Itban bin Malik, who was one of the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from the Ansar and had witnessed Badr, came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, "Messenger of Allah, my eyesight has begun to fail, and I lead my people in prayer. When it rains, the valley between me and them floods, and I cannot reach their mosque to lead them in prayer. I would dearly wish, Messenger of Allah, that you come and pray in my house so that I may take it as a place of prayer."The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, "I will do so, Allah willing."Itban said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ and Abu Bakr came to me the next morning when the day had risen high. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked permission to enter, and I granted it. He did not sit down until he entered the house, then he asked, 'Where would you like me to pray in your house?' I pointed to a corner of the room. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood and pronounced the takbir, so we stood and formed a row behind him, and he prayed two cycles, then gave the salam."He then mentioned the rest of the hadith, which appears in full in the Book of Faith.Ibn Shihab said, "I later asked Husayn bin Muhammad al-Ansari, one of the Banu Salim and among their leading men, about the report of Mahmud bin Rabi, and he confirmed it."
أن عتبان بن مالك وهو من أصحاب رسول الله ﷺ ممن شهد بدرا من الأنصار أنه أتى رسول الله ﷺ فقال: يا رسول الله قد أنكرت بصري وأنا أصلي لقومي، فإذا كانت الأمطار سال الوادي الذي بيني وبينهم لم أستطع أن آتي مسجدهم فأصلي بهم. ووددت يا رسول الله أنك تأتيني فتصلي في بيني فأتخذه مصلى. قال: فقال له رسول الله ﷺ: سأفعل إن شاء الله قال عتبان: فغدا رسول الله ﷺ وأبو بكر حين ارتفع النهار فاستأذن رسول الله ﷺ فأذنت له، فلم يجلس حتى دخل البيت ثم قال: أين تحب أن أصلي من بيتك؟ قال: فأشرت له إلى ناحية من البيت، فقام رسول الله ﷺ فكبر، فقمنا فصففنا فصلى ركعتين ثم سلم. فذكر الحديث. وهو في كتاب الإيمان بطوله. قال ابن شهاب: ثم سألت الحصين بن محمد الأنصاري- وهو أحد بني سالم وهو من سراتهم-عن حديث محمود بن الربيع، فصدقه بذلك.
Narrated by Bukhari in the Book of Prayer (425) and Muslim in the Book of Mosques (263), both through the route of Ibn Shihab, who said, Mahmud bin Rabi told me, and he related the same account. The wording given here is that of Bukhari. In Muslim's version, Mahmud said, I related this hadith to a group of people, among them Abu Ayub Ansari, and he said, "I do not think the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said what you have said." He said, So I swore that if I returned to Itban I would ask him about it. He said, So I went back to him and found him an elderly man who had lost his sight, and he was the imam leading his people in prayer. I sat beside him and asked him about this hadith, and he related it to me just as he had related it to me the first time.Zuhri said, Then, after that, obligations and matters were revealed which we consider to have brought the matter to its final ruling. So whoever is able to avoid being deceived by this should not be deceived.End of the passage.Bukhari also narrated it (670) from Anas, who said, A man from the Ansar said, "I am not able to pray with you," and he was a heavily built man, so he prepared food for the Prophet ﷺ and invited him to his house. He spread out a mat for him and sprinkled water on the edge of the mat, and the Prophet prayed two rak'ahs on it...As for his statement, "a man from the Ansar," it is said that this refers to Itban bin Malik Salimi Ansari, the blind man, because his story resembles this one. As for the word "heavily built," it means fat, and this description points to the reason for his failure to attend the congregation. Ibn Hibban listed this among the excuses that permit lagging behind from congregational prayer. See Fath al-Bari (2/158).