asked the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to supplicate for him. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had instructed him to say:

“O Allah, accept his intercession for me.”

Thus Allah restored his sight when the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, supplicated for him. This was counted among the miraculous signs of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. If other blind people, for whom the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had not supplicated, were to seek to draw near to Allah by asking Him by the Prophet, their situation would not be like his.

The well-known supplication for rain made by the Commander of the Faithful, ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb, among the Emigrants and the Helpers, and his words:

“O Allah, when we suffered drought, we used to seek to draw near to You through our Prophet, and You would grant us rain. Now we seek to draw near to You through our Prophet’s uncle,”

show that the prescribed means of drawing near to Allah, as they understood it, was through his supplication and intercession, not by asking Allah by his person. Had the latter been prescribed, ʿUmar, the Emigrants and the Helpers would not have turned from asking Allah by the Messenger to asking Him by al-ʿAbbās.

Disagreement became widespread over asking Allah by the prophets and the righteous, but not over adjuring Him by them, because there is a distinction between asking and adjuring. One who asks is humble and imploring, making his request on grounds conducive to its being answered. One who adjures, however, adopts a higher stance: he makes a request and reinforces it with an oath. He adjures only someone whom he believes will fulfil his oath. Having one’s oath fulfilled is therefore particular to certain servants, whereas having one’s requests answered is general.

Allah answers the supplication of someone in desperate need and the supplication of someone who has been wronged, even if that person is an unbeliever. In an authentic report, the Prophet said:

“No one supplicates to Allah with a supplication that involves neither sin nor the severing of kinship ties without Allah granting him one of three things in return: either He promptly grants what he has asked for, or He stores up an equivalent good for him