Then he gave arrows to me, telling me to shoot them. The arrows he gave me were without flights, that is, without the feathers which help them fly. He was ordering me to shoot them, which I did, and they flew like flighted arrows, hitting the unbelievers’ bodies and piercing them. At that point, Qatada b. Nu‘man was hit in the eye by an arrow; it was struck out of his head, so that it was sitting on the side of his face. God’s Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) took the eye in his blessed, healing hand and placed it in its socket; it was healed as though nothing had happened to it and became the better of his two eyes. This event became very widely known. A grandson of Qatada, even, once described himself to ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz as, “I am the grandson of one who, when God’s Most Noble Messenger placed his eye back in its socket after it had been struck out, it was suddenly healed and became his best eye.”(188) He said this in verse, introducing himself to ‘Umar in that way.

It is also related through an authentic narration that during the battle known as the Yawm Dhi-Qarad, Abu Qatada was hit in the face by an arrow. God’s Prophet touched his face with his blessed hand. Abu Qatada said: “I felt no pain at all, nor did the wound fester.”(189)

----------------------------
(188) Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa: i, 322; al-Haythami, Majma’ al-Zawa’id vi, 113; al-Hindi, Kanz al-‘Ummal xii, 377; Ibn al-Qayyim, Zad al-Ma’ad (Tahqiq: Arnavudi) iii, 186-7; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak iii, 295.
(189) Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa: i, 322; al-Khafaji, Sharh al-Shifa: iii, 113; ‘Ali al-Qari, Sharh al-Shifa: i, 653.