Assalamu Alaikum,

Barak Allahu Feeki Sister for the beneficial videos. My university, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is also the world’s largest National Technical Institute for the Deaf aka NTID, a technological university for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. As such, it is very common to see interpreters in classrooms alongside instructors who communicate in sign-language to deaf students. Alhamdulillah we have been blessed with a very active Deaf brother, Nashiru (nicknamed Nash), a Ghanian by origin, who graduated from RIT last year and went to Gallaudet University in Washington DC and founded the world’s first Deaf Students MSA. He is back to RIT to continue with his Masters. I once sat down with him and discussed topics in ‘Aqeedah. He said he had never heard of such beautiful concepts before and that no one had ever taken the time to explain our Kalimah to him. Subhan-Allah tears filled my eyes, how Blessed we are to have the sense of hearing and how few are the people who even care to gain knowledge of the Deen.

Alhamdulillah yesterday, for the first time, we had Nash translate the Friday khutbah in ASL (usually we have non-muslim interpreters but I thought it would be more beneficial to have a Muslim who is more cognizant of Qur’anic and Islamic terminology do the translating). A few weeks ago I was going to ask ibnabeeomar to advertise on MM about a short documentary called A Deaf Perspective: Silent Islam which highlighted the efforts our Deaf brothers and sisters put into practising this Deen. Alhamdulillah Nash told me that Sister Mehzabeen from UK has been spreading the word about it. I was really happy to know this and I ask Allah to Bless you abundantly sister.

Subhan-Allah Nash told me how so many deaf students are thirsty for knowledge of Islam but that most communities do not accommodate their needs. For example he said in New Jersey, some deaf students would put money together and hire an interpreter for half an hour each Friday to interpret the khutbah at a local masjid. And this would be at some crazy price. But the dedication of these brothers and sisters is remarkable, that they put money together to have a non-muslim explain the Deen to them. There is a lot to talk of and feel sad about this part of society that we seldom hear of. Insha Allah Nashiru will be teaching American Sign Language (ASL) soon and I am really looking forward to learning and mastering it. I remember seeing a video from an ISNA conference where Alhamdulillah they have interpreters specifically meant for the deaf audience. I hope that someday AlMaghrib can also have such a facility and we can spread Da’wah to a much broader audience, I ask Allah to make me contribute in this effort Insha Allah.

May Allah increase all of us in knowledge of this beautiful Deen and enable us love our brothers and sisters as we love our ownselves. Ameen.

Wassalamu Alaikum.

SubhanAllah, what a inventive great project! May Allah reward those who initiated it and those who continue through with it……

I remember learning ASL back in elementary; I still remember most of the alphabet. We had to converse with deaf children our age and we loved it.

Though, I’m still somewhat surprised of the braille qurans for the blind; the difficultly level in learning to read them? Mashallah, that was awesome the first time I actually saw them.