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Do Disabled Muslims Have Rights?

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Several mosques are refusing to comply with a law which means that all ‘public buildings’ should be accessible to people with disabilities. They claim that there Islam does not oblige them to provide for people with disabilities. Do disabled Muslims have a right to go to mosque, and if so, what is the evidence for this right?

Answer:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Wa `alaykum as-Salam,

It is not true here that “Islam does not oblige Muslims to provide for people with disabilities.” The Shari’a makes it obligatory for Muslims to observe the law of the land when it does not contradict the letter or the spirit of our purified Law. In this case, the law of the land is also humane and affordable. If you violate the law of the land in such a case then the Shari’a will be the first authority to teach you not to break the law and give you a lesson you will not forget.

Granted, nowhere do the Qur’an and Sunna say, “You must build access facilities for the disabled in mosques.” However, in more general terms Allah Most High commanded us to spend for His sake of what He gave us and the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace, told us to “Make things easy, not difficult” and “Proceed at the pace of the weakest among you.” For endowed mosques, especially Jumu’a mosques, to provide for people with disabilities is like a direct application of those Divine and Prophetic injunctions. So now the non-Muslims are reminding us through their practice but we fail to connect the dots because we are stuck at words and seek excuses for ourselves.

The Prophet also said, upon him blessings and peace, “Wisdom is the lost property of the Believer.” Our liege-lord `Ali, Allah be well-pleased with him, explained it this way: “Wisdom is the lost property of the Believer, so take wisdom wherever you find it, even from a disbeliever.” In this case the non-Muslims have come up with a law that shows wisdom and therefore is very much our lost property.

Furthermore, do we only follow obligations and leave everything else because there is no profit in it for us? Like penny-pinching merchants? Allah Most High is in no need of mercantile worshippers. More importantly, are we going to sully the Shari’a’s repute with Pharisaic excuses for laziness and avarice? Or are we going to be leaders in goodness and make the name of Allah and His Prophet shine like the sun?

Seek the good pleasure of Allah Most High by spending from His monies that are in your hands. Build those ramps and large restrooms and make the Houses of Allah accessible to the disabled just as they have done in Makka and Madina, and trust that Allah most High will reward you as if you had fulfilled an obligation.

Hajj Gibril

This answer was indexed from Qibla.com, which used to have a repository of Islamic Q&A answered by various scholars. The website is no longer in existence. It has now been transformed into a learning portal with paid Islamic course offering under the brand of Kiflayn.

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