Muslims with Special Needs - Mufti Minhajuddin Ahmed

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ. وَ الصَّلَاةُ وَ السَّلَامُ عَلَىٰ سَيِّدِ الْمُرْسَلِينَ وَ خَاتَمِ النَّبِيِّينَ وَ عَلَىٰ آلِهِ الطَّيِّبِينَ الطَّاهِرِينَ وَ مَن تَابِعَهُم بِإِحْسَانٍ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ وَ بَعْدُ.

My dear respected brothers and sisters in Islam, respected elders and young students, Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Today, inshallah, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce one beautiful organization that is doing great work. They are known by the name Muhsin.

Muhsin is the one who is doing Ihsan, the one who is doing good. And Allah has instructed us to be among the Muhsineen, those who do good to others.

Really, Allah loves those who are Muhsin, who do good for others. And Muhsin, spelled M-U-H in Arabic, of course, is Mim, Has, Sin, Nun. But this is the name of our organization, which is an acronym, M-U-H-S-E-N.

Which are Muslims for the understanding and helping of those who have special educational needs. So this is one segment of our society, those who have special needs, whether they are young children with autism, whether they are our senior citizens, those who are now physically challenged, those that are mentally challenged, those that have special needs. This is one segment of our society that we sometimes do not pay, give them the full attention they deserve, the full love and inclusion that they deserve.

In this organization, Muhsin is creating awareness regarding them and how we can ensure that they feel welcome in our masajid, in our programs, with regards to accessibility, with regards to the different facilities we have. And they are doing tremendous work in this regard. So there are a few points that I would like to share to create awareness regarding such people that are specially gifted by Allah with these tests.

Health as a Blessing from Allah

Number one is for us to understand that health, this is a blessing from Allah, that those who are enjoying are receiving from Allah. And there is no way we earn this, there is no way we deserve this. And those that are suffering physically or mentally or otherwise, they have different challenges.

This is not a sign of the displeasure of Allah. This by no means means that they are despised by Allah, they are hated by Allah, this is a punishment of Allah. But rather this is also a test from Allah.

إِنَّ اللَّهَ إِذَا أَحَبَّ قَوْمًا ابْتَلَاهُم. When Allah loves someone, then Allah tests them. Some of our Muslim families are tested themselves and some are tested when they have loved ones who are undergoing these difficult conditions.

If a person has a child who is suffering from physical problems or mental issues, then this is a great great test and trial for those parents. So it is a trial not only for the individual who is suffering but also for their near and dear ones. When Allah loves someone, He tests them.

Whomever is pleased with the decree of Allah, then Allah will be pleased with that individual. And whoever is angered by the decree of Allah and objects against the decree of Allah, then they will earn the displeasure of Allah. We have to remember that we can never look down on such individuals and think that we are better than them in any way.

Allah knows best. He says,

The noblest amongst you in the eyes of Allah is the one who has the most taqwa.

Not the one who is most physically fit. Not the one who is most handsome or most beautiful. But rather the one who has the most taqwa and most fear of Allah.

The Story of the Woman with Epilepsy

There is one hadith that Abdullah ibn Abbas, he asked his companions who were sitting around him, "Should I not show you who is one of the women who is guaranteed jannah? Who is definitely going to go in jannah?" So everyone was surprised. Who is this woman you are referring to? Then he said, there was one old woman who just entered the gathering and was passing by.

Abdullah ibn Abbas said, this woman is 100% guaranteed jannah. And obviously no one is in a position to guarantee that on their own. So they were very surprised by his remark.

And they asked him, how can you say that, oh Abdullah ibn Abbas? He said, the reason I am saying this so confidently, making this statement, is because many many years ago, this woman was very young at that time. And she came to Rasulullah. And she said, "Ya Rasulullah, I suffer from epilepsy.

And I have epileptic fits. And can you make dua to Allah, that Allah cure me from this, so that I do not suffer from this anymore and I am granted relief from this?" Then Rasulullah said to the woman, "Oh woman, most definitely I can make dua to Allah and you will permanently be cured of this epilepsy.

Till today it is managed but cannot be necessarily cured. But most definitely it would have been cured completely with the dua of Allah. With the dua of Rasulullah.

That is one option you have. That is option one. And option number two, is that if you are going to be patient and have sabr with the condition you are facing, then you are promised to be guaranteed Jannah.

So that woman, she thought over this option, these two options. And she said, "Ya Rasulullah, are you promising me Jannah if I continue to be patient with this trial?" Rasulullah said, "Yes." Then she said, "Okay, I am ready to be patient and I will continue to bear the suffering of this epilepsy.

However, I have one request. And that is, when I have these fits, sometimes I cannot control my body movements and my awrah and my sattar becomes exposed. That part of my body that should remain hidden, which is the entire body of the woman, exception of the face and the hands, it becomes exposed.

My legs become exposed. And this is very hurtful for me because I do not want to expose myself. This is against my modesty. Against my haya. So can you make dua at least that this does not happen?" Rasulullah said, "Most definitely. InshaAllah I will make dua that even when you suffer the epileptic fits, then your body will not be exposed."

And she agreed to these terms. And she said, "I will make sabr for the sake of Allah." And that is why many many years later, Abdullah ibn Abbas pointed her out to his students and said, "This is a woman who is guaranteed Jannah."

The Sin of Shamata

This very much happens, very commonly happens, that sometimes when we see people who are physically challenged or otherwise handicapped or otherwise have something that is considered to be a defect and if this thought that we are better than them, superior to them, comes into our heart, into our mind, then this is a very very grave sin. This is known as Shamata. Rasulullah said:

(Sunan Ibn Majah)

"Never ever show happiness over the loss or the suffering of any other person, any other Muslim believer, any brother or sister. Allah will shower His mercy on the person who is afflicted with that condition and in turn Allah will inflict the same upon you in different trials you will have to face."

Rather, Rasulullah taught us a dua that we should recite, we should memorize and recite. But this dua the etiquette of this dua the adab of how to recite it is we do not recite it in the face of that person. We do not recite it in an audible tone that they can hear us. But rather we silently recite this dua when we see someone who is physically challenged, mentally challenged. You say:

"All praise and thanks are due to Allah who has given me aafia and safety and has saved me and protected me from that test and trial that He has inflicted upon you. That test that you are going through, Allah has saved me from that predicament. And He has given me preference over many of His creation."

So whatever blessing we are enjoying, the physical health, the mental health we are enjoying, this aql that we take for granted, this mind, this brain we take for granted, it's a blessing from Allah. We thank Allah when we see those who are suffering. And never for a moment we consider ourselves to be better than them. Rather we should go out of our way to help them, take care of their needs.

The Handicapped Parking Example

There is one it is so sad unfortunately that instead of helping them in their needs sometimes due to carelessness and due to not being aware of the results of our actions I hope this is the reason, not due to intentionally trying to hurt anyone but rather due to carelessness I would assume we do such actions that end up hurting others.

For example, there is a very dear brother who would be very punctual in coming to the masjid here in Juma'ah and also coming to different programs in itikaf here would come in a motorized wheelchair and he is completely paralyzed on the bottom half of his body and when he would park his car his van with his father in the handicap parking then there is a reason why those stripes are there there is a handicap parking and then there are stripes next to the parking because there are different needs of these people special needs that they have that they require more space to come out in his van, in the special van that they had outfitted, there would be a machine that would take out slide out his wheelchair from inside and it would bring it out and it would bring it down to the ground so then he could use his motorized wheelchair because he did not have a huge ramp, rather there was a machine that would bring his wheelchair out and it would descend down to the ground, it had a lift in it, a lift gate like we have in trucks but in many occasions our very capable physically able brothers in their rush to catch the Juma'ah they would come and they would park their cars on the striped area right next to the handicap place so he was not able to take his his wheelchair out so this is our responsibility, this is my duty today in this Khutbah that we are doing to talk about activities of Mohsen, to point this out this is one way where the infrastructure is there, the designation for that handicap parking is there the stripes are painted there but if you are going to abuse it and not use it then it becomes difficult now if he wants to take his, open his lift gate, it will scratch the whole car, it will destroy the car next to him but he said that even though they are not considerate of the special needs person who is parked here we will not scratch their car but Mufti I would like to bring it to your attention Imam that this is the suffering I face so we are making it more difficult for people to come to the house of Allah, what does Allah say about such people?

Allah says there is no one who is a greater there is no greater injustice or dhulm or oppression than this. Allah says that who can be a bigger dhalim who can do a greater injustice than the one who prevents people from coming to the house of Allah? If through our actions anyone is being prevented from coming to the house of Allah and finding difficulty then this is a very very major crime we need to be aware of so we should be cognizant of that, never block the fire lanes never block the lanes where people are next to the handicapped parking if we ourselves are not handicapped or physically have any difficulty then not to park, take a few extra steps but this will be rewarding in the eyes of Allah every single step that you take towards the house of Allah you receive a good deed and a sin will be forgiven.

The Story of Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum

Our beloved Rasul we have the aqeedah and we believe that he was masoom, he was divinely protected from committing sins he never intentionally committed any sin in his life he is masoom from minor sins and major sins before prophethood and after prophethood his every action is an example for the ummah so he never committed any sin knowingly intentionally with evil intention, with evil desire however there are certain times in his life where he made judgments which were not 100% in line with what Allah wanted a mistake in judgment and then we make mistakes in judgment too, but the difference is Allah never allowed Rasul to continue to remain on that but rather Allah would immediately correct Rasul such that his final action would always be 100% in accordance with the will of Allah that is the difference, whereas by no means are we guaranteed for any divine intervention and correction or revelation upon us most times we continue to remain in the error and continue the mistake till the end that is the huge difference between us and Rasul.

One such example where Rasul made a mistake in judgment and then Allah spoke about it in the Quran is when there was a blind Sahabi Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum and he came to Rasul who was in a private meeting with the leaders of the Quraish and these leaders of the Quraish were a very tough group of people to deal with this was Abu Sufyan who much later became Muslim but the majority of these leaders never became Muslim Uqba ibn Abi Muait, Nazar ibn Al-Harith, Waleed ibn Al-Mughira, Utba, Shayba, Ubay ibn Khalaf these are the hardcore Mushrikeen leaders Aas ibn Gha'il so they did not want to listen to Rasul they never granted him audience they were always opposed to even hearing his message and were actively opposing it with a lot of negotiations and a lot of efforts they said we don't want to sit with all of these despicable lowly people that sit around you lowly people have followed you we don't want to sit with these slaves with Bilal and Ammar ibn Yasir and Khabbab ibn Arat we don't want to sit with these people if you want to talk to us if you are so insistent on having one meeting then we have to have an exclusive meeting where none of your people will be there it will be a meeting of just the nobles the high class people so Rasul did not want any dunya from them Rasul did not want any material gain from them he had no ulterior motive his motive was one and one only that if they accept Islam then they can be a means of the rest of the Quraish accepting Islam and if the Quraish accept Islam then they are the most respected tribe in the Arabian Peninsula the remaining tribes will enter the fold of Islam so with this motive of spreading Hidayah which is his mission and his job, his responsibility that's why he agreed to their terms we will have an exclusive meeting only for the leaders of the Quraish no one else will be allowed and he was engaged in this meeting talking to them after so many negotiations, finally had the opportunity to speak his heart to them and invite them with ultimate sincerity, hoping for their guidance and lo and behold what happens there is an interruption in this who comes in?

Abdullah ibn Umm Maktoum who is already a believer who is already a Muslim who is already a reciter of the Kalima La Ilaha Illa Allah Muhammadur Rasulullah so he had some minor Fiqh question some issue, some masala how do I fulfill this need how do I make Ibadah for example now Rasul was engaged in this high level talks so Allah mentions the story in the Quran:

"He frowned" — referring to Nabi — "and he turned his back when the blind man came upon him because the blind man came" — Al-A'ma is the blind one referring to Abdullah ibn Ummi Maktoum — "and then Allah says what do you know regarding this blind person you turned your face away from him? Perhaps he will purify himself or receive a reminder that will benefit him. As for the one who regards himself as self-sufficient, you attend to him, though you are not accountable if he does not purify himself. But as for the one who comes to you striving and fearing Allah..."

Allah is praising this blind Sahabi and saying he is the purified one and whatever advice you give him he will take heed from whatever you are saying and he will fear Allah. The one who thinks that he does not need you he is Istaghna' means to regard yourself superior to others and not feel that you have any need the one who says that I'm independent of you I don't require you, I don't need your guidance those people who are having that attitude then you are going after those people, you are running after those people who don't care about your message. And on the other hand the one who is running towards you seeking guidance from you and he fears Allah so then why are you turning away from him, why are you distracted why do you feel that is interruption?

So this is one occasion where may Allah protect and guide us and keep us on the correct understanding some writers I would not call them scholars but some writers they have written very wrong things regarding Rasulullah they have attacked the honor of our beloved Rasulullah we have to make the matter clear while keeping the honor of Rasulullah intact and because what happens is basically a person he passes judgments regarding other people based on how he judges himself and what actions he does if a person himself is guilty of crimes then he will think others are also guilty of the same crime if a person himself is striving to be good then that person will have good thoughts about others so at this occasion people equated Rasulullah with other worldly leaders and said Allah the following statement is incorrect I'm narrating a statement of Kufr to reject that Kufr not to believe in it they say that Rasulullah was reprimanded and corrected by Allah because he was so busy with the worldly rich people and he did not pay attention to the poor blind person so this was wrong what he did therefore Allah corrected him and said this is not how your behavior should be in this world so this is a very wrong interpretation.

Allah did correct Rasulullah and did tell him why did you frown because that is in the ayah itself you cannot escape that but the reason Rasulullah was paying more attention to those influential leaders was not because Rasulullah wanted any financial gain from them on many occasions they gave him the best offers possible that could never be refused, they said to him "Oh Muhammad we will gather all the money in Mecca and we will make a fund and grant you the entire fund and ensure that you will be the richest man in Mecca" that is one offer if you want that, number two "We will give you the most beautiful girls of Mecca for you to marry as many as you want there is no restriction on four, any number of women you want" number three "We will all agree together and we will order a crown and have a coronation ceremony and make you the united king of Mecca" right, so there is love of wealth they had the offer of wealth then the physical shahwa they had any number of girls you want, then there is something called hubbul jah love of power like our president now, Donald Trump what is his salary? zero dollars or one dollar so he did not run to become president because he wanted to make more money he is going to become richer or directly at least he will not get any paycheck from the government, make more money as a president he doesn't want any money this is a different sickness called hubbul jah, love of power it is different from love of wealth so if you want to be powerful we will make you king of Mecca all of these offers and the only thing you have to do is you have to give a dawah speaking about La Ilaha Illallah so Rasul rejected all of these offers what did he say?

"If you bring the sun from the sky and put it in my right hand and you bring the moon from the sky and put it in my left hand I will never give up this dawah towards Karimah" so he was not going after the wealth so this whole interpretation that is given by some people is absolutely wrong rather Rasul's idea was that these elders of the community these influential people, their matter is a matter of Jannah vs Jahannam they die without Islam and Iman, they will die on shirk they will enter into the fire of Jahannam and if they accept Islam they are granted guidance, then they will enter Jannah so their issue and problem is greater by the way, why did he interrupt Rasul? because he is blind he did not know, he did not see if he had eyesight, he would have seen how engaged Rasul was and he would have naturally been intelligent enough not to disrupt Rasul one of the reasons why he disrupted Rasul's meeting is because he himself couldn't see and Rasul said this person is already a believer, he is already a die hard follower and he has a minor issue it is not a matter of his Najah salvation vs destruction, therefore if I answer his question later, it is not going to be a big deal and with great difficulty I got this meeting set up and now everything will be destroyed because these people, what are they going to say? if I start paying attention to Abdullah ibn Umar Maktum they are going to get up and leave they are going to say this is exactly what you said, you only worry about these poor people, so that's why he was he turned his face and frowned so this was his reasoning but Allah told him no. Allah corrected him and said "How you should make your judgment of who deserves your time is not based on the nature of the problem you are thinking, Oh Rasulullah the one who has a bigger problem deserves more attention first attention, the one who has a smaller problem deserves second attention, don't make that the basis rather the basis should be who has more desire who has desire for guidance."

The one who doesn't have any desire, who says "I don't need your guidance", then they don't deserve your time as well the one who is running towards you and seeking guidance, they deserve your time so your distribution of time should be on the principle of talab, the one who has more desire receives first place attention the one who has less desire receives less place so this was the ayat in the Quran which shows that we should give full attention and respect to those who might be physically challenged and if they have the desire to learn the deen.

Concluding Remarks

So therefore just as a final reminder, many of the brothers and sisters have come in late, we spoke in the beginning regarding this great organization that is raising awareness about the needs of our brothers and sisters who have special needs and who are either physically challenged or mentally challenged and these are very commonly found in our societies, in our communities, but they do not receive that love and understanding that is deserved many times, instead of helping them through our carelessness, we are actually making their lives difficult, so I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce this group and they have a booth set up in the lobby we can gain more information about them, find out about their activities and support them inshallah and at a personal level, we should always be thankful to Allah for these blessings that we have and recognize that those who are challenged, it is not a sign of an azaab from Allah, rather this is an opportunity for them to gain proximity and closeness to Allah.

Rasulullah said, the one who is tested regarding the two beloved blessings and he is patient then the reward for that is Al-Jannah itself and the scholars explain this hadith, the two beloved blessings are referring to the two eyes whoever is blind and will be patient over the blindness then they will be rewarded with Jannah itself, nothing less than Jannah so therefore, these people who are challenged are very special people Allah has given them a test and the vast majority of them are being patient so they will be rewarded with high levels in Jannah we should have honor for them and never look down upon them.

May Allah make us among those who help them in their needs and if we have such ones in our family who are also going through such trials, if you have children for example, which is the greatest difficulty for the parents to see the children in such conditions, then we know that Allah's special help is with us. Verily, Allah is with those who observe patience. Verily, Allah is with those who observe patience. May Allah give us Tawfiq to make our Amal that is for Hussain and inshallah.