“O Messenger of Allah! Our wealth has been ruined and the roads have been cut off; so pray to Allah to halt it for us.”

The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—thereupon raised his hands and said, “O Allah, let it fall around us, not upon us. O Allah, upon the hills and knolls, the valley beds and the places where trees grow.” The narrator adds, “The rain ceased, and we went out walking in the sunlight.”

Thus, in this ḥadīth the man said, “Pray to Allah to withhold it from us.”

Al-Bukhārī also records that ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar said, “I still remember the words of Abū Ṭālib about the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—when he said:
‘The fair-faced one by whose countenance the clouds are sought,
A shelter for orphans, a guardian for widows.’

This was how they practiced tawassul through him for rain and similar needs. After his death they made tawassul through al-ʿAbbās—may Allah be pleased with him—just as