Qur’an: Surah Al-Fatiha in British Sign Language

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Presenting a brand new video from SignLabs.org: a translation of the first surah of the Qur'an into British Sign Language:

Please rate, share & comment!

No Qur'an recitation was added to the soundtrack, as the video was primarily intended for a Deaf audience. A thought: how grateful are we, the hearing, for the ability to listen to the words of Allāh? One more reason to recite “Alhamdulillahi rabbil 'alameen” with increased sincerity.

About author

iMuslim

Mehzabeen (iMuslim) is a UK born n' bred sister of Gujarati Indian descent. She has spent a good chunk of her life trying to scrape together a formal education in the Biological Sciences, and in 2008, was awarded a doctorate for research conducted at Imperial College London, masha'Allah. Her interests include all things Apple Mac, all things chocolate-based, and all things Islam (not necessarily in that particular order). Other online projects include iMuslim.tv, SignLabs.org, and the Muslim Bloggers Directory.

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  • http://muslimmatters.org/author/amatullah Amatullah

    MashaAllah, great work by signlabs! I love how the video is ‘silent’.

    Alhamdulillah in all situations. It is easy to forget that these faculties are not our right but rather blessings from Allah..We’re so used to hearing, seeing, walking that we can’t imagine those who live without these abilities. May Allah make us among His grateful servants.

  • emirzad

    assalamualaikum, subahan Allaah. brilliant!
    ameen to above duas

  • Umm Maryam

    Mashaallah.Subahanallah.

  • http://sal.am Mehedi Islam

    Masha’Allah, amazing!

  • http://monkeynursemd.wordpress.com monkeynursemd

    mashallah. simply amazing! it’s almost as if we can feel the words.

  • Ahmed

    I’m learning American Sign Language (ASL)…looking forward to seeing work done in ASL too!

    • http://muslimmatters.org/author/imuslim/ iMuslim

      Masha’Allah, I hope your studies are going well. If you haven’t already, hook up with the guys at Global Deaf Muslim. They are US-based, and may be able to help you practise your new skills, insha’Allah. :)

  • Pingback: halal central, krav, sign-language « monkeynurseMD => sum of me

  • umA

    The cool thing about quranic translation into sign language is that (I’m guessing )you don’t have antiquated words like wrath, so it’s probably more accessible to a BSL audience of all ages, compared to our English translations.

    • http://muslimmatters.org/author/imuslim/ iMuslim

      BSL is definitely simpler than English, but for the same reason it can sometimes prove difficult to translate the full meaning of an ayah with a limited vocabulary.

      The brothers who worked on this video (Owais & Khalid) have been trained to BSL Level 4, masha’Allah. Very few people (even fewer Muslims) are that proficient in sign language. My work with them has revealed a lot about the translation process.

  • http://twitter.com/livinghalal LivingHalal

    A great reminder for the blessing of hearing.

  • muhajjirah

    asalaam alaikum warahmat ALLAH wabarakatu,

    my daughter is profoundly deaf using an oral deaf approach- no sign, she has a cochlear implant and is bilingual in english & arabic wa’alhmadulilah. seeing this video humbles me
    and makes me grateful for what she has, and it makes me also appreciate the blessings of language with or without sound which is nothing short of endless miracles from As-Sami’..Allah, the All-Hearing.
    jazakAllah kheir for posting.
    asalaam alaikum,

    muhajjirah

  • Anonymous

    My future sister-in-law is hearing impaired. So, I need to learn this.

  • Stranger

    Mashallah, this is wonderful. May Allah increase their work and good for our brothers and sisters.

    One question: How much different is BSL from ASL?

    • http://muslimmatters.org/author/imuslim/ iMuslim

      Quite different… though they share some common signs.

  • a sister

    MashaAllah! Ameen to the duas above. May Allah put barakah in their work.

  • Gohar

    This is probably amongst the best islamic work anyone is doing anywhere in the world.

    How are sign labs getting the “sign” out. It would be good to see some reactions from some of our deaf brothers and sisters to this.

    • http://muslimmatters.org/author/imuslim/ iMuslim

      Owais Murad, the Deaf brother signing in the video, is one of the head peeps of Muslim Deaf UK. Himself, and a few other brothers, tour the UK on a regular basis, giving Islamic talks in BSL. I passed the video URL onto him, so he could then forward it to the MDUK mailing list, insha’Allah.

  • Ayse-Naima

    Assalaamu Alaikum,

    I am searching for a video or database with info on Islamic signing. We have a toddler that has Down Syndrome and we use ASL for her. I am looking for signs such as Assalaamu Alaikum, Jazak-Allahu Khayran, Islam…things of that nature. Can you make a video of these types of phrases or refer me to a place where I can find them? I realize that BSL has a larger database for Islamic signing, so I’d be just as happy to use BSL for this.

    Jazak Allahu Khayran.

    • http://muslimmatters.org/author/imuslim/ iMuslim

      Wa ‘alaykum salam wa rahmatullah sis

      We will be making such videos in the near future insha’Allah. Please sign up to the various mailing lists/groups we have listed on the SignLabs website to keep informed of when they are released, insha’Allah.

      If you want something in ASL, I will be happy to discuss making such a video with the brothers at Global Deaf Muslim. They are already producing a mirror of our Al-Fatiha video in ASL. So I don’t think it will be a problem, insha’Allah. :)

  • http://www.al-sunna.net Islamic Lectures

    Assalamu alaikum,

    Nice blog, the content in this blog is very useful to the people who are looking out for islamic knowledge.

  • http://muslimsbritishsignslanguage nurulhassan

    hi assalamuaikum. please you can help to me. i ve body deaf only. now i went like learn qu’ran signs language. please you help to me come london stay?? our take care prayer. by nurulhassan