Before I get started, Hammad, can you come here? Hammad, can you... somebody tap him and just tell him to come here right quick for me. I don't think he heard me. Not you, don't worry. You're good. Can you just tap the brother, tell the brother that it just took Shahad. No, I don't think he's... Alright. So, Alhamdulillah, we're on hadith, just while we're waiting, we're on hadith number 35 now or 36? Does anyone know? I'm testing you guys, obviously. 35? Maybe? 36? We'll figure it out after class. So before we started, Alhamdulillah, we had a brother that accepted Islam, that's new to our community. So, brother Hammad, I want to once again congratulate you on joining our community and accepting Islam. So he just took a Shahadah. So in that little camera right over there, you've got about 30,000 people watching you right now. So if you just say, Salamualaikum, and I'm your new brother. Jazakallah khair. Thank you, that's all. I just wanted to welcome him on camera. So all of you that didn't get to witness the Shahadah, welcome our brother virtually, inshallah. You can go back to what you were doing, inshallah, but give me a hug before you go. Assalamualaikum, thank you. Thank you for joining our community. Thank you for blessing our masjid to be the place where you took Shahadah. So Alhamdulillah, we're very happy to have him. Alright, now I can start my halaqa. I just wanted to make sure we gave him as much love as possible, inshallah, from both our community here as well as our community that tunes in on a weekly basis. Alright, Alhamdulillah, wa salatu wa salam wa rasool Allah wa al'alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. So we're in the last five, I know that much. I don't know if we're 35 or 36, and some of you should be able to tell me that, but we're in the last five, I know that much.
And we're getting into a discussion that's particularly very near and dear to my heart, the topic of special needs. Now, if you've heard me discuss special needs, and we've had many halaqas about special needs, we've addressed it from many different aspects. We've talked about the reward of taking care of those with special needs. But special needs, or people with both mental illness or physical disability or special needs, whatever it may be, how does this play into the role of society? What is society's duty towards people in this regard? And there's really a beautiful hadith that I just found overwhelmingly beautiful today, but before I get to it, how does this factor into a discussion on social justice? Or how does this factor into a discussion of the duties of society, the obligations of society, towards each and every single one of its members? Well, if you're looking at pre-Islamic Arabia, the Jahili Arabs, one of the things that they used to do is they associated curses and bad omens with people with special needs. So you might notice in some of the hadiths of the Prophet, some of his traditions, his insisting on eating and drinking with people that had special needs. Why? Because they were looked at as a burden on society, and they were looked at as having some sort of curse associated with them, so people would shy away from sitting with them. They wouldn't be invited to meals, and there was this idea that you had to stay far away, because if you invited them or if you were around them, then you might contract some sort of curse that's been bestowed upon them. This wasn't something that was specifically to the 7th century Arabs. In fact, if you read in the philosophy of Plato, I mentioned Aristotle last week when we talked about women.
What Plato said about those with special needs is that they are a malicious category constituting a burden on society and a damaging factor to a republic. Meaning, basically, philosophers and many societies spoke of people with special needs as a category that was purely a burden and that needed to be treated as a burden, and that if a society wanted to be successful, then they had to find a way to dispose of this category in the most efficient way. I have many different quotes from different philosophers, which I'm not going to go through now. We'll put them in the notes, inshallah ta'ala. If you're going to the website, there are notes that are posted every week under the halaqa, yaqeenistu.org. So I'll put the notes of some of the quotes from different philosophers and how they conceived of people with special needs as being a particular burden on society. And again, particularly in Jahili, in the time of Jahiliyyah, in the time of the days of ignorance in Arabia. This helps you further appreciate the story of a man like Julaibib, may Allah be pleased with him, who was a companion of the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, who was particularly ostracized. His name, Julaibib, means the one who is deformed. And he was so bullied and ostracized that the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, frequently called him to the table, called him his family. We spoke about Julaibib when we talked about racism, right? Because Julaibib was also black. Julaibib didn't have a tribe. Julaibib was deformed. Julaibib had all sorts of things going against him as far as societal injustice. And the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, counted him from his family. He said, Allahumma hadha minni wa anna minhu. Oh Allah, this one is from me and I am from him.
So it helps you appreciate that in a society that would distance people with special needs on the basis that there was some sort of curse associated with them. The Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, saying he is from me and I am from him, has a particular element of beauty to it for that reason. So it gives you more appreciation when you're reading about a companion that might have been in this situation because of all the stigmas associated with people with special needs. This is not just 7th century Arabia. This exists in many cultures today. That there is some sort of weird notion that if a family has someone with special needs, it's because of some sort of curse that's been invoked upon them. And that if you name your child after a child that you know with special needs, certain things are going to happen to you. These are actually common things to hear, sometimes from pretty educated people, which makes it particularly disturbing. So certain cultures also assign stigmas to people with special needs. Now, I don't want to focus on what other philosophers have spoken about it. I want to try to address it from a seerah perspective, from the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, how the Prophet, peace be upon him, taught us to, as a society, treat people with special needs. And how this factors into the discussion of social welfare. This hadith melted my heart, to be honest with you. It's such a beautiful hadith because you can see it playing out in front of you. It's a hadith that's narrated in Sahih Muslim. And it's narrated by Anas, radhiallahu ta'ala anhu. He says, anna amra'atan kana fee aqliha shayt. That there was a woman that had some sort of issue with her brain. So she had some sort of mental issue, some sort of mental illness or mental disability. So she said to the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, Ya Rasool Allah, she basically shouted at the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, Ya Rasool Allah, inna li ilayka haja.
I have a need for you. I have something that I want you to do for me. Listen to how the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, responded to her. And I'm going to say it really slow, inshallah, because the Arabic gets a little tricky for those that write down the notes. He said, Ya ummah fulan, O mother of so and so. So he dignified her. He said to her, unzuri, aya shakaki shi'ti. Look to any direction that you need to walk in. Basically, tell me whatever direction you're going to walk in, or whatever it is that you're about to do. The Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, said, hatta aqdi alaki hajataki. He said, salallahu alaihi wasalam, walk in any direction that you want to. Choose any path that you need to go to, so that I can walk with you until I fulfill whatever need it is that you have. Like, he completely opens himself up to her. He doesn't dismiss her. He doesn't say about her that, you know, oh, someone take care of this woman. She doesn't know what she's talking about. The Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, stops everything that he's doing and says, listen to her. O mother of so and so, just tell me whatever it is that you're going to do. Choose any one of the paths, aya shakaki, any one of the paths, any one of the directions that you're going to go in. I'm going to walk with you. I'm going to go with you until we figure out whatever it is that you need to be figured out. And so the Prophet, so ana sadi allahu ta'ala anhu, he says that, fa khala ma'aha fee ba'da turuqi, that he walked with her in some routes and some directions, meaning this woman wasn't even, you know, she didn't even really have a singular direction. She was kind of just walking around, which kind of speaks to where she was, what her mental state was. And the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, walked with her throughout all those different routes, throughout all those different paths.
Faragat min haajatiha until her need was met, until whatever it is that she was asking the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, was met. It's a beautiful sight. I want you to think about yourself in Medina. A woman who others would probably ostracize, maybe not even so coherent, says to the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, I need something from you. And the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, stops everything, says, whatever it is that you need, tell me where you're going to go, I'm going to walk with you, I'll do whatever it is that you need. And she just starts taking him around different roads in Medina until the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, sees that her needs are met. So there are many things we take from this beyond justice. And as is the case with many of the ethics and values that we find in Islam, justice is the minimum, but mercy is the standard. And so the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, demonstrates compassion as a human being. He demonstrates love, he demonstrates humility as a leader as well. Because remember, he's not just the layperson in the masjid, he demonstrates humility as a leader. And as a leader, if you plan to be a leader, you need to care for each and every single one of your flock. So the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, understands that his responsibility as a shepherd, this is a lesson in leadership, is not just to those that can offer some sort of benefit as followers, but it's to each and every single member of his flock. So the ruler is obligated, the leader is obligated to care for people with special needs, people that are, whether it's social, economical, psychological, physical, whatever it may be, and to grant their requests, no matter how preoccupied they may be. Now, there is a lesson in this from the Quran as well. Very famous story, Abdullah ibn Umm Maktoum. The Prophet, peace be upon him, is trying his best to reach the leaders, the elites of Quraysh,
to just give them a chance and hear him out on his message. And he's been trying and trying and trying and trying, and they say, listen, we'll talk to you, but you can't have any of these slaves around, you can't have anyone with, and again, any of these people that belong to the lowest class, whatever it is. The Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, is talking to them, and you might remember when we talked about that category, the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, refused to turn away from the lower people, lower in quotation marks, but those who were deemed lower in society, he refused to stay away from them, and Allah commanded the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, to be patient and persevere in the company of those blessed people. But in this situation, the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, finally has the ears of the elites of Quraysh, and here comes Abdullah ibn Umm Maktoum, a blind man, a very poor blind man, who has no place in society, not by class, who has a disability, who belongs to exactly the category of people that these people didn't want to be associated with. And he runs up to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and in the middle of the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, speaking to these elites in Quraysh, he says, عَلَمْنِ مِمَّا عَلَمَكَ اللَّهِ Teach me from what Allah taught you, teach me from what Allah taught you, starts interrupting and asking questions, because he doesn't perceive what this gathering looks like and what's happening here, and who's present. He has no clue what's going on here. And the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, عَبَسَ he frowned, not any type of frown, he didn't huff, puff, tell him to go away. The Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, عَبُسَ is when you move your eyebrows close to each other. So it's like, that's it. And the man can't see him anyway. So it's not like Abdullah ibn Umm Maktoum saw the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, frown, but the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, moved his eyebrows closer to each other,
meaning a very slight frown, and he continued to talk to those elites of Quraysh. So Allah revealed, عَبَسَ وَ تَوَلَّى أَن جَاءَهُ الْأَعْمَىٰ He frowned and he turned away when the blind man came to him. وَمَا يُدْرِيكَ لَعَلَّهُ يَزَّكَّ أو يَذَّكَّرُ فَتَنْفَعْهُ الذِّكْرَةَ How do you know that it may be that he is coming to you to be spiritually enriched, or to be reminded, and the reminder would surely benefit him. Now, the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, again, if you're watching this incident take place, you really don't think he did anything wrong. It's not a big deal. It's really not a big deal. He frowned at a blind man, and you didn't tell him to be quiet, you didn't push him to the side. You simply continued to do da'wah, to propagate, or to speak to those who, prior to that incident, are not giving you their ear. But Allah held the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, to a higher standard. That that's not befitting to a man of your mercy and a man of your belief. Not befitting to the one who is rahmatan lil'alamin, a mercy to all the world. And you know, the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, after that incident, every time he would see Abdullah ibn Um Maktoom, he would greet him and say, welcome to the one for whom my Lord rebuked me. Welcome to the one for whom my Lord rebuked me. Subhanallah, like it was on your behalf that Allah admonished me, that God admonished me. And the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, did not just take care of him by, you know, treating him better. The Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, appointed him as a mu'adhin, as a caller to the prayer, when they made the hijrah to Medina, when they finally migrated to Medina. And the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, placed him in leadership capacity.
So he actually placed all of Medina under his authority when he left Medina, alayhi salatu wasalam. So he gave Abdullah ibn Um Maktoom a status as well in society. So the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, you know, did not, you know, he made it a point to not just get over that situation, but to treat him in a way that he would never feel excluded again. Alright? So the first lesson you get from that is what? Do not discount his spirituality or his access. Because Allah mentioned both of those things. Do not discount his spirituality or his access. There is this idea, well, what's the benefit if a person like Abdullah ibn Um Maktoom is spiritually enriched? What's it going to do? What's it going to do for the community? Well, we don't work for worldly benefit. We work for the benefit of the hereafter, for the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So, wa ma yudreeka la'allahu yazzaka, it may be that he was going to be spiritually elevated through that interaction with you. Meaning his taskiya is important. Even if it doesn't appear to be that that person can grant any tangible benefit to the community, depending on the severity of the disability, that doesn't discount his need to be spiritually purified as well. And if he needs to be spiritually purified as well, then acts of worship need to be accessible to him as well. So as much as there can be access granted to people of that sort, then the better. Subhanallah, the most, I mean, I can't tell you, this past December with Muhsin, and obviously with Muhsin, Muslims Understanding and Helping with Special Education Needs, you might see the sticker on the door, Muhsin Certified, we're a Muhsin Certified Masjid. But we've got ways to go, we still have to do more insha'Allah ta'ala. We've got to hit the ultimate standard, bi'idhnillah ta'ala, by the permission of Allah.
We've got to hit the ultimate standard. Some mosques have. But one of the most meaningful things to me was seeing our special needs at Umrah. So we actually had the first special needs at Umrah in December. We had families with those with special needs bring their kids, bring their loved ones to Umrah, to the house of Allah in Mecca. Can you imagine you're looking at an elderly couple that's deaf, and this is their first time. They're an elderly couple, their first time seeing the Ka'bah, their first time having someone guide them around, take them around the Masjid of the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, in Medina, take them around Mecca. And I can tell you what it's like to look in the eyes of a child with autism, and that child with a severe level of autism staring at the Ka'bah. And you can just tell what's happening to them in those moments. The beauty, the impact of that moment, the power of that moment. We're not the ones to judge who should have, who deserves a spiritual high, or who deserves spiritual nourishment. I shouldn't even say a spiritual high. Spiritual nourishment, who deserves access? Everyone does. It's the house of Allah. The Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, said, Al-Masjid Baytul Kulli Mu'min, the mosque is the house of every believer. Well, that includes Allah's special servants as well. So, that includes Baytullah al-Haram, that includes Mecca, the sacred house. So, SubhanAllah, there's something special about seeing someone with special needs, enjoying that access, enjoying those moments. And so we have to do better, regardless of what the special need is, to provide, to not discount anyone's spirituality, nor to deny them access. Now, contrast that incident with Abdullah ibn Maktoum, and the way the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, taught him, by the way, or catered to him after that incident, with a very beautiful narration about Itban ibn Malik, radiAllahu ta'ala anhu.
Itban ibn Malik was also a man who was blind from the Ansar. It's very clear that blindness was very common in those days. So, he was a blind man from the Ansar, from the people of Medina. He said to the Prophet, peace be upon him, Oh, how I wish that you, O Messenger of Allah, would come and perform Salat in my house, so that I could take it as a place of prayer. He just expressed this desire to the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, I wish you'd come to my house and pray, so that I could take it as a place of prayer. Does the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, really have time to honor every community member's request to go to their home and pray? The Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he brought Abu Bakr, and he came the next day, early in the morning. So, after Salat al-Fajr, the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, made his way to Itban ibn Malik's house, and he asked permission to enter, and without sitting, he immediately entered, and he said, In which part of the house would you like me to pray? Tell me what part of the house you want me to pray in. So, Itban ibn Malik said, I pointed to a particular part of the house. So, the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, stood and started praying, and we in turn stood, and he lined us in a row, and he performed a two-raka'ah prayer, ending with taslim. So, the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, honors this man's request, who feels like he can't, I mean, he obviously can't leave his home because of his situation, his circumstances, and he wants to feel that he's praying where the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, prays, and he's praying in the masjid of the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, and the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, says, he immediately responds to his request to go to his house, says, Where do you want me to pray? He doesn't do a drive-by salah, or touch the house and say, It's blessed now. Actually, he shows attention and love and care and attention to detail, Where do you want me to stand and pray? He lines them up, he prays with them,
Alaihi Salatu Wasalam, and he blesses that home. So, do not discount the spirituality or the access of any individual. The next message to those with special needs is, you are privileged because God loves you in a special way. Allah loves you in a special way. And this is established through many different ahadith. You know, the hadith of the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, where the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, said that Allah has said, If I afflict my servant, okay, Bi Habibatayhi, with his two beloved ones, meaning his eyes, his two dear eyes, and he remains patient, the person suffers from the affliction, again, blindness is very common at that time, and he remains patient, I will compensate him for those two eyes with Jannah, with Paradise. There is also the hadith of the woman who had epilepsy, and he told the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, that sometimes I have seizures, and when I have seizures, I am exposed. So, when I fall, wherever my dress falls, whatever it is that shows, something shows that I don't want to show when I have a seizure. Alright? Atakashaf. What the extent of that exposure is, Allah knows best. But, somehow I am exposed. And this Abyssinian woman who says this to the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, says to her, that if you wish, I will make dua to Allah, I will invoke Allah, and He will cure you, or if you wish, be patient, Salakil Jannah, and you are guaranteed Paradise. You know what she said? She said to the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, I want Paradise, but if you could just invoke Allah, that if it happens to me, I am not uncovered. Nothing shows from me. Subhanallah, look at the piety of this woman.
The Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he made dua for her, he invoked Allah for her. So, you are privileged because you are loved in a special way by Allah, Subhanallah. You are an asset to the community. Not to make people feel like a liability. You are not a liability. Sa'd Ibn Abi Waqas, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, this is one of the things that is mentioned, he narrates the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, said, Hal turzakuna wa tunsaruna illa bi du'afaikum. And there is actually, let me give the full context. Sa'd Ibn Abi Waqas felt he was more entitled to the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, than others, because he is so close and near to the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, and the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, said, guuni bi du'afa, find me amongst, if you want to find me, find me amongst the weak. Because you are not given victory or aid from Allah, except by the way that you treat those who are downtrodden and oppressed. You want the help of Allah, look at the way that you treat the weakest of your society, and those who are most oppressed in your society, or most neglected and abandoned in your society. And they are an asset to the Ummah, because the way we treat people who have special needs, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will treat all of us for our spiritual special needs. And it results in goodness coming to the community as a whole. There are interesting hadith here. So there is one hadith, the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, said, May Allah curse a person who misleads a blind person away from his path. It seems like a very simple sentence, hadith in Adab al-Mufrad, authentic hadith. May Allah curse the one who misguides a person, or misleads a blind person away from his path. And that's speaking to the individual, but it also speaks to the nation as well, to a community. That a community is cursed by its disregard of those with disabilities.
A community is abandoned by its disregard for those who are abandoned. So it speaks to the community. So, number one, you're privileged. Number two, you are loved by Allah in a special way. Your spiritual access, your spiritual purification is just as important as everyone else. You are competent. You are competent. This is a very important one here. A lot of times we assume that if a person has a particular disability, that they are fully disabled, and that they are completely irrelevant. That's one of the reasons why this is so, that disregard is justified in our minds. If a person has one issue, then you assume, you make assumptions about everything else about them. SubhanAllah, it's amazing that if you actually sit with someone, even who has a disability that's mental in its nature sometimes, and you recognize how special they truly are, how much they're comprehending. In fact, they might also have a special form of comprehension. Just as they have a special form of disability, they might have a special form of comprehension. Or if a person is blind, that doesn't make them worthless in society. If a person is deaf, that doesn't make them worthless in society. You assume all of these different things. This is interesting because I was reading some writing from Muhammad Ali, may Allah have mercy on him. One of the things Muhammad Ali said, he said that people, because he had Parkinson's and it was very advanced and he lived a long time with it, that at the end of his life he actually wrote, he said, people assume that my mind is also deteriorated, but it's not. I understand fully and I comprehend fully. He wrote this. I fully comprehend everything that's happening around me. I fully understand, but people speak, we're speaking to him in a very slow way, making assumptions about what his cognitive function was. He's like, the Parkinson's didn't affect my brain,
but people don't understand that because it affected his speech and it affected his body movements. But when you saw him elderly and moving in that way, he's still that same sharp man that he was when he was boasting to the cameras and when he was challenging the U.S. government on its war policy. He's still the same man. He's like, people make assumptions about me. That's the problem. And this is something that the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, made it a point to, you know, or pointed out and showed through direct action, that if a person was disabled in one way, that does not make them disabled. They still have something to offer. They are still competent. And sometimes you need to actually, you know, a person might actually beat themselves up to a point where they start to internalize how the community disregards them and start to find themselves as being irrelevant to a community. It's really interesting because, you know, Abu Hurair, radiallahu ta'ala anhu, he narrates this, and there's another narration that mentions Abdullah ibn al-Maktoum, that a blind man said to the Prophet, peace be upon him, you know, Ya Rasulullah, do I have a concession? Do I need to pray in the mosque? Do I need to pray in the masjid? Do I have a concession to not pray in the masjid? And in the hadith of Utban ibn Malik, the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, went to his house and prayed and blessed his home, if you will, gave him a place to pray, alright, in that sense. But in this situation, could be that the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, understood something from the nature of that question. So the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, gave him the concession, meaning the ruling is established, alright, he gave him the concession. Then the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, said to him, هل تسمع النداء بالصلاة? Do you hear the call to prayer? So the man said, yes. The Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, gently said, فأجب. So you should try to respond. You should respond to the call to prayer. And there are many different things we could take from that,
but, you know, look, you're still a member, a full participant in the community, and you'll be rewarded for that extra struggle. So the concession is there, but if you can, answer the call to prayer. And again, Abdullah ibn al-Maktoum was not just answering the call to prayer, the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, appointed him to call the prayer, alright, to everyone else. The next one is that you are not disadvantaged or ineligible for the same rewards as everyone else. So you are not disadvantaged or ineligible. Zayd ibn Thabit, radiyallahu anhu, narrates that when the verse was revealed about al-Qa'idun, those who stayed behind in battle, and, you know, that made excuses to stay behind as the battles raged, the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, when that happened, guess who came forth? Abdullah ibn al-Maktoum, he came forward, and he said to the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, Oh, Messenger of Allah, if I was capable, I certainly would have. I would have gone forward, but I'm not capable. And this is where the ayah, this is ayah number 95, by the way, of Surah an-Nisa, Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, mentioned, except for those who have a disability. So they are not punished, they are not amongst those that are, you know, they are not ineligible for the reward, in fact, they are fully rewarded, and despite Abdullah ibn al-Maktoum being specifically exempted here, because the verse came down for him, subhanallah, how much Quran came down for this man, right? Abasa came down for him, that managed the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, and then Allah revealed a verse to excuse him, and people that were like him in that condition. He couldn't stop himself from participating in battle, so he actually went forth in battle, and he was martyred, actually, in battle. So he insisted, even though Allah specifically exempted him, he insisted,
and subhanallah, the way he was found, very powerful, he was actually found on the battlefield grasping the banner. So he was holding the banner, and he was found grasping the banner when he was in the battlefield. May Allah be pleased with him, and unite us with him. Subhanallah, what a human being, what an individual, you know, in the sight of God. There is also a man by the name of Amr ibn al-Jumuh, radiallahu ta'ala anhu. Also, he wanted to, you know, he had an issue with his leg, he had difficulty walking. He wanted to come out in battle when the Muslims, you know, this is Uhud in particular, they're trying to massacre the Muslims, so he wants to come fight alongside the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam. And his sons tell him, you don't have to, stay behind. And he makes his way to the battlefield barely walking, and he says that I want to step into paradise with this crippled leg of mine. I want to step into paradise with this crippled leg of mine. The Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, said to him, Allah has excused you, you're not obligated, you don't need to engage in battle, Allah has excused you. And he said, you know, he started to say, do not hold him back, perhaps Allah will grant him, you know, shahada. He goes forward, and he passes, you know, he's also killed in the battle of Uhud. And you know what the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, said? He saw his body and the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, cried, and he said, it's as if I can see you, ya Amr, it's as if I can see you walking with that leg of yours and hearing it in Jannah. I can see it happening. Subhanallah. This is a very difficult thing for a lot of people, and sometimes we're not very considerate of it. But a person who gets to an age and for whatever reason they're not able to fast anymore, Allah will give them the full reward of that. They shouldn't be made to feel guilty. People should not be made to feel like they're missing out on rewards.
And it's important to reassure people that you have the full reward. Allah has excused you, so you are not disadvantaged, you're not ineligible. Allah knows what you would have done had you been fully healthy. And that's why we don't burden, we don't burden people. So if a person has difficulty, a serious difficulty, praying when they're standing up, and this is, by the way, how a hadith in its literal sense can be, well I don't want to say misleading, can be misread. Okay? Because no hadiths are misleading. Misread. The Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, said, whoever amongst you can pray standing up should do so. And if you can't pray standing up, then you pray sitting down, and if you can't pray sitting down, you pray laying down. In another narration, the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, said that praying sitting down is half of the reward of praying standing up, and then praying laying down is half of the reward of praying sitting down. But there's a very important difference between the two hadiths. In the first hadith, the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam, is talking about a person who is incapable of praying standing up. So when the person who physically cannot pray standing up prays sitting down, there is no decrease in their reward whatsoever. And when a person who prays laying down, they can't pray sitting up, there is no decrease in their reward whatsoever. You know, one of the most touching things that I saw somehow is a brother who was paralyzed from nose down. He lived about nine or ten days, and I remember visiting him in the hospital. He was conscious, and all he could do was move his eyes. It was the first time I actually instructed someone on how to pray with their eyes. And he assured me that he was praying with his eyes. And subhanallah, you know, there was this thing to communicate with him using his eyes. He was actually conscious of the time he was trying to pray his five prayers with his eyes in his last week or so of life.
That hadith means that a person who prays in those situations, they could even be more rewarded than the person standing. I mean, to me, Allah knows best, but we have a Lord, a Sustainer that is very merciful and compassionate. I can only imagine how Allah saw his servant in those moments. Even making that attempt to make sure that they're doing their five prayers with their eyes. So what's the other hadith mean? The other hadith is referring to the nawafil, the voluntary prayers. That a person who's fully healthy, if you pray your qiyam al-lah, you pray your tahajjud, your night prayers, and you sit down, then it's half the reward. So it's not that it's not a person who cannot pray standing up, but it's talking about a person who chooses to sit down in regards to a voluntary prayer. So we should never guilt someone or make someone feel like they're disadvantaged or that they are a burden of any sort. SubhanAllah, we already mentioned they're an asset to our community. Because the way you treat them, Allah treats you. Or that they're being left behind in any way, spiritually or emotionally. There's some fiqhi things I'll mention here. Fiqhi meaning issues and jurisprudence. Allah has absolved, for example, those who are blind from the duties that necessitate eyesight. So these are simple rules that we have, principles we have in fiqh and Islamic jurisprudence. Allah has excused the sick from the duties that are difficult for them when they are sick, such as fasting. Allah has excused every person with specific conditions from obligations or from actions that would perpetuate that illness or that condition. That's the way that we find the asad, the way we find the default in our fiqh, in our Islamic jurisprudence.
And that's why the Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he made it very clear that a person who is mentally incapable of fulfilling the obligations, the pen is lifted from them, meaning the pen does not write any sins for them. Does not write any neglect on their part. If they are not in the capacity to be able to mentally grasp their obligations, the obligations are not written on them. And that can give a lot of comfort to many people that are caretakers for those that might be in that situation as well. The scholars mention that not only has Allah absolved them, but Allah has absolved the caretakers as well. So for example, in hajj, it's not just those that have disabilities that can leave muzdalifah early, but those who are taking care of them can leave muzdalifah early as well. Those who need to stay home while they're sick, those who must miss jum'ah because of some sort of disability, those who need to take care of them are also absolved from their obligations and their duties in that situation. And that also means that the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did not just extend that to his own community. A really interesting hadith that there was one of the hypocrites who was blind, and the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was walking on his way to Uhud. So they're proceeding to battle, they're very tense, because again, Uhud is, you know, the people have come from Mecca to Medina to massacre the Muslims. People are very tense, they're on their nerves, they've already had some people turn away, and this man who's blind picks up some dirt and throws it at the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And he said, if I was certain that none but you would be affected by it, I'd throw it at you. So meaning, I would keep throwing dirt on you and trying to hit you, if I knew how to aim and make sure that I hit you properly.
Some of the companions wanted to punish this man. They're like, how could this person, you know, he's a hypocrite, what's he doing? The Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, leave him alone. Simply proceeded. Why hurt the man in this situation? So that courtesy is not just extended to your own, but it's also extended to those people that are also harming you as well. You need to be more kind and more forgiving and courteous with those that even might be harming you. A few other notes, you know, there's a narration in Al-Bayhaqi from Al-Hassan ibn Muhammad. He said, I entered upon Abi Zayd Al-Ansari, and he called out the Adhan and the Iqama while he was sitting. We walked in the masjid, he called out the Adhan and the Iqama while he was sitting. And he said, a man advanced and led us in prayer, and that man was lame whose leg was hit in the cause of Allah. So just kind of giving you the idea of what the community looks like at that time. From a history perspective, and this is what I'll end on, three different notes. Number one, the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam eliminated attitudes towards people on the basis of race, on the basis, as we mentioned last week, of gender, on the basis of a special need. He eliminated negative attitudes towards those people to where certain people could really benefit. They could rise in the ranks, and those things that previously would have been limiting might have even been an embellishment. So Ata was the first Mufti of Mecca, Ata ibn Abi Rabah. He was blind, he was paralyzed, waist down. He was black, so the racism did not stop that from the man rising in ranks. And he's the first Mufti of Mecca, special needs, and he was black. So it's the change of attitude to some of the things that would have been limiting in the past.
What did this lead to in terms of care, special care? How did the earliest generations of Muslims internalize some of these narrations about the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam? Umar ibn Abdul Aziz, rahimahullah, he instructed his governors when he became the Khalifa, when he became the Caliph, he instructed his governors from each province to send him the names of those who were blind, of those who were crippled, and of those who were too chronically ill to pray in congregation. And then he ordered, when he got the names, he's the Caliph, when he's the Khalifa, he sent an order to assign an assistant to each one of those people to look after them. And then he also assigned that every two people be attended by a servant. So an assistant as well as a servant to just make sure that they were taken care of. And this is narrated by Ibn al-Jawzi, rahimahullah, al-Walid ibn Abdul Malik is the first person that we see. So this is very early on, we're talking about only within a century of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's passing. He established care centers for people with special needs. He fixed stipends for particular doctors and caretakers to take care of them. And he allocated a special allowance for people with special needs and sent assistants to those who had any form of disability or any type of affliction that would prevent them from coming to the congregation. So the services, the idea of actually translating this into services on the part of states, very early on permeated Islamic culture in the social and political realm. And this was revolutionary for 7th century Arabia just in regards to how people with disabilities and special needs are viewed within a community, what perception you might have within them.
And finally, when a person is ill, they are attended by the angels. The Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned that when you go to visit someone who is ill, you are accompanied by 70,000 angels. And when you return, they stay with you all the way until you attend to that person. Even when you leave, they are still with you, 70,000 angels accompany a person. A person who is ill is always surrounded by the angels, by the mala'ika. So if you want to bring angels into your house or appreciate the mala'ika in your house, if you want to have angels in your community, if you want to have angels in your presence, then this is what you do. This is what you dedicate yourself to. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala place us at the service of those who give us a service, who we are more in need of than anyone else. And I want to recommend to everyone, muhsen.org, m-u-h-s-e-n.org. Inshallah we actually have our banquet, if any of you are in the D.C. area, we'll be having our banquet for Muhsen this coming weekend, inshallah, this coming Saturday. And you can find more information on that. I hope you'll donate to it and I hope inshallah you'll help sister Ziba and brother Waleed and whoever else is working on Muhsen, getting our masjid to the best situation in regards to our Muhsen certification. Jazakumullah khair on questions.