To fully appreciate the intendment of a position the evidence for or against it should be presented in full. Above, you have quoted ahadith that are seemingly in support of Tawassul (i.e. means of approaching or entreating God) via an intermediary as you propose. However, there seems to be missing elements that may affect the findings as you have presented. The following will be an examination of the hadith and its addition. Narration from `Uthaman ibn Hunayf "A blind man came to the Prophet and said, 'Supplicate to God that He should cure me.' So he said, if you wish I will supplicate for you and if you wish I will delay that, for that is better (in another narration: and if you wish have patience and that is better for you). So he said, 'Supplicate to Him.' So he ordered him to make wudu , and to make wudu well and to pray two rak'ahs and to supplicate with this dua , 'O God, I ask You and turn to You by means of Your Prophet Muhammad, the Prophet of mercy, O Muhammad I have turned by means of you (i.e. your dua ) to my Lord in this need of mine, so that it may be fulfilled for me, O God accept him as a supplicant on my behalf, and accept my supplication for him (to be accepted for me).' He said, "So the man did it and he was cured." This is the complete narration. Upon reading it you should notice that it seems that the narration you have presented lacks important parts that would give the full context of what is being articulated. Having the full context we can now consider this hadith more thoroughly. It should be noted that from the beginning the blind man requests that the Prophet supplicate for him. Hence, it was not through the person of the Prophet that the blind man was seeking a cure but rather through the Prophet's supplication to the Almighty. Moreover, had this Tawassul existed, as you claim it to be, the blind man's sight would have returned with God's will, not needing any supplication from the Prophet. Nevertheless, this did not occur. Instead the Prophet advised the blind man that it would be better that he remain patient with his ailment. This too contains the element of negation of Tassawul via a living or dead person, because had it been a valid method to seek God's help or otherwise then no one, not even the person whom intercession is being sought through, could stop it; only God can. Hence the blind man could have ignored the Prophet's advisement, of maintaining his loss of sight and/or not performing the prayer, and beseeched God through him or any dead person. This too did not occur. Still, the blind man insisted that he be cured. So the Prophet requested that the blind man fulfill his ablution pray two rak'ats (i.e. prayer cycles) just as all Muslims do, and supplicate to God. It should be appreciated that at this point that the Tawassul being sought here is by the means of supplication from both the blind man and the Prophet not through the Prophet being an intermediary. Not only does the Prophet supplicate for the blind man, but requires the blind man to supplicate for himself and even supplicate for the Prophet that the Prophet's own supplication for him be accepted. The Prophet even teaches in the supplication that the blind man ask for his Tawassul for the Prophet. Surely, this cannot be seen as the Prophet using the method of Tawassul through the blind man. How could the Prophet ask for Tawassul through anyone else? As for the second citation of hadith you quoted it is as thus: Reported by way of `Abdullah ibn Wahb from Shabeeb ibn Sa'eed al Makkee, from Rawh ibn al-Qassim, from Abu Ja'far al-Khatami al-Madini from Abu Umamah ibn Sahl ibn Hunayf, from Uthaman ibn `Affan. Ibn Hunayf: "That a man used to go to `Uthman ibn `Affan for some need he had, and `Uthman would not pay attention to him and would not fulfill his need, so he met `Uthman ibn Haneef and complained to him about it, so `Uthman said to him, "Go to the place of wudu (i.e. ablution) and make wudu , then come to the mosque and pray two rak'ats and then say, `O God I ask You and turn to You by means of your Prophet Muhammad, the Prophet of Mercy, O Muhammad I turn by means of your Lord, the Might and Majestic, so that He should fulfill my need for me,' and you should mention your need, then retun to me so that I should go off with you. So the man went off and did as he said, then came to the door of `Uthmaan ibn `Affan. So the door-keeper came and took his hand and entered him and sat him upon the mat along with him (`Uthman ibn `Affan). He said to him, "What is your need?" So he mentioned it to him and he carried it out for him, then he said to him, "I have not remembered your need until now," and he said, "Whenever you have a need then come to us." Then the man left him and met `Uthman ibn Hunayf and said to him, "May God reward you with good, he had not used to pay any attention to my need nor take any notice of me until you spoke to him about it." So `Uthman ibn Hunayf said, "By God, I have not spoken to him, but I witnessed the incident when a blind man came to God's Messenger and he complained to him about the loss of his sight. So the Prophet said to him that he should have patience, so he said, `O Messenger of God I have no one to lead me around.' So the Prophet said, `Go to the place of wudu , make wudu , then pray two rak'ats , then supplicate with thest supplications.' `Uthman ibn Haneef said, "By God we did not depart, and we spoke for a long time, until the man reentered upon us and it was as if there had never been anything wrong with his eyes." When this hadith is scrutinized several key issues are revealed that would allow one to determine its validity and acceptance; hence whether it could be used as evidence or not for the position you propose regarding Tawassul . Firstly, this hadith is deemed authentic in Tabarani's As'Sagheer only, not in Al Kabeer . Secondly, At'Tabarani does not authenticate the story but rather declares the hadith as being sound as was told by Shu'bah. Other factors to consider regarding this hadith is the person of Shubaib ibn Sa'id whose memory and other errors he made were in question. Moreover, the only acceptable ahadith from this person is through his son Ahmad and in that case only those that Shubaib directly narrates from Yunus. Even Al Bukhari mentions the criticism regarding the reliability of Shubaib ibn Sa'id, and even though declares him reliable does so based on the aforementioned points. To add to these issues, there are other ahadith reported by him that are contradictory to his own reports and other authentic ones regarding this very narration. More importantly it is well known that narrations from him by way of `Abdullah ibn Wahb are highly criticized. Before concluding one should consider that a belief (such as is entailed in the concept of Tawassul ) cannot be added on the basis of merely a singular narrative. If such was indeed the case, we should have seen all the companions of the Prophet engrossed in such a practice and all books of Hadith would have been full of such narratives, rather than finding a singular incident reported by one companion only and that too of the status of Uthman ibn Hunayf and none of the more well known companions of the Prophet. If one considers the points made thus far then two things become quite apparent. First that the hadith of the, "Blind man" is misunderstood and is applied incorrectly as it regards to Tawassul . Second as it regards the addition of the hadith regarding `Uthman ibn `Affan it cannot be authenticated. There are too many factors that negate accepting such a story when the person narrating it is questionable on so many points. It is clear that neither of these narrations offer any sort of evidence or support to the notion that Tawassul via living or dead person is a valid or a religious means of approaching the Almighty. I hope I have clarified the issue. God knows best. Ronnie Hassan November 16, 2004 Answer published by Ronnie Hassan Discussion(s) regarding this Question More Clarification on Tawassul