Hammad ibn Salamah reported: Abu Zilal narrated to us, saying, “I was with Anas when he asked me, ‘When did you lose your eye?’ I replied, ‘When I was still young.’ Anas continued, ‘Gabriel came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while Ibn Umm Maktum was present and asked him, “When did you lose your sight?” He answered, “When I was a boy.” Gabriel then said, “Allah—Exalted is He—has said: If I take from My servant his precious faculty, I give him no reward except Paradise. (1)”’

ʿA’ishah said, “Ibn Umm Maktum was a muezzin for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he was blind. (2)”

Hajjaj ibn Artaʿah transmitted—from a shaykh—from one of the Prophet’s muezzins—who said: “Bilal would give the call to prayer, and Ibn Umm Maktum would pronounce the iqamah; sometimes Ibn Umm Maktum called to prayer and Bilal gave the iqamah. (3)” Its chain of transmission is weak.

Ibn ʿUmar related that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Bilal calls to prayer during the night, so eat and drink until Ibn Umm Maktum makes the call.” Ibn Umm Maktum was blind; he would not begin until someone said to him, “Daybreak has come, daybreak has come. (4)”

ʿUrwah said: “The Prophet ﷺ was with some men of Quraysh—among them ʿUtbah ibn Rabiʿah—when Ibn Umm Maktum came asking about something, and the Prophet ﷺ turned away from him. Then the revelation came down: ‘He frowned and turned away, because—’”