A Blind Companion Who Left Us No Excuse

Occasion: Transcript of an Isha khatira delivered at Bayt Al-Karim on September 30, 2026 Source: Transcript of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif, watch the original video on YouTube

I have found that people love the stories of the Companions, and we benefit greatly from them, alhamdulillah. Tonight we continue with another Companion. He accepted Islam from the very beginning of the call, and he is one of the people on whose account Allah, glory be to Him, sent down a few verses of the Qur'an; in fact, a whole surah was revealed because of him.^[1]

He is the one we can never use as an example of having an excuse. If we are looking for any excuse to stop doing something for the religion, we will find no reason, once we look at him, for anyone to stop his effort. If we want to talk about disability, we can talk about this man. Who is he? (The audience answers: ʿAbd Allāh.) Good. This is the person because of whom Allah caused that revelation, showing us how important a person is, and in particular the importance of someone who comes seeking knowledge. We are not talking about the person himself; we are talking about the position of the person at that moment: he was seeking knowledge. That he deserved to have a surah revealed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ because of him tells us something. In it we even find a kind of reproach, with Allah, glory be to Him, questioning the Prophet ﷺ about what he did.

He was blind. He could not see people. Yet he responded to the call from the very beginning. So which part of the body was working at that time: the eyes, or the heart? Imagine someone who does not have the sight to look at faces and read the seriousness or the reality in them, but who has the feeling, and who felt it and accepted Islam in the earliest days.

Teaching the Qur'an before anyone arrived

Imagine, too, when the Prophet ﷺ sent his representatives to Medina in those early days. This man went there before anybody else had gone. While the others were talking to the people, he sat, watched, spoke, and even taught the people the Qur'an. From the beginning he was one of the reciters of the Book of Allah, glory be to Him.

He did not choose his time to come to the Prophet ﷺ. He did not accept the idea that "this is a normal time" or "it is not." He wanted to get more from the Prophet ﷺ, so he simply went. And imagine a man living far from the Prophet's mosque in Medina, who nonetheless never missed the prayer.

The honor the Prophet gave him

On the other hand, you find the Prophet ﷺ assigning him as one of the callers to prayer.^[2] The Prophet ﷺ even told the people not to start before they heard the voice of one of them.^[3] You find two callers, and one of them is like an alarm: this is the first call, to wake people up. "Hey, everyone, this is the time. Prepare yourselves." Because when we call people out to the prayer, they are already asleep; someone needs a shower, someone needs to renew his ablution, someone was walking, someone was sleeping, someone had a headache, whatever it may be. This is the system, subhan Allah. This is the first call, and that is the second, especially in Ramadan. And what is the honor the Prophet ﷺ was trying to give that man? To show him: we truly appreciate every single person in our community, and you have your dignity even if part of your body is missing. You are still dignified in the community, you can do something, and you can share the responsibility with the people around you.

When the Prophet ﷺ left Medina for a battle, on a few occasions he appointed this man to lead the Muslim community in Medina in his place. Imagine. He cannot see the people, but he is eligible, and he can ask those around him, and he had a good team around him.

Think of Ramadan: to stop people from eating, we need someone who can see and recognize the exact moment to say "Allahu akbar." It makes sense, then, to give the first call to one and the second to the other, because five minutes before or after hardly matters for one call, while for the other it matters a great deal. He had what we would call today a committee, a subcommittee, helpers, teamwork, call it what you like. But he had his subcommittee around him, watching: "Hey, this is a good time to start. Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar."

When a verse came down about him

One time, Allah revealed a verse about the believers who go out with the Prophet ﷺ and those who stay behind, who are not equal. He came to the Prophet ﷺ, saddened, and was pressing him: What is wrong with me? It is not my fault, I am losing my sight, it is not my own doing; why am I left without the same dignity you have? And the Prophet ﷺ showed him that he already had his excuse: you are with the mujahidin, do not worry about that. But he kept it inside himself. He could not say no to the Prophet ﷺ.

Once the Prophet ﷺ passed away, he started going out with the people to jihad. There is an authentic narration that he stood among the people at al-Qadisiyyah, far from Medina.^[4] Imagine him holding the banner in his hand. He could not deal with the people around him, but he could deal with something that stayed fixed with him: "I am here, and I will never leave it." He showed the manner of the Muslim, even when he cannot see what is happening around him. When we remember these things, we realize how much we can give. After the Prophet ﷺ he remained teaching the Qur'an and was one of the famous reciters of the Book of Allah, glory be to Him.

What are we doing for the sake of Allah?

So we ask ourselves, again: what are we doing, what are we offering for the sake of Allah, glory be to Him, and not for a benefit from here and there? I come here driving, and I take my salary at the end of the month. Am I doing this just for myself, or am I doing it for the sake of Allah, glory be to Him? The same question is for every one of us. If I am working in a masjid, or you are working in a company and receiving your salary from it, what part of da'wa are you giving there? What part of sincerity are you dedicating? What are you doing in your company, in your neighborhood, everywhere? Even in our homes, what kind of responsibility do we have? I do not want to keep repeating the same question, but it needs to be repeated every single time: what responsibility do I have, and what am I doing for the sake of Allah, glory be to Him?

May Allah accept from all of us, and may He give us the reward for everything we do for His sake, and guide our intention to be for Him alone, glory be to Him.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The transcript garbles the Companion's name; the context (the blind man for whose sake a surah was revealed, a caller to prayer, a deputy of the Prophet ﷺ in Medina) points to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Umm Maktūm, and the revelation to Surat ʿAbasa. The speaker does not name the surah in the transcript. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: the word is missing in the transcript ("assigning him as one of the ..."); the sense from what follows is "callers to prayer (mu'adhdhins)". ^[3]: Editor's documentation: the transcript here is garbled ("don't start your ... before hearing the voice of ..."), so the object and the name are left unstated; no hadith wording is given because the speaker's wording could not be recovered. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: the speaker gave a rough driving time from Medina to al-Qadisiyyah, but the number is garbled in the transcript and was omitted.