is necessary to assume something: "I ask You by the self of Your Prophet," "I ask You by the status of Your Prophet," "I ask You by the sanctity of Your Prophet," "I ask You by the supplication of Your Prophet." All these assumptions can come to mind.
However, if you look at the context of the hadith and the evidence mentioned previously, it becomes clear that the last estimation, which is supplication, is what the flow and context of the hadith support: "O Messenger of Allah, supplicate to Allah to cure me." If it were permissible to seek nearness to Allah through supplication, and otherwise, if it were intended to seek nearness through any of the three matters we mentioned before supplication—seeking nearness through the person of the Prophet, his status, or his sanctity—if any of these three matters were intended by the hadith, this would not require the blind man to come to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), as is the case with many people who do not know; in their supplication, while they are turning to their Lord, they say, "O Allah, I ask You by the status of Muhammad to forgive me." This is easy, no matter how vast the distance is between the supplicant and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), considering he is in the highest assembly. So, if he came with certainty, it was only to obtain something that he could not seek nearness to Allah through unless the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was right in front of him. Therefore, the omitted attribute that must be estimated is supplication, based on the flow and context of the hadith. So the meaning is that is, by the supplication of your Prophet, and this is what happened. Finally, we say: Is the secret of this blind man returning to sight that he sought nearness through the supplication of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)? I mean, is the secret of seeking nearness not through the supplication of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), but through his own supplication? The answer is certainly no, because Muslims, due to their ignorance of the correct Sunnah, still seek nearness to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) in various matters, including when a person is afflicted with a great calamity like blindness. And this incident has not been repeated despite the many blind people from that time