Is the hadith of the blind man regarding tawassul (seeking nearness to Allah through a means) sound in terms of its chain of narration?

The questioner : 8: Is the hadith of the blind man regarding tawassul (seeking nearness to Allah through a means) sound in terms of its chain of narration?

The Shaykh : Yes, in my view, the hadith of the blind man is sound, contrary to some of the later scholars, following Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah in his great book, "A Glorious Principle in Tawassul and the Means of Approach." The narrators in the chain of this hadith are all trustworthy, known for their precision, memorization, and integrity. The only point of disagreement concerns one of its narrators, who appears in the chain under the kunya "Abu Ja'far." Opinions have differed regarding the identity of this narrator. Some said he was "Abu Ja'far al-Madani," who is unknown. Some said he was "Abu Ja'far al-Razi," whose name is "Isa ibn Mahan," who is poor in memorization. And some said he was "Abu Ja'far al-Khatmi," whose name is Yazid—I do not know, Yazid ibn whom? The important point is that this person who said it was "Abu Ja'far al-Khatmi," the one named Yazid, and this is the stronger position for many reasons that I mentioned in some of my older books and in my new book, "Tawassul: Its Types and Rulings." There, I mentioned the reasons that make this position stronger, including the fact that in some narrations, he is attributed as al-Khatmi, which removes the possibility that he was al-Razi or "Abu Ja'far al-Madani." Indeed, al-Hafiz al-Tabarani explicitly stated in his "Small Encyclopedia" that he is al-Khatmi, named Yazid ibn so-and-so. For these reasons and others that I mentioned in that book, once it is established that he is "Abu Ja'far al-Khatmi"—who is trustworthy by the consensus of the scholars—the hadith is sound, and its chain is established with us.