The second question states: It is reported from Imam Ahmad that he permits seeking nearness to Allah through the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). What is the authenticity of this?

The questioner : The second question states: It is reported from Imam Ahmad that he permits seeking nearness to Allah through the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). What is the authenticity of this? And what is your opinion?

The Shaykh : As for the authenticity of this, according to the methodology of hadith scholars, we are unable to establish it. Not every statement reported from an imam among the imams of the Muslims can be established by us using the method of the hadith scholars. However, we have no choice but to rely on the scholars who preceded us in time and knowledge. We have no choice but to rely on them regarding the statements and narrations they report, until it becomes clear to us that they erred in that transmission. Regarding the fact that Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) permitted seeking nearness to Allah through the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), I recall that I read this long ago in the treatise "Tawassul and the Means of Nearness" by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah. He reports this as a statement from Imam Ahmad, and his evidence for it is the hadith of the blind man. As I said earlier: as long as Ibn Taymiyyah reports this, and he is a person of trust and one upon whom we rely in what he reports, we say what he reported until it is established for us that what he reported is weak. This is with regard to the answer to the question.
But I want to mention something important, in my opinion, regarding such a statement: It is no burden on us and no harm to us if this statement is established from Imam Ahmad or if it is not established; both are the same for us. This is because we are not Ahmadis. Rather, as I mentioned earlier, we honor these imams, revere them, and benefit from their knowledge and methodologies, but we do not hand over the leadership of our creed and its pillars to them, except where it becomes clear to us that the truth is with them.
Therefore, if this transmission from Ibn Taymiyyah regarding Imam Ahmad is that he used to permit this, and that his evidence for it is the hadith of the blind man, and when the hadith of the blind man is studied, it becomes clear that it does not benefit seeking nearness to Allah through the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) after his death. This is because the blind man only sought nearness through the prayer of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), as is explained in the very book of Ibn Taymiyyah mentioned earlier, and as I added clarification in my treatise "The Types and Rulings of Tawassul." So the hadith—the hadith of the blind man—entirely revolves around seeking nearness through the status of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Therefore, it is not permissible for us to say that it is permissible to seek nearness through the Messenger now; because it is not possible for us to reach him with what we want him to ask his Lord to pray for us, nor are we able, if he were to pray—for example—in the state of the barzakh (the interval between death and resurrection)—to know that he prayed. So the issue in the hadith of the blind man is related to his life (peace be upon him), and has no relation to his death.