Sikander Hashmi – Different Abilities KMA Friday Message
AI: Summary ©
The success of Islam's "meditation" approach to helping people with disabilities is highlighted, including a woman with a rare birth defect and a man with a partial or complete fusion of legs. The importance of faith and resilience in facing challenges and struggles is emphasized, along with the need for testing and rewarding individuals for their resilience. The success of "slack of sorts" when faced with challenges and struggles is also emphasized, along with the importance of patient acceptance and support for individuals with disabilities. The speaker emphasizes the importance of including persons with disabilities in their approach to helping others, including a famous Muslim opinion and teaching children not to shun people.
AI: Summary ©
Muhammad.
Respected elders,
dear brothers and sisters,
my young friends,
Imagine
getting the good news
of having your child a child or your
first child.
For those who are married and have children,
you have experienced this already.
And those who are not, one day you
will experience this joy.
Imagine getting the news
that
your family is expecting a new addition,
and you are celebrating, and you are happy,
and you're sharing sweets and giving the good
news
to your loved ones,
and, masha'Allah, the child is born. But Allah
chooses
to give you and gift you a child
who is
not as you expected,
who is
formed in a way
that you are not expecting.
In many cases,
many times, of course, this leads to great
anxiety and great worry on the part
of parents.
But subhanAllah,
in my experience, I have seen
that the families who have been blessed
by Allah
with children
who have challenges, who have different abilities,
or who have disabilities
are blessed
in many ways that cannot be imagined.
In terms of the barakah that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala puts in their efforts,
in their time, in their wealth, and the
things that they're able to do, masha'Allah.
I have right now, on the top of
my head, at least two examples locally in
our community
of people like that
who have done
tremendous work for the deen of Allah,
they and their families,
even while
caring for
a child with special needs.
I think many people are probably aware by
now
of the young man who pretty much stole
the show
in the opening opening ceremony of the FIFA
World Cup in Qatar.
Either you saw it or you've heard about
it probably.
His name is Ghannim Al Mufta,
and he was born
with caudal regression syndrome, which is a rare
birth defect
characterized
by partial or complete fusion of the legs.
And for those who watch the ceremony, he
was on the stage,
you know, almost at ground level because he
doesn't have legs.
Masha'allah, this young man
has his own business,
and he is studying.
He's a YouTuber. He has you know, he
plays many sports and very interesting videos actually.
If you see his videos as to how,
masha'allah, he has adapted and how he lives
his life.
And he's even climbed a mountain as well.
And it is said that when he was
born in that condition, with that condition,
he was actually not given much time to
live. That was the opinion of the doctors
that it will be difficult for him to
survive.
But
he has beaten all odds
and
is living a a very active and fulfilling
life.
And
if you read about his life, you can't
help
but notice
his positive outlook.
The fact that he is filled with positive
energy,
and this positive energy
is fed by the unfaltering influence and support
of his parents
who insisted that he lead a normal life
beyond the confines of his disability.
Right? Parents are the greatest advocates for their
children,
and they insisted that they were going to
put every effort
to ensure that he is not limited
because of his
situation.
What also feeds into his positivity and his
success, masha'Allah, is the expert medical care that
he receives internationally
on an annual basis,
support from his community,
his society, his government.
So all of these things have come together
to
bring him where he is today.
Now we know that not every person with
a disability
will have all of these things come together
for them. But my brothers and sisters, what
we need to realize
is that we all have a role to
play
in supporting persons
with disabilities,
persons with different abilities.
And most importantly, with our attitudes,
the way we
look
at such
circumstances,
the way we respond,
the way we deal with individuals
with differing abilities.
The reality is, my brothers and sisters, that
every single one of us
is susceptible
to
becoming or being a person with a disability.
If not today,
then at some point in our lives, may
Allah protect us and make it easy for
us. We don't know what the future
holds for us
and for our loved ones. May Allah protect
us.
But we know experience tells us that as
we age and time goes
on, it is natural to expect that there
will be
perhaps
circumstances
and challenges that we have not faced earlier
in our lives, that we may have to
face
as we age.
And this is
a fact of life.
This is from the sunnah of Allah subhanahu
wa
ta'ala except for the people that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
continues
to keep well and keep protected.
Now when faced with challenges, we take solace
in the fact
that patience
in the face of difficulty and adversity is
greatly rewarded by Allah
Right? And actually, I was just, at West
and secondary school with the students for their
salatul jama'ah. And one of the things that
I mentioned to them,
my to them, was
the fact that people of faith tend to
be more resilient.
It doesn't mean that people of faith don't
face challenges.
It doesn't mean that, you know, that we
don't face struggles.
We do like all human beings.
But what our what our deen what faith
teaches us and gives us is resilience
to deal with challenges and struggles when they
come our way. And sometimes I wonder how
difficult it must be
to operate in this world and face the
challenges of life without having faith,
without having a framework that gives us resilience
and strength,
if a person
does not have faith,
they don't have a framework
to help them
cope with challenges the way that the of
Allah
gives them that strength and that resilience. So
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the
Quran as we have heard before.
Be sure
that we shall test you with something of
fear and hunger, some loss in goods or
lives or bodies
or the fruits of your toil.
But give glad tidings
to those who persevere
with patience.
So it is understood. We expect.
We don't ask for it. We don't hope
for it,
but we expect
that
Allah
may choose to test us in one way
or the other,
but to our glad tidings for those
who are the people of Sabr of the
people of perseverance
and patience.
Those who when they are afflicted with a
calamity, they say
This is not just a phrase to recite
when someone passes away,
but rather
it is
a phrase,
a dua of sorts that Allah
tells us is from the characteristics
of the people of Sabar, the people of
perseverance and patience.
That when they are faced with a calamity,
what is a great struggle or a challenge,
they remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and they
say,
To Allah, we belong and to him is
our return.
And this phrase itself gives us strength
because it reminds us that we are nothing
on our own. We belong to Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala and we are going back to
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. So whatever Allah sends
towards us, whatever
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala sends towards
us in terms of challenges and struggles and
calamities,
it's part of the same journey. We've come
from Allah. We're going to Allah and everything
we face and we get in between is
from
Allah So we turn to Allah
for assistance, and we turn to Allah
for guidance.
And then Allah tells us,
They are those on whom to send the
blessings from Allah and mercy,
and they are the ones who receive guidance.
They are the ones who are guided.
So we find a link here between
tests,
perseverance, and patience,
remembering Allah
and receiving his blessings and his mercy. And
thus, again,
people who are faced with challenges and struggles
and calamities,
and they turn to Allah,
they will be blessed
in immeasurable ways, in tremendous ways.
And those blessings may even be licked with
the challenges
That if the challenge had not come, and
if they had not exerted sabr,
then perhaps those blessings and that goodness would
not come as well.
But the challenge and the struggle and their
response to it became a means or becomes
a means for receiving
blessings and mercy from Allah
Now we know my brothers and sisters that
Allah
has given us all, every single one of
us, different abilities and different strengths. Some of
us have better eyesight than others. You know,
some have greater strength than others. Some have
more stamina
compared to others
physically. You know, mentally, some of us may
be better in some areas than others.
You know, someone's
bad at math but better at writing and
so on. Right? So Allah has blessed us
all in different ways. So naturally, when we
excel and have an advantage
over others in some areas,
we know that we will also have weaknesses
as well because no human being is perfect.
Every single person is going to have some
strengths and also gonna have some weaknesses. And
if a person thinks they have no weaknesses,
they're actually deluded, and they're kidding themselves, and
they're fooling themselves. So every single person has
strengths. Every single person has weaknesses.
Sometimes these weaknesses can extend
a bit beyond
or a bit more than we as a
society are used to, a little bit more
than what the norm is.
And
therefore, society refers to it as a disability.
So for example, many of us has weakened
eyesight. You know, you wear glasses, you have
contact lenses. But when it reaches a certain
point, then it is categorized as legal blindness.
Now it doesn't necessarily mean that you're completely
blind and you can't see at all, but
there's vision loss beyond a certain point that
affects abilities
in a greater way, and therefore, it is
categorized as legal blindness.
Thus, a disability can affect us mentally, can
affect us
physically.
These can come at the time of of
of of birth.
It can come at a young age, sometimes
much later in life. It is the will
of Allah
Now we are having this discussion today because
December 3rd is the International Day of Persons
with Disabilities
as declared by the UN, by the United
Nations in 1982.
And there's a a great, wonderful organization that
is doing tremendous work within the Muslim community
to serve our brothers and sisters with different
abilities with disabilities
called Deen Support Services, and I encourage you
to look them up and to offer your
support to them.
They run a Khutba campaign every year,
to to,
to
spread understanding and to educate Muslim community
about
disability from an Islamic perspective.
When we look at disability and persons
with disabilities in the Islamic tradition, my brothers
and sisters, we notice a few things. So
the first of all first one is, like
any other challenge,
the challenges
faced
due to illness, due to disabilities
do not go unrewarded.
They do not go unrewarded. There is tremendous
blessing and tremendous reward
associated
with illnesses,
disabilities, and struggles. Abu Saeed Al Khudri
reported that the prophet
said that
And this hadith, subhanallah, always amazes me. Because
the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam says that whenever
a Muslim is afflicted
with a hardship,
with a sickness, with a sadness, with a
worry, a harm, a depression,
even the pricking of a thorn,
even the pricking of a thorn. Now you
imagine, you step on a thorn or a
needle. Yes. It hurts, maybe for a few
moments, but that's about it, and it's pretty
localized. But even that is counted by Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
says, as a result, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
expiates their sins because of it. There is
forgiveness of sins even by the pricking of
a thorn. So any level of
anxiety,
worry, pain, suffering, physical or mental
that you go through, any type of difficulty,
there is a recompense for that. It is
being recorded by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It
is noticed by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and
you will find it on the day of
resurrection
in your book of deeds and its effect,
Insha'Allah. Secondly, my brothers and sisters,
as we discussed, if you deal with it
with patience and perseverance and ask Allah
for for for assistance
and you remember Allah
then
you will have glad tidings
and you will receive blessings and mercy from
Allah
in ways that you could not imagine.
And by the way, all of this also
applies
to the close relatives of persons with disabilities
who care for them
because it's not always easy.
It's not always easy.
But, again,
to be in that situation means that Allah,
subhanahu wa ta'ala, is giving you an opportunity
to get rewards and blessings
that are not available perhaps to others. Secondly,
my brothers and sisters,
we
the manner in which we deal with persons
with disabilities. You know, unfortunately, in many cultures,
persons with disabilities,
different abilities are shunned or disregarded
or ignored
or pushed to the fringes of society. But
when we look at
the the, the Islamic tradition,
we find
total acceptance and support
for persons
with disabilities. We have the example of Sayeda
Musa
who had a speech impediment,
yet it did
not bar him from continuing his mission as
a prophet. And he asked Allah
and remove the
We have the example of Abdullah Noom Maktoum
Radiallahu Anhu, the great companion of the prophet
who
was blind, who was visually impaired.
Made him in charge of Madinah when he
was not there.
It did not stop him
from getting that important responsibility
and also the responsibility of giving adhan.
We learn about Jullaybib
Now in society, he was, it is said,
a virtual outcast
due to his disabilities, which are not described
in specific terms, but it seems that he
was of maybe he was very short, significantly
short stature,
may have also had some other, you know,
physical differences. But the prophet
took special care of this man
and even arranged marriage for him even though
it was quite difficult for him to get
married. And he took part in a battle,
so he was participating still. And
he fought
heroically, and he became a shahid. He was
killed in the path of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
No one noticed that Jalebi was missing. The
prophet asked who was missing. Nobody everybody you
know, they remembered everyone else, but nobody noticed
Jalebi. But the prophet
noticed,
And he mourned his loss, and he said,
that he is of me and I am
of him. And he said that 2 times.
He is of me and I am of
him. So the prophet
showed great reverence and and affection and closeness
to closeness to Jullaybib, radiAllahu anhu. We hear
we read about. The famous early Muslim jurist,
the hadith transmitter,
who
was actually the Mufti of Mecca at one
point in the 7th, 8th centuries.
He was known to walk with a limp
and was also paralyzed as well. So he
had a very real disability, yet that did
not stop him from excelling in the deen
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, in the knowledge
of the deen of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
and being given a very important responsibility.
So what do we need to do, my
brothers and sisters? A few points. So first
of all, let us try to be, you
know, inclusive
in terms of our thinking, in terms of
our attitude,
not to look down upon people, and to
actively ensure that we are trying to include
persons with disabilities and different abilities as much
as possible. Right? Even little things that may
seem little to us. Right? Like the entrance
to the masjid,
like where we put our shoes,
so that we leave the pathway open. So
that if someone comes with a walker or
someone comes, you know, in a wheelchair or
has difficulty walking, they're not at risk of
tripping.
You know? So little things can show our
care and concern.
Even the design of the masjid. So
as you know, we're getting close to, to
starting construction of the new masjid building, which
will be right in front of us here
in the land. I know it looks small,
but there's plenty of space there.
And we're ensuring that the access to the
building has no steps.
So there's no steps going into the building,
So it'll be direct entry with no steps
inside. You go in, and it's all straight
and flat. So wheelchairs, walkers, strollers,
all of those things go in. People who
have difficulty walking, climbing stairs, no issue. Everyone
can go straight in and directly into the
Masjid area. And those who need to go
upstairs or downstairs, there'll be an elevator available
as well.
So just trying to be mindful and trying
to be, to to be conscious,
you know, ensuring that we teach our children
not to shun people. Right? Sometimes it happens
subconsciously.
You know, so we have to be mindful
about these things. And, to to be a
little bit, you know, lenient, to be a
little bit understanding,
if, let's say, someone comes to the masjid
with a child who has a disability, and
they're not able to control them, and the
child maybe is making noise. Maybe they're autistic.
Maybe there's some other challenge.
K? So be forgiving, be understanding, give people
the benefit of the doubt. So they don't
feel like they cannot come to the masjid
with their child because everyone's gonna give them
stares and everyone's gonna look down
upon them. You know? So be understanding,
be forgiving,
be tolerant,
and realize that these are situations and circumstances
that people did not ask for. But rather,
Allah
gave it to them, and they are trying
their best to deal with them. At the
very least, we can offer them our support.
We ask Allah
to grant them and all of us,
patience,
to support each other. We ask Allah
to make it easy for all of those
who are struggling in different ways. We ask
Allah
to grant us all protection and ease
in all of our affairs. Ameen.
We'll take a couple of minutes, to offer
and then we'll continue.