Maryam Amir – Muslims disabilities

That I was invited to speak at, and I gave the lecture, and a

woman came up to me afterwards, and she was deaf. She is deaf, and

she had a friend who was taking sign language classes, and so no

excuse me. She was an interpreter. She was a sign language

interpreter with American Sign Language at that point, she had

already graduated, and she was an attendee at the conference. She

didn't go to interpret, interpret for her friend. She just happened

to be an attendee who realized that her friend didn't have

someone who can interpret for her, and so she they came up to me

after the lecture, and the sister who was who is deaf, told me that

she had contacted this conference and asked them to provide an

interpreter for her, and they didn't, and they finally agreed,

but the person that they had was just starting to take classes,

could barely interpret anything, and also her attitude wasn't one

in which she was welcoming to the questions that the Deaf sister was

asking, and she asked me to please, Tell other people, please.

We have a right to knowledge. Deaf Muslims have a right to knowledge.

And I really just thought about that, because how many times have

you gone for taraweeh and

listened to recitation

and never thought about what a Deaf Muslim

is not able to hear and not able to experience in Ramadan, the

Masjid is close to us right now as a typically abled Muslim, have you

thought about how that impacts Muslims with special needs? Have

you thought about the fact that usually Muslims with special needs

already have access concerns when it comes to most of our mashajid

now us typically abled Muslims are experiencing the masjid without

access, which many of us already don't have access for so many

other reasons. But let's just put all those other reasons aside for

a second and just think about typically, excuse me, Muslim

special needs.

How much different is the Ramadan than it usually is? Is it normally

filled with the Masjid? Anyway?

We as a community, our entire community, all of us, whether

we're typically abled or whether we have a special need, we have to

recognize that

each of us has a place in the community, and those places are

going to be different, and those places are all needed and are and

are all critical SubhanAllah. When we look at

Ramadan and the lessons that it teaches us, it teaches us how we

are all in front of Allah seen, all of us are seen, and not just

the outer parts of us, but the depths of the struggles that we

have in our heart are seen, and those are going to vary. The

degrees of that are going to vary based on every single person's

experiences and their needs, but we are laid out bare in front of

Allah. Our hearts are

and coming to him with that heart, and if we have

a privilege in our community, recognizing that the Prophet

sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam built his community as a place in which

people who have privilege and people who have privileges in

different ways, but are not of those who have the power with

privilege.

All of them

are used to call people to Allah.

Abdullah ibn umik toum was a blind man, and he was appointed as a mud

of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa salam. And what is that place of

Adhan? It's not simply making the adhan, which is a huge unearned is

then, but it's also a place of

ambassadorship. It's a place where people are going to see what a

Muslim looks like, what someone calling to Allah to the prayer

looks like. It's the

Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam, putting someone in a

leadership position and showing everyone from the outside that a

person who is blind is deeply needed in our community, not

simply welcome. That's important, but they're needed in our

community.

We have the opportunity this Ramadan to ensure that you as a

special needs Muslim and you as a typically abled Muslim,

can come back into the masajid that are close to us right now,

all of us having experienced not truly what it's like to not have

access to the masjid, if someone is a special needs Muslim, but

understand the pain of not being able to access it, as many Muslims

do for so many different reasons, but we can choose to come back to

our masajid, Inshallah, in a better way, where we remember the

pain of those doors not being closed a.

Excuse me, of those doors not being open for us if we're

typically abled Muslims and choosing to come back and change

the way that the masajid are for our brothers and sisters, who are

those who have special needs,

Allah created each of us differently for a reason.

He has chosen many of you to be parents of children with special

needs, and you might not know why,

but I want you to know that Allah

chose you for something greater than so many people can know the

wisdom of he is

the all wise and the Forever loving, and he has gifted our

Ummah with your children. We're grateful for the gift of your

children, and

as someone who is a typically abled Muslim, that means that I

don't have a disability. Inshallah, I hope that so many

other people reach out to you and so many other typically abled

Muslims will be able to firmly say that we are your allies, that we

appreciate everything that you're doing, that Allah Spano wa Taala

has honored you, and that we are so honored to Inshallah, the

allies in the struggle To make our community like that of the Prophet

Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, may Allah answer all of

your da and make this Ramadan an extremely beautiful one for our

community to come back to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa

sallam is a model in which every single person knows they have a

place, they have a They have a space and that they're needed for

this community. I.