Morad Awad – Disability from another Perspective
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the definition of disability and how it is not physical or mental. They use history of definition and explain that some people are considered higher-equity. The speakers also emphasize the importance of peace be upon Islam and remind the audience to be careful with their emotions, struggles, and vision. They stress the need for people to be aware of their power and to be careful with their heart.
AI: Summary ©
We praise Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
We Lord him. We seek his assistance and
we ask his forgiveness.
And we seek refuge in Allah from the
evil and the mischief of our own souls
and actions.
Whomsoever Allah guides, clearly they are the ones
that are guided.
And whomsoever Allah misguides, then no one or
nothing can guide them.
I bear witness and testify
that there is no deity worthy of worship
and truth
except Allah
alone and He has no partners.
And I bear witness and testify that Muhammad
is his servant and his final messenger alayhi
salatu as salam.
Brothers and sisters, I remind myself
and you on this blessed day of yamuljum'ah
to fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
the way he should be feared.
As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminded us of
this in the noble Quran
when he said, oh you who believe,
fear Allah.
Fear Allah
the way he should be feared and do
not die except
in the state of submission to him. We
ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to die in the state of submission to
him.
My dear and beloved
brothers and sisters,
one of the things that our deen calls
us
to reflect upon
and to contemplate on
is the meaning
of disability,
the meaning of disability.
In our times,
perhaps the term disability
has
a specific connotation
or always comes in a certain context.
But and is often referred referring to the
same thing whether it be a mental
or a physical
or an emotional disability.
But
what the deen does, what Islam does
is it shifts
the paradigm
of disability
so that we see
what disability
truly is in this dunya, in this life
of ours.
What it means
to be truly disabled.
Islam tells us that disability
is not a physical or mental state but
it is a state of mind.
That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
writes for a person.
In a hadith, the prophet
would often seek refuge
from certain things.
And in a famous dua, the prophet salallahu
alaihi wasallam would often say,
Oh Allah, I seek refuge
in you from grief and concern.
And I seek refuge
in you from disability and laziness.
The disability the Prophet
may peace and blessings be upon him,
was seeking refuge from,
was not the one that we understand
in our times today, but the disability
that makes someone unable to do good,
unable to please Allah, unable to fulfill fulfill
the commands of the Lord of the heavens
and the earth.
In a hadith
in many a hadith,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam would seek
refuge from this disability
But not the one
we see and understand.
In another hadith,
the prophet
shed more light onto this.
When he said
to some of his companions,
He said, let us go visit
the one who has basira. Basira means vision,
true vision
of Bani Waqf.
And this person who the prophet salallahu alaihi
wa sallam wanted to visit
was blind in reality.
He couldn't see. But the prophet
referred to him as the one with true
vision.
Why?
Because the prophet
defined
what vision is to us.
It is the spiritual vision, the vision of
the heart, the vision that Allah
makes someone capable of seeing truth and falsehood
with.
It is seeing with the light of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. The prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam
worked
hard to change this paradigm.
And that is why many of the greatest
companions
that we know about
had what we call disabilities today.
Some of them would walk with a limp,
some of them couldn't see, some of them
couldn't hear.
Some of them
they had all types of what we say
are disabilities
but it did not prevent them from being
the greatest sahaba leaving the greatest legacies to
mankind
and
being role models for Muslimeen until the day
of judgment.
Islam, my dear beloved brothers and sisters, shifts
the paradigm.
Someone
that is strong and healthy,
classified
by medical doctors or professionals perhaps as someone
that is mentally stable
but is completely disconnected from Allah, completely disconnected
from the creator,
completely disconnected
from the purpose of their own creation
is
far more disabled
in Islam
than someone
who is blind
or deaf or has a limp or has
some sort of medical or mental disorder
but
understands the truth, understands their purpose, understands
what their creator wants from them, and knows
how to worship and please their creator.
These people are far more enabled than the
first.
The prophet
made this
the definition of what Islam is.
In the beginning of the dua of Islam,
when the prophet, peace be upon him, was
rejected by the people of Quraish, his own
people,
The prophet
approached the nobles of Quraish, the wealthy, the
rich, the people that have the highest status.
He sat with
them
called them to Islam, called them to the
worship of God and leaving
all the other deities that they worship.
And as they were sitting,
who came and sat with the prophet
Abdullah ibn Umni Maktoum,
Abdullah ibn Masood,
Bilal ibn Raba, Zayd ibn Uhani The Sahabas
that if they live today, we would consider
them
disenfranchised.
We would consider them weak. We would consider
them the marginalized group in the community.
These people
sat in the same halaqa.
And then the nobles and those of high
status
came,
to the prophet, peace be upon him, and
told him, Look, Muhammad, we have no
reason to leave what you are saying. We
believe in you.
What you're saying makes a lot of sense.
But how about we leave these people out
of it?
Because they're making our statuses lower.
They're making us look bad. And the prophet
gave the definition of what Islam is early
on. This is in the beginning.
This is when the prophet, peace be upon
him, needed
all the help he can get.
Islam was being rejected.
He
needed publicity.
He needed to show people what Islam is.
And these nobles and these people of status,
if they accepted Islam, he would've took the
highway to that. Everyone would've heard of Islam.
But
he could not compromise what Islam truly means.
He said,
these people are higher status
in the eyes of Allah than you
because they accepted Islam before you.
The scales of Allah are different.
They're not what you see.
They're not
those people who are strong and powerful.
Those people who are eloquent and well spoken,
those people who are giving given a public
platform to speak are not always
the highest in status.
But perhaps this weak person, as the prophet
said in another hadith,
In a hadith, he said a person may
be dusty,
may have patches in their clothes, may be
pushed from the doors.
If some if they come to your door
in your house and say, what do you
want?
You stink. Please don't get close to me.
Maybe this person
might be the reason for your salvation.
This person might be the type that if
they lifted their hands and prayed to Allah,
Allah will instantly answer them. We never know.
But this is the message of Islam
from the beginning.
And this is why the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam,
he said,
And this is a clear message. This is
not some
nuanced statement, something that is just said something
that has no meaning. No. The prophet
said,
you
are given victory
and you are given wealth
with your week.
The prophet is telling us, do not push
these weak people away, these disenfranchised,
marginalized people away.
The prophet said bring them,
take care of them, help them because they
are the reason for your victory. They are
the reason for your success. They are the
reason for the wealth wealth that Allah bestows
upon you.
These are the teachings of Muhammad, peace and
blessings be upon him.
So
when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
this is a great lesson we can learn
from this.
When Allah tests us
with struggles, with hardships in our life, we
should not feel like this is something that
Allah wants to put us down with.
But we should know
that perhaps it's something that Allah wants to
lift us up with and lift everyone around
us up with us.
Sometimes we might feel sad that, you know,
we have a person in our family, a
relative, someone close that
is tested with a hardship.
In whatever way Allah tests them.
But
perhaps they are the reason everything good is
happening to you.
Perhaps they are the reason Allah is making
your business successful.
Perhaps they are the reason you got that
job. Perhaps they are the reason
you
are content or happy with whatever you're happy
with. You never know. But this is what
our prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, is
telling us.
It should never break a to go through
hardships,
to go through struggles in life
because it could either make us who we
are or break us.
Let's reflect on the life of the prophet
briefly.
Our noble and beloved prophet peace be upon
him, he grew up as an orphan. His
father died before he was born. His mother
died when he was young. He grew up
with no parents. He grew up with no
parents. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam grew
up, was taken care of by his grandfather.
His grandfather died in his life.
And then he was taken care of by
his uncle and his uncle died without believing
in him.
Allahu Akbar.
The prophet
the dearest person to his heart was his
was his wife, Khadija
She died in his life.
All of his children
died in his life.
He lived and he mourned
and he buried all of them in his
life
except for 1 Fatima radiAllahu anha, and she
died 6 months after him.
All of these
would be enough one of these things would
be enough to break someone.
1 of these hardships
would make someone
weak, would make someone feel like they're broken,
like they're useless, like they have no nothing
in this life. But it didn't do that
to the prophet
None of his children were left after him.
Fatima died 6 months after. This
would have been enough to break the legacy
of anyone that lived in in history.
Right?
But on the contrary, Muhammad, peace be upon
him, is the most praised,
is the most loved,
is the most remembered
from amongst mankind today.
And this is because Allah lifts
whom he pleases with struggles and hardships,
and puts down whom he pleases. We ask
Allah
to lift us with the struggles of this
life. We ask Allah
to make us from those who reflect and
contemplate
upon His miracles. And we make Allah we
ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us
who hear
the word and follow that which is best
from it.
My dear beloved brothers and sisters, just a
final reminder on this blessed day of Yom
al Jum'ah,
as we gather here to worship
our one and only creator,
Allah
It is good
to remind ourselves at times
of how these hardships can make us.
And I remember a profound
statement made by one of the great
whose name was Al Hassan al Basri,
He said, do not despise
what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wrote upon you
because
perhaps
a hardship
may cause your salvation in the hereafter.
And
perhaps
your destruction may be in something you always
wanted and asked for,
Something you always wanted
and prayed for and asked for may be
your destruction.
And something, a hardship that you never wanted
yourself to be afflicted with can be the
reason for your salvation.
So in the scales of Allah
we don't know.
So we should always reflect on our situation
And we should always remember
who the disabled ones are in the eyes
of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The ones who are distant from him,
the ones who see miracles,
the ones who hear the truth and do
not follow it. Those are indeed
the ones who are disabled.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
Some people are not blinded with their vision
but they are blinded with the heart, the
vision of their heart that is in their
chest.
We ask Allah
to make us from those
who can see with their heart,
who have that spiritual vision
given to them by Allah
We ask Allah
to make us see the truth for what
it is and to make us see falsehood
for what it is. We ask Allah
to guide us to that which is best
for us in this dunya, in this life
and in the next. We ask Allah
to bless us, to bless our families, to
bless our companions,
to bless our colleagues, to bless
our communities,
our societies,
to guide us all to that which
will lead them to salvation, You rabbil a'lamineen.
We ask Allah to have mercy on us.
We ask Allah to forgive us. We ask
Allah to
make us firm
on the straight path and to make our
final words in this life.
There is no deity of
worship and truth except Allah and that Muhammad
is His servant and final messenger. Ibadullah,
We want everyone to,
to pray Janazah.
We have a Janazah prayer right here. And
just a reminder
about
the Janazah prayer.
It is for takbiraat.
It is for takbiraat. So we say Allahu
Akbar 4 times. After the first, we recite
Al Fatiha. After the second, we recite Al
Salatul Ibrahimiyyah
which is the one we recite in Tashahullah
Salamas salallahu Muhammad
until the end. And the 3rd,
we make du'at for the deceased. We make
du'a for the deceased.
And if for those who memorize the
du'a until the end.
Or you can make du'a in, the language
that you feel comfortable making dua or prayer
for. And in the last dua and the
last, after the last takbir, you can make
dua for the whole
stay back after the janaza.
For the family members of the deceased, inshallah,
you can stay after
the janaza.
You can stay here
so we can,
take the janaza out.
So
Just a reminder, inshallah,
everyone except for the family members can leave,
and the family members can come to the
front inshallah once once everyone exits.