his intercession, will have the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—intercede on his behalf. Likewise, the blind man asked him to intercede, so he instructed him to ask Allah to accept this intercession. This is akin to interceding for an intercession to be accepted. Hence he said:

“O Allah, accept his intercession for me, and accept my intercession concerning him.”

Allah’s acceptance of the Prophet’s supplication—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—in such a case reflects the honour in which the Messenger is held by his Lord. This is why it was counted among his signs and the proofs of his prophethood. It is thus like his intercession for creation on the Day of Resurrection. For this reason, he instructed the person requesting his supplication to say:

“Accept his intercession for me, and accept my intercession concerning him.”

This differs from the wording, “And accept my intercession for myself,” which no one narrated except through this singular route of transmission. The wording, “And accept my intercession concerning him,” was narrated from Shuʿbah by two eminent men: Uthmān ibn Umar and Rawh ibn Ubādah.

Shuʿbah is the most eminent of those who narrated this hadith. Through Uthmān ibn Umar, from Shuʿbah, it was narrated by the three: al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī and Ibn Mājah. Al-Tirmidhī narrated it from Mahmūd ibn Ghaylān, from Uthmān ibn Umar, from Shuʿbah. Ibn Mājah narrated it from Ahmad ibn Sayyār, from Uthmān ibn Umar. Ahmad also narrated it in al-Musnad from Rawh ibn Ubādah, from Shuʿbah. These narrators thus preserved the wording of the hadith more accurately.

Moreover, if the wording, “And accept my intercession for myself,” has been accurately preserved, it has the same meaning as what we have explained: he asked to intercede for himself alongside the Prophet’s supplication—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Had the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—not supplicated for him, he would merely have been making a request, like any other petitioner. Such a request is not called intercession; intercession occurs only when there are two people