Ibn ‘Auf said, “Once when we were with Ibrahim Nakha‘ee, a man came to him and said, “Abu ‘Imran, pray to Allah that He makes me well.” I saw his extreme disgust for that written on his face. Ibrahim then mentioned the Sunnah and his love for it and mentioned what people had innovated and his dislike for it.

Can you please elaborate it?

Whoever says to people: “make dua for me” or “for us” with the intention of benefiting his brother by engaging him in supplication and also benefiting himself by instructing him to do it just as he would enjoin all other good deeds, such a person is following the Prophet (ﷺ) in this, and this is not a disliked request.

However, if his aim behind such a request is merely the fulfillment of his own need, not to benefit the other person by encouraging him to do a rewarding deed, then he is not following the Sunnah in this. Rather, this is the disliked type of asking which is better to give up and turn to Allah and ask Him directly instead of requesting created beings.[1]

Therefore, the man’s request must have been of the second type, and that is why an-Nakha‘ee denied it, not because asking someone to supplicate was not practiced by the Companions (RadiAllahu anhum).

And Allah knows best.

Reference:

[1] Sheikh ul Islam, Ibn Taymiyah, Majmoo‘-ul-Fatwa Vol 1, pg. 191