SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) --
Question:What narrations have been quoted from Sunnite scholars about seeking blessing from the Prophet (s.a.w.)?
Answer:
There are many narrations by Sunnite scholars which signify that the Companions and the Successors sought blessing from the Prophet (s.a.w.) during his life and after his death.
Some examples are as follows:
1- Bukhari has quoted that:
“When the Prophet (s.a.w.) and we left Medina in a hot summer, Muslims brought water for the Prophet (s.a.w.) and his holiness performed his ablution, then they took the rest of the water and rubbed it to themselves”.(1)
In some narrations it has been quoted that:
"اذا توضا النبی (صلی الله علیه و آله) کادویقتتلون علی وضوئه".(2)
“When the Prophet (s.a.w.) performed his ablution, Muslims tried to get the water of the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) ablution as if they were fighting with each other”.
2- Anas ibn Malik quotes that:
“I saw the Prophet (s.a.w.) when he was being given a haircut and the Companions had surrounded his holiness and each of them was trying to get a strand of hair of the prophet (s.a.w.) in such a way that no strand of his hair fell on the ground”.(3)
Prophet’s wife Ummah Salmah had a few strands of his holiness’s hair and when a person was casted an evil eye by the others, people took a bowl of water to Ummah Salmah to put Prophet’s hair in the water and patient was cured by drinking the water.(4)
Another narration has been quoted about Khalid ibn Walid that:
Khalid ibn Walid who tried hard in the war between Iran and Rome and had also conquered Damascus, put a few strands of the Prophet’s hair in his helmet in the war and sought blessing from the Prophet’s (s.a.w) hair to win and he always won.(5)
There are many narrations that have been quoted in this case which show that seeking blessing from the Prophet (s.a.w.) has been a good, common and praiseworthy act, not innovation or polytheism.
3- Abu Bardeh says:
“Once Abdullah ibn Salam told me that: Do you want to drink water from a bowl which the Prophet (s.a.w.) has drunk from that?”(6)
This narration proves that Abdullah ibn Salam had kept the bowl which the Prophet (s.a.w.) had drunk from that and his holy lips had touched it, as a valuable and sacred thing.
4- A narration has been quoted in Sahih Bukhari about kissing the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) hands which is as follows:
“the Prophet (s.a.w.) left his house to city of Batha’ in a hot summer and performed his ablution and said his noon and evening prayer in the shortened form, then people rose and approached the Prophet (s.a.w.) to seek blessing from him and took the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) hands and rubbed them to their faces for seeking blessing from the Prophet (s.a.w.), narrator says: I also took the Prophet's (s.a.w.) hands and rubbed them to my face, his hands were cooler than the snow and more fragrant than musk”.(7)
5- A narration has been narrated in Musnad Ahmad about life of Hanzalah:
“Hanzalah says: My father took me to the Prophet (s.a.w.) and told him: I have some sons who have grown up and this is my youngest son, please pray for him! The Prophet (s.a.w.) touched my head and said: May Allah blesse this boy”. Narrator says: “I saw Hanzalah later, people who their faces were swollen, came to him or brought their animals which their udders were swollen to him and he said: In the name of God and put his hand on his head where the Prophet (s.a.w.) had placed his hand there and touched it, then he put his hand over the swollen part of their body and the swelling disappeared”.(8)
According to our opinion, touching shrine or dust of the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) grave and Imams (a.s.) is like seeking blessing from a bowl of water or from the place of his holiness’s hand, not only it cannot be polytheism and innovation, but also people may be healed by these things. If this act is polytheism, whatever has been narrated by historians and narrators will be a sign of their polytheism, but no one thinks in this way.(9)
1- Sahih Bukhari, vol. 1, p. 59.
2- Sahih Bukhari, vol. 1, p. 59.
3- Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, vol. 3, p. 137.
4- Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4, p. 27.
5- Asad al-Ghabah, vol. 2, p. 95.
6- Sahih Bukhri, vol. 7, p. 147.
7- Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4, p. 229.
8- Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, vol. 5, p. 68.
9- Tahiri Khurram Abadi, Tawhid wa Ziyarat, pp. 275-280.
