Seeing the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, whilst awake

What Imam Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī, may Allah have mercy on him, said on the matter, contrary to certain claims

1. Fatwa from the book Mashūrāt Ijtimāʿīyyah:

Question:

Is it possible for a person to see the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, whilst awake as opposed to in a dream? And is it possible for someone to be shown what is on the Preserved Tablet (al-Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ), which contains matters that only Allah knows?

Answer:

One of us seeing the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, whilst awake is not impossible. However, the one whom Allah ennobles with that cannot divulge it to people. Therefore, if you see someone claiming to see the Messenger of Allah whilst awake, know that he is a liar. This claimer should be disciplined and punished.

What I have said in response to this question of yours, I say exactly the same in response to the second.

[Translated from Mashūrāt Ijtimāʿīyyah (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 2003), p.208]



2. Fatwa from the Naseem al-Sham site:
 
Question:

In the Name of Allah, the All Merciful, the Most Merciful:

My question is for the distinguished Dr Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī.

My dear respected sir, I heard a cassette from a Sufi scholar whose piety (taqwā), carefulness (waraʿ) and knowledge I trust that there are those who see the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, openly, and as evidence for the legitimacy of this he cited the book Tanwīr al-Ḥalak fī Jawāz Ruʿyat an-Nabī wa al-Malak by Imam as-Suyūṭī, may Allah have mercy on him. I have also read on some websites that there are others who are repelled by this position and say that it contradicts the correct theology. What is your opinion on the matter?

Answer:

Seeing the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, whilst awake falls under the category of matters that are conceivable, i.e. possible. It does not fall under the matters that are impossible. However, the one whom Allah ennobles with the miracle of seeing the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in a wakeful state does not declare it publicly. Rather, he devotes all his effort to concealing it. If you see someone today attributing this miracle to himself, and declaring it in his lessons or to people in general, know that he is simply being ostentatious and that he is trying to fabricate a halo of sanctification for himself amongst people. This is why many scholars have said that whoever makes this claim in public should be punished.


3. The statement from his commentary on the Ḥikam of Imam ibn ʿAṭāʾillah:

Then there are those today who tell me that their shaykhs have seen the Messenger of Allah, may Allah have mercy on him, whilst awake, not sleeping. They tell me about conversations that take place between them and the Messenger of Allah and about his positions regarding many contemporary events and problems.

So, what does the Revealed Law say regarding such people? Regarding those who claim to the see the Messenger of Allah whilst awake, the Revealed Law says that they must be punished.

This is because none of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, after his death, the Followers (Tābiʿīn), the Followers of the Followers, or those who followed them ever claimed to see the Messenger of Allah whilst awake, based on Islamic history in general and the history of biographies.

If amongst the righteous (ṣāliḥīn) there are those who are worthy of seeing the Messenger of Allah whilst awake, the people of the First Three Generations (as-salaf), whose superiority and pre-eminence the Messenger of Allah testified to, would be the worthiest amongst the righteous.
 
And we do not use what we know about the history of the righteous First Three Generations as evidence that seeing the Messenger of Allah whilst awake is impossible. We seek refuge in Allah. The Messenger of Allah is alive and enjoying his life in the barzakh, which is distinct from the lives of the pious and the righteous, and the possibility of seeing the people of the barzakh is rationally established. 

However, something being rationally possible is one thing and claiming that it has actually happened is something else.

[Translated from Al-Ḥikam al-ʿAṭāʾiyyah: Sharḥ wa Taḥlīl (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 2009), v.1, p.296]

Related:
A full explanation of the matter and defence of Imam al-Bouti, may Allah have mercy on him