Imam al-Tirmidhi’s Loss of Sight

There is a claim that Imam al-Tirmidhi was born blind, but the correct view is that he lost his eyesight in old age after extensive travel and dedication to the study and transcription of Hadith. The loss of vision may have been caused by excessive reading and writing.

According to Imam al-Hakim, he wept so much out of the fear of Allah in his later years that he lost his eyesight, and he spent many years of his life in this state. [Tadhkirat al-Huffaz 2/634, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib]

It is a strange coincidence that the great commentator of Sunan al-Tirmidhi, ‘Allamah ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, also went blind in the final stage of his life, just before completing his commentary on Sunan al-Tirmidhi. His closest students completed the work under his supervision.