 In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the Most Merciful. So today's discussion, we're going to hit some key things here, first is community, and how we live our lives within the community, all over the world since we've been traveling. The key feature we'd like to talk about is accessibility, accommodation, or technology. These three things are very, we're going to talk about a lot of our personal experiences, as well as what we've seen with our experiences with institutions here in America and other parts of the world. The last thing we'd like to discuss is obviously the religion and how the religion talks about disability. And so that's the key things we're going to talk about, and so now I'm going to bring it to brother Ahmad for his introduction. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah brother and sister. So my name again is Ahmed Al-Kubaisi. I'm going to introduce myself a little bit and talk a little bit about what happened to me, and how I become paraplegic. So I had my accident, it was in 2007, back in Iraq. So my accident was by American Sniper, unfortunately, and I'm a T for injury person, so that shot keep me paraplegic. And Alhamdulillah, now I'm very independent. I'm very mobile in the community and trying to do my best to continue healthy and positive. So in 2007 after my shot, I had a lot of challenges because my country was just getting out of war. So that was a huge issue for me and for my family, and I'll experience a new life for somebody on the wheelchairs, not like here in the US, like people very much aware and disability is something like not a new for us as Middle Eastern people, we can say. So there was a lot of challenges over there, especially medical issue, medical situations over there was not really settled for, you know, the doctors over there, they were not even aware of what's going on and how they can manage, you know, a person, you know, a paraplegic person. So I decided to leave my country in 2010. I moved to Jordan, I stayed there for a couple years, and then Alhamdulillah, I moved to the US in 2013. As my brother Muneer mentioned that I stayed at the hospital for 14 months right after I arrived to the US. And then, you know, I was receiving medical treatment because I had some medical situation, which is specifically as a bad source, which is really horrible things to live with. So Alhamdulillah, after that, I get out of the hospital. I, you know, had some challenges back and forth with health issue, and now I'm fine, Alhamdulillah, and gave things going on the community and trying my best to help others as well. So Brother Alhamdulillah, you introduce yourself a little bit. Perfect. Thank you, Brother Ahmad. So with my story, on October 26, 2006, as Brother Muneer said, I suffered a spinal cord injury. I was riding a motorcycle. And what had happened was that I can't tell you because I don't remember. I remember waking up from the floor and the paramedics came and everything from there was a big concern for me. What I've learned that I'm just like Ahmad, I broke my, if you know your anatomy out there, or if it does, we don't. Basically, from chest area level, I broke T4, I cracked, but I also cracked T4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. So with these four vertebrae shattered, it led me to be a paraplegic. So for those who know neuroscience, our central nervous system is basically disrupted, which is why we can't communicate with our lower extremities. So we don't feel temperature, we don't feel sensation, but sometimes we do have some sort of internal sensation, sometimes the both of us. We can explain that later if there's any questions, it's called autonomic dyslexia for those medical or who are out there. And so with me, I was fortunate not to be in the hospital for that long. I was just there for five months or less. It was essentially rehab where they teach you how to use, live your life in a wheelchair. Just to give you a little scenario, during my rehab, we have to learn how to do wheelies because with obstacles on the main road, like such as curbs, for example, on my way here, I took public transportation and then I went towards the back where I thought there was a ramp. But I could done the willy to go over the curb, but of course I'm not going to risk it because I don't want any injuries. So but these skills are very essential for me to adapt into this world. My mom was there and she was so concerned of my well-being that she grabbed a doctor saying, doctor, this is very inappropriate. My son can fall and break his neck, making him even worse. The doctor looked at her and smiled, ma'am, he needs to learn how to do this because out on the real world, there are obstacles that he may need to overcome and these are one of the skills that he needs to learn. And then other than that, when I got discharged, I was an athlete before then. I'm still an athlete now and I'm able to use different equipments for me to be participating in these sports such as wheelchair basketball, hand cycling, even archery and rock climbing. There's one of the few activities I've been doing. Beautiful, yeah, that's really interesting. So today we're going to share multiple things. So number one, which is the most important, I believe, is how to make the world more accessible, no matter where. So we're going to start with the brother Abdullah in the mosque, what we need done here for MCC because that's very important because we hear more often now. I love the community here, so I said that a lot. So we need things to be more organized for people with a wheelchair user. So brother Abdullah will tell you more about what we thought about we need to be done here and how we can make the masjid, inshallah, better for people with a wheelchair user. Excellent, so Hamdulillah, we have a lot of masjids here in California. So I'm not going to pinpoint anyone individually. So I'm just going to speak general about my experience at the masjid and what I've seen and learned. Hamdulillah, during Fridays, the Muslims are very populating the masjids and so during these times, parking spots are limited. More people are using the handicap spots, more people are leaving their shoes in the front and up the door and a lot of people are waiting in line to do the wudu. So these three factors are sometimes an issue for people with disabilities because everything we do takes a bit longer. And so my idea is that during Ramadan or during Friday prayers is that we make temporary handicap parking spots available for those who are in need because obviously our senior citizens have access to them, are people who lack vision, people who are obese, these people all have or even amputees. So any disabilities you can think of, anybody can use that handicap spot. And so with wheelchair users, of course it takes a little more time for us to get out of the car. And so if the parking spot is available closer to the masjid for us, it would be safe because the parking spot, as every parent knows, could be dangerous for anybody, including children. And so it's just being mindful of that situation if people can just monitor the parking lots, hopefully, especially during Ramadan. Another thing, of course, is the bathrooms that I mentioned earlier. The handicap stalls are very few in some of the masjids. And some of the masjids will like to use these handicap stalls as multi-purpose. They sometimes install showers and so people who are staying guest as the masjid will use these bathrooms, which is fine. However, if somebody is waiting outside in the wheelchair and one of the major problems that we have being disabled is that we don't have control of our bladder or bowel, which means that we can have accidents. And so when we're waiting out there, we can't control what's going on. And sometimes we do leak. So for example, I was waiting for 20 minutes outside one of the masjids in the bathroom. And it was a young brother who actually recognized he went to my high school. And I was like, it was you who was in there? So obviously, I was joking around, but I didn't really tell him what the situation was. But when I went in there, I luckily had extra pants. So I was going in there. I didn't use a shower, but I just basically used what do you call it? To help clean myself. And then I was able to change there. But obviously, I was late to do the prayer because I had this extra challenge to take care of. And with the shoes, as I was mentioning earlier, people who are late sometimes don't put their shoes in the shoe rack. And so this is actually a fire hazard or a hazard for anybody who's abled or disabled because they can trip, they can hurt themselves. I don't know who was it, but it was a boy scout who actually saw one of the slippers right in front. And it wasn't in the way, but he mindfully just picked it up and moved it out of the way. And I told him, I appreciate you. Thank you for your mindfulness. And I was really happy to see such a young individual do that. So for those who are older, there's no reason for you guys to do that when a little kid can do that himself. Yeah, that's right. So those are like very few things that we have challenged with most of the time. The other things I would like to mention for this Masjid, inshallah, with brother Munir, hopefully he can take it and help us with it. So I was talking with brother Abdullah. If we can have, you know, there's a bathroom on the other side. If we can have those bathroom open for a wheelchair user specifically that can make a big help for us. So because bathroom issue, it's something like we really struggle with. Even sometime like, you know, traveling, even traveling for myself. I like to travel. And sometimes it's being really hard to find accessible bathroom on the hotel, on Airbnb and so much more. So one of the ideas we have is to get those bathroom are open for people with a wheelchair. And then also if that's not possible, we can have something like a different rug or something for us to be able to, you know, use our wheelchair independently and go from the entrance of the prayer to the restroom. That could be really helpful for us. Because now at this rug, we like really struggle a lot. It's not easy for us to push on the wheelchair. And yeah, that's basically it for this Masjid. Other than that, it's very accessible. One thing I forgot to mention, sorry. So it's a place for a wheelchair to pray because unfortunately we use our wheelchair as the shoes. That's how we use it. So we go everywhere with it. So sometime, you know, dirty, very dirty places we go, especially bathroom, like using it to the bathroom and come out to the Mosalla. And then it's not, you know, it just make us feel like a little bit guilty because we're using the place for the prayer on our wheelchair. It doesn't make us feeling really comfortable with that. But on the main time, we really have to. There's no other choice. But we really would like to see, you know, a place for a wheelchair that we can use for ourselves, easy access to it. And also we can, you know, keep it, you know, we feel, we're going to feel a lot better for us to use it instead of, you know, walking on the Mosalla, on the prayers on our wheelchair. So that's basically it for the Masjid. And other than that, I think we'll move for the next next topic, yeah. Before I do that, there was one incident where all the parking lots were available. And so I had the intuition to do a drive-through prayer. So I just parked right in front of the Masjid and put the windows down and prayed in my car and pulled off away. That way I don't block anybody. Just a little fun there. So another thing that I like to talk about is terminologies, describing people with disabilities. In the past, we've learned that the terminology has changed. Our Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, has redefined meanings when he brought the message from Sa'a Allah. And so what I'd like to discuss is that for this particular event, if you read the description, of course, everyone means well. But how do we describe this population when we say things like wheelchair bound or confined to a wheelchair? That's like saying I take my wheelchair to the bed when I go to sleep. Or when my mom gave birth to me, I came with my wheelchair. Or another thing is I take my wheelchair to the shower. So you guys get my point. In this regards, we don't like, well, essentially, we are not identified by our use of mobility. We are identified by our name, our character, and our parents. And so in this regards, it's very critical to be very sensitive and not address the person by what they're doing, but by being the humanity first. So a person with a disability is the correct way. Not to be politically incorrect, but there are ways to do things. And we have been dealing with trauma all our lives. And so to be reminded of such language, it is our job to advocate what is correct and what is incorrect. And so the next topic for us, if you want to break it down, Ahmed? Yeah, so we want to talk about workplace. That's what we really want to talk about. So workplace here in the US, very much is kind of not very much, kind of accessible sometimes and sometimes are not. So what we need on a workplace is accommodation. So that's what exactly need. So as brother Abdullah mentioned earlier, we need extra time for us to do our things safely and in an appropriate way. So accommodation at work, that's something we really look into. For example, a break time. So break time for us, like let's say 15 minutes or 10 minutes, is not enough for us because we use our break time to do stretching and use the bathroom. So just imagine pushing my wheelchair to the bathroom. That's going to take approximately, we don't want to put it too much, but like three minutes, four minutes. That's just pushing my wheelchair to the bathroom and going out and doing other things. So we really need accommodation. We need the workplace to be accessible, more accessible, such as like a door button for us to use, with that can help us a lot. And what else do you want to add, brother Abdullah? For the workplace, as brother Ahmad mentioned, that is with the extended time, you have to imagine that we use our hands as our legs. So when we are in the bathroom, we have to transfer into the commode or toilet and then get off off the toilet with our hands. And it's essentially a workout every time that we're on the chair. And so with the extended break with the stretches, we're able to relieve ourselves from our bodies because sitting down is not an easy thing. You guys have been in class, students, young men, you guys have been in class, think about not going to recess or going to lunch and sitting down in your chair the whole day. It's excruciating. As brother Ahmad mentioned earlier, he had a bed sore. Alhamdulillah, I never had one yet. If I did, it was very temporarily, but with his situation, he was months of recovery because of his bed sore. Years, actually. Allah, my God. Yeah. Yeah, I stay, I, you know, I stay with the bed sores for five years, which is insane. The most things that, you know, make me nervous and make me really stress is bed sores because I struggle a lot with it. It's, it's horrible. It's, it's very, very horrible things to have in your body. And since then, I had a couple, you know, friend, not really close friend, but a family friend I heard of. They are, they just got paralyzed, unfortunately, you know, for accident. And then I was like really sending them my message to be active, doing some exercise to not get the bed sores, because something like really, really horrible to have in your life as a wheelchair bound. And as we're explaining all this to you guys, and those who are businessmen and businesswomen that are out there, obviously we are more of a higher cost for medical expenses. And it's understandable why they wouldn't want us to be working with them, but let me give you some statistics here. Less than 30% of business will, won't hire a person with a disability. So this, this is discrimination number one. Here in America, there are laws, the ADA, and so for somebody who has the capabilities of doing the job and was denied because of his physical disability or her physical disability is very painful. And then just to elaborate on that, we already have some government assistance and we are tired and want to be a part of the community. And so for us to have an opportunity to be out there in public to show our disability, it's very rewarding because, number one, those who are seeing us are, number one, impressed by like, wow, this person is able to do the job. Just to give you an example, at my work today an individual came up to me, which is a segue to our next topic. He was like, what happened to you? And I was like, what is the purpose of this question, uncle? He's like, you're such a young man, how can God do such a thing? My response was, are you questioning God's will? Because this was God's plan. But the fact that he saw me out there doing the job helping the Afghan refugees finding their way here in America, he was simply impressed. But at the same time, for someone like me who has to deal with this question constantly, is I'm able to cope with it now because after 16 years of this injury, I've learned to practice with my responses. But I'm sure Brother Ahmad has a lot more examples that he can probably provide. Yeah, as Brother Abdullah mentioned, we really, let's put it that way, it's very clear and very simple. We really don't like strangers to ask as why you are on the wheelchair, period. It's make us nervous, so don't be like afraid or surprised from our answer. Like we can trick you with some, could be funny, could be stupid answer, could be so many ways. But it's really, really something like we don't like to ask for. Because if it's a friend or a friend-a-friend or somebody who know you, he can ask you appropriate question like that. But for strangers, why are you on the wheelchair? Excuse me, you don't have to ask me, you don't have to question me that question. We're not going to answer you. And also, other things is to, you know, pushing us, because I was a wheelchair user, sometimes people would like to help us, so give us a little extra push. So, excuse me, do not touch my wheelchair without my permission. Because my wheelchair, it's an extension to my body, so you have to ask first. I really appreciate it. I do understand you want to help. But if you put it in a little bit appropriate way, it would be better. It's going to make me feel a lot better, instead of like just coming and touch me. And that's something I want to mention. And also, I had a little story. It's, it was very confusing and funny sounds to me. So one day I went to, so I love bird. I love bird very much. But unfortunately, I had a really horrible situation happened a few months ago. Yeah, it's not that long. When I went to visit my country, I went to Iraq in May. And unfortunately, I was not able to come to the U.S. because of this stupid airline rules. So the rules, it was different from the U.S. to Iraq and from Iraq to the U.S. it was completely different. So it doesn't make any sense. So what happened to me is I got stuck in Iraq. I'm not allowed to travel back to the U.S. because I'm on the wheelchair. So why do you allow me to fly from the U.S. to Iraq? And leave me there. So that was a big mark. So that's very brief story. I don't want to go deep in it because it's very complicated, unfortunately. So I stuck in my country for like 23 days. And then after that, I back to the U.S. I was full of stress, full of anxiety. I just like, I was really stressed. I need the peace. I need to relax. I had a wonderful, beautiful bird. I really love it. Sankonyar, I know if you know them. They kind of little loud, but I really love and unfortunately I decided to get rid of them because I need to be, you know, I like more peace, more quiet time around me. So I've been selling them advertising online and then I took one of the birds to sell. And then I discussed with this buyer he wanted to buy it from me. And then I took the bird and I wanted to deliver it to him. So by then I arrived to the person that wanted to buy the bird from me. And he was like, and I told him I won't be able to get out of the car. It's very easy for me to just come and take the bird and pay me my money. And he was like, oh, sure, sure, definitely. So I arrived there. So the person he was like, watch me. He came to the car from the passenger side and he saw my wheelchair next to me. That's how I put my wheelchair. And he was looking like, what is that? I said it's my toy. And he was like, oh, really? Okay. And then he looked into the bag and he found the wheels of the wheelchair. And he was like, oh, is that a wheelchair? Yes, it is a wheelchair. Oh, why aren't the wheelchair? Well, a long story, but I just want to get my business going and get out of there. So I don't have to discuss a lot with him. So a long story, but it's an accident. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. No worries, man. You don't have to be sorry. So it was like a little funny wheelchair, really? Wheelchair person and he driving. I got this question a lot. Like people see me transferring from my car. Like how do you drive? How do you do this and that? Really? Why not? I'm very mobile and I can do so many things. I can do everything, not so many. I can do everything, but in a different way. So people can walk, can do their things differently. I cannot walk. I'm on my wheelchair. I may need some assistance, but I can do almost the same thing as a normal people can do. So that's a little story I want to share. And brother Abdullah will tell us more about the technology. So of course brother Ahmed can drive with hand controls. Of course we have the ability to be mobile with our wheelchairs, but I want to educate you guys on my experience about an earthquake situation that sounds like a state a few years ago when I was a student there. Now the main goal is to just provide and educate the technology that is available for muskets and work sites that have people with disabilities. So in this example there was an earthquake that happened a few years ago and the elevator shut off. So you can imagine at San Jose State there are multiple elevators and there are stairway to have people to evacuate the building safely. I was in the seventh story out of the eighth and I needed to get out of the elevator. I mean I needed to get out of the building, but the elevator shut off. So I had no education on what I needed to do, but I was aware of the technology that was in San Jose State and luckily there was one in that building. Before I began with this contraption is amazing the students are very grateful to like oh one guy was like you're in the wheelchair and I was like good observation. And so he was like do you need help? Do you want me to carry you? I was like we're in the seventh story building and I'm afraid of my life and your life and other people's life if you carry me down. This is not an ideal situation. So I actually told them that I seen this EVAC track that allows people who are immobile to get out of the building and it's a very interesting contraption. You guys can definitely look it up. But what it is is that let's say I wasn't, let's say I was like 50 pounds and they can carry me down, but let's say somebody who's an overweight and can get down. So this is not an ideal situation. So the contraption which I'm not going to educate you exactly how it functions but essentially it allowed me to exit the building safely with both parties assisting people. This is something that I think that every housing people should have in their buildings in case something happens. Make sure you educate the staff and know how to function and you can definitely use the disability or person with disability as an example of how to utilize the equipment. Fortunately when I got out of the building, the San Jose state media personnel came and they saw me and they're like, oh would you like to give a story to elaborate more on what this exactly had happened? So I was like, yes, I feel like this is a great scenario for us to educate the community on exactly what had happened. And it was amazing. The fire department came and they congratulated me and that brother or the fraternity brother who used that to expose or his fraternity. But we both basically, I used my disability, he used his fraternity to educate the community on what this device is and it was crucial. It was amazing and it was wonderful. And another technology of course is ramps. Having ramps available is essential to getting out of the building safely. Sometimes there are steps and of course with the, what do you call it, with what I said earlier, when you can do the wheelies, you can definitely get down from it but getting up is an issue. So ramps is something that we like to see. But just imagine we are paralyzed from chest down or some other people have different disabilities with no trunk control, no balance for us. It's scary for us going down a particular slope. So the angle of the slope is very crucial because there are times where you may fall with no balance and make sure the traction is of course is very important because on a rainy day we may slip. I've seen it, unfortunately not with me though. And then with other technologies that are out there. Do you know anything? Oh wait, the plane situation, the aisle chair. So you may sometimes see people who need to board the plane early. So fortunately these institutions have already accommodated people with disabilities such so we get to board early and with that we get to leave early just because it's just the system that they made and it's fantastic. The next topic, I'd like to actually talk about a Sura that I came across today, Sura Abbasah Chapter 18. It starts out with Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam giving knowledge to the Quraysh and there was a blind man who came up to him and wanted some information about the religion. Of course with Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's intention he wanted to spread knowledge to those who didn't believe but a blind man came up to him and the Sura starts out saying that he is flustered, he's upset and God is calling him out. So if our beloved Prophet is undermining unfortunately the people of disability it's going to happen in the community too but remember the intention of the Prophet was just to spread knowledge so if I'm incorrect please forgive me for those who are listening. But the point of the story is that the blind man couldn't see what's happening. He didn't know what Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was doing he was simply just wanting that information and what did God say to Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam? You pay attention to those who are hunger for knowledge. So people who go to the masjid who don't receive the services or feel like they're not being accommodated, subhanallah, I don't, subhanallah. So once again for those who are disabled understand that if our beloved Prophet accidentally did this don't be as, we're emotional, we can get perturbed easily but just remember that it's a normal thing. So don't hold on to it, advocate for yourself like the blind man did. He wanted knowledge, he went to the Prophet and tried to find the answer. Go to your community, do what you need to do to advocate yourself and make the situation better. And this is exactly what we're doing today with Brother Munir and MCC. So we really appreciate a masjid who's inviting people of disabilities to talk about these particular things. So I really appreciate that. And for those who are listening it's about time that we deal with all encompassing issues including people with disabilities and without disabilities. Just like to throw that out there. And another thing that I also like to add is career options. For those who are able and disabled the government allows in-home care support to provide services to make these people live more comfortably. The majority of these families are assisting, sorry, the majority of the people who are hired in this program are family members. And that's, it makes sense because the job is a very very vulnerable position. You're someone's coming to your home, if you're disabled you're really are kind of disabled into defending yourself and anything could happen. So the majority of these people are family workers. But the family needs a break too sometimes. It's not easy. I'm a person with disability and I've seen how it affected my family. They are affected by it. Till this day they're still affected by it. But at the same time they deserve a break. So I really highly recommend where there's masjids or any Muslim or organizations to contact these individuals and really spread the wealth here. There are so many benefits. It's a federal job. We can really outsource the community to give breaks to the family members for them to take care of their loved ones. It's what I'm doing. I have this system. I know other people a lot of have it too. And so it's very beautiful to again share the wealth and make sure that the community knows what's going on so they can be aware of what's happening with people with disabilities and how they live their life. So with that we're almost 20 minutes or 22 minutes left. We can talk about a lot more scenarios but I really want to leave it up to the audience with their Q&As and then we can describe more stories or examples of what we've seen. Yeah so I just want to mention a couple of things. I want to talk about international situation for people with disability because I've been traveling back and forth. So traveling international can be something really really challenge for people with disability and for my own experience like I've been traveling a lot to Jordan and to Iraq which places unfortunately to say has no accessibility at all. So we are as a disabled community here in the U.S. we are very thankful and I'm sure there's not only me a lot of people with disability are so very thankful about the care the support that we receive the knowledge of the community that we have around us you know there is some mistake could happen here and there but overall we are absolutely thankful and satisfied with with everything. So I live in Jordan for a couple years so my goal was there all the time is to find apartments accessible apartment like with a free step apartment to be to be independent to leave my life normally as as others. Unfortunately I was not able to have that so when I moved to the U.S. I felt very thankful of having all the accessibility around and and and you know feeling the freedom that I was looking for long time ago and then the other things also in my country in Iraq so I was in north part of Iraq which is Kurdistan which is kind of like a high level of east and west Iraq so you know it's it's it's supposed to be very mobile and and very nice community over there but unfortunately they pour on accessibility as well so there is no accessibility at all so I was not feeling safe being out over there people unfortunately they are not aware they are not educated to how to deal with with people on the wheelchair like you better see somebody on a wheelchair over there outside you cannot see anybody mostly so I'm going out I feel afraid over there like oh you know this car may hit me or people people are not aware of any of that and also people on the wheelchair who lives there unfortunately they feel scary of being out because you know unfortunately the community are very poor is not helping people to be out they don't give them the support they don't give them the value they deserve unfortunately it's so unfortunate but that's what I experienced over there so masha Allah alhamdulillah I'm so very thankful to be here and we trying our best as brother Abdullah said we trying our best to improve the community to educate families and also make world accessible in and and and you know make just world better for everyone and the other things I would like to mention as brother Abdullah was talking about earthquake it's so funny because I had a training it's not that training actually it's it's um what is so the FEMA I don't know if you heard of FEMA uh it's it's a government agency they were um trying to do a training a video a film uh it's it's kind of a short film for people people with disability and um all other people how to be prepared for an emergency so we were talking about earthquake so my part there was acting as a person on disability on a wheelchair so I worked with FEMA that was long time it's really long but probably 2017 something like that so I work with FEMA as a person on a wheelchair to not to to educate people not act to educate people how to be prepared for something an emergency so how you can protect yourself which we were like you know because we cannot move so people most likely in an earthquake so they have to hide under table so for us we have to cover our head with with something like you know something hard could be book or something anything near us we just have to protect our head that's number one so um it's uh it's really interesting you know uh I learned a lot from that film so that was something really uh add to my to my life and and something I will never forget yeah so brother you want to mention something that was a very beautiful uh discussion let's give him a round of applause so we have exactly 15 minutes left before Isha and I'd love to open up the door for Q&A inshallah so we'll start with the brother side and then um sister number will come and take the mic to the sister side inshallah so let's just raise your hand if you have a question inshallah and we'll have the panel's address inshallah just raise your hand and the sister number is coming to get the other mic as well thank you don't be shy we're very open slowly so uh I'm a parent of a disabled kid and I know the MCC is doing a great job here but what are we planning to do for kids to get education you know chronic education whether ustad or sheha or shakes are ready to educate kids who are disabled what are we doing there when you mean by education you're talking about islamic education interesting wow because I think as we have disabled kids they're not inclusive in the society just because society kids are not playing with them nobody's coming to educate them so we have to make a space for them to be inclusive well thank you for sharing that experience this is something that's very important for those who are half children of course with people with this young adults with disabilities um in regards of the Islamic studies I'm not quite too educated on the matter but I think the first step we can take is of course is educating the leaders of the community the imams exactly what these disabilities are I think here in America Hamdullah we have so much knowledge we're able to diagnose and provide some sort of coping strategy to the community and to the to the peers and how we can make this a more belonging environment in regards of I know some Islamic schools do exist in this in this state I'm not sure if they're catering to them but it sounds like they're probably not and if they are the kids are not really being mindful of the children and so in that regards yes this is something we can definitely work together for a next discussion but right now for those who are listening as you can hear this brother is somewhat concerned about the future and belonging of his children it's every right here at the masjid we are accommodating a space but at the school settings what are we doing so this is a great opportunity we at chat to MCC to see what approaches we can make and of course definitely give you a concrete answer but then until then brother me neither did mention there are a lot of recreational activities for children nowadays here in America with the Paralympics there's been more views ever since in history of the Paralympics so there's definitely a sense of sportsmanship but with of course with recreational activities as I mentioned BORP it's in Berkeley it's a wonderful agency of course with COVID-19 there are some regulation but there are opportunities to do hand cycling with the family you can even have multiple bikes connected to each other so you can do a tandem ride it's amazing what's out there even wheelchair basketball there's a kid sports team there and then they can participate tournament-wise or recreationally but of course with your concern with the academics for those who are listening let's start that conversation Assalamu alaikum I'm really glad to be here thank you my name is Leila I thank you for this talk I myself have dealt with I realize people have different kind of disabilities sometimes and there's also ones that aren't seen and sometimes I myself have been through it with mental health or emotional sometimes I know in our communities regardless of other Muslim or other religious groups too there's there's this stigma that if you suffer or struggle even in education or in anything that you're somehow deemed a failure and that's where I realized I had to stop letting other people compare me to other people even parents you know because I realized that even I've had now professors that were in wheelchairs and I realized that wheelchair they didn't stop them from anything but I realized that there's they would actually feel bad for some of their fellow students who struggled in other ways but just weren't getting help sometimes just like a person might need a ramp you know with a wheelchair or a chair sometimes people might need more time on a test to learn the information or there's other and there's a really great documentary called um it's called Crip Camp and it based on the word crippled but it's like they take back the meaning of the word and it was actually produced by Obama's it's on Netflix I would suggest everyone to watch it there can be some adult material in it but the point was there was a camp in the 70s that or 60s and 70s that was geared towards people with all kinds of disabilities in New York but the point about it was that it let them they as campers felt empowered everybody would play baseball whether you could walk or not whether you're in a chair or not you know so they'd find a way to make everything accessible and because of it because of those young people then they became the advocates who came to San Francisco and Oakland and started the disability revolution here to get 504 passed or things that I was still learning about so I said definitely look up it's we have to learn from those who came before us and continue their message today because there's still a lot of us and I I've had friends uh in in in certain programs they're not even giving them food or if you're poor and struggling you know you're you're even in America we have a long way to go like the fact that I've even seen disabled activists talking about how why is there a cap on the amount of money even if you need you know your social security which some of us do get that why they only allow you for two thousand dollars at the most we need to talk about able accounts we need to learn about accounts that they shouldn't make it so hard for people to save up money just like we need to save money like everyone else so anyway there's a lot of stuff going on and elevators are another issue but but um thank you for the talk and and and I think even like backup generators and elevators just to even help people that are stuck on elevators I live in a building that's kind of one elevator and a lot of elder and disabled people for seven stories of you know floors that you know and and right next door to us is a state building with multiple elevators so I'm sure they don't have to worry about being stuck in an elevator when a power outage happens so I mean just making things accessible regardless of people's income you know so thank you no I like what you said you reminded me something that could probably perhaps help the brothers question earlier during unfortunately with the schools like elementary anything but higher institution learning like colleges they have a lot of systems they have accommodation there's a there's a department just for that you like you mentioned earlier I had to had an increased amount of time to do my test because of my discomfort of sinning I'm able to have more reasons to withdraw classes so for those who are young scholars here listening definitely get contact to your educational institution be a part of that program because there's so much access and in regards of your savings you're absolutely correct I won't go too much on it but Social Security does have a cap for those who are their monitor earned or unearned income and that's what they call it but there is a system that sounds like you're not aware of Borp who did educate me on this Laurie Gray for listening thank you very much she advocated for the people of disabilities to how do you save money without impacting your Social Security or other social work of benefits there isn't a company out there that are accepting savings and Social Security is not going to hold that against you the name of this thing is not coming to my mind but of course there is interest involved which is why I didn't do it but we can definitely talk more on that later when we exchange a contact formation hopefully. So I want to mention the kids have they supposed to have halak today small halak for fiqh and they told me we want to hear the story so I think that was a good choice for them so also I actually like what you said about you refer this to but Allah ﷻ decide for this for everybody and related to the challenges you guys faced for this one I'd like to hear more and the kids also to hear how you refer this to Allah and how you overcome all or over all of this challenge very quick since I know you only have about five minutes for for us so so thank you so much for for this question and thank you kids for for listening to us and give us the opportunity to talk a little bit about what's going on for people with disabilities so so not easy to come over over it absolutely so on the beginning you know when you like you just become disabled to walk that's something like really shocking but for my own experience I don't know how other people feel but I would talk about my own experience Alhamdulillah I was really surround I was lucky by surrounded myself in a really good family they were supporting me a lot and Alhamdulillah I was like really giving it all to Allah I just like literally just said that's what it is Alhamdulillah so after not right away to be honest not right away I just said no that's fine and you know everything will work out and no no no no so on the beginning as I mentioned it was a nightmare for me like I'm not gonna walk again oh it's unbelievable but because you know situation change in a second that's something you never think of ever but Alhamdulillah I was have my Eman inside me everything's will be better and I like to be positive always as a human being we always feel down we are we are not perfect we struggle a lot but we just have to be positive on things inshallah will get better so it's not gonna get better easily it's gonna take time it's gonna take some effort but it will get better so it takes me like I'm not sure but approximately like three months I was like really feel down and stressed and you know I was feeling everything dark around me at that time that was something that's that was like my first experience after my injury that's how I felt but Alhamdulillah after that after I heard from the doctor I won't be able to walk again and I said that's it it's fine it is what it is and then I remember something really funny happened during that time that that will never forget so I had two siblings were which they are twins brother and sister Muhammad and Fatima so they were at that time they were like 40 years old and at that time I was in the hospital you know going through a lot of medical treatment issue and they were coming they was like asking me they call me Hamoudi they don't call me Ahmed so they said Hamoudi you should walk you should walk why are you acting like that you know you can walk how come no you can walk come on come on let's come on walk just just you know just push yourself a little bit and you're gonna walk again I said I can't I can't literally I can't I swear well I can't walk and they were like because they know me if they tickle me from my feet I will laugh that was like so they were going into my feet and tickling me tickling me and I cannot feel anything and then they realized that yes I literally can't feel anything down in my leg so they were shocked and they were crying they were hugging my mom at the hospital and they realized that I don't have sensation over there so I'm so happy now in my life as I mentioned we all normal people disabled people everyone in this life we have struggles we have challenges but the good things is never give up we just keep pushing keep you know being positive and and then life is going on life is going yeah thank you very much beautiful question that's thank you for sharing mine I like to share mine during during my rehab well first of all my name is Abdullah Mujaddidi which means the slave of god and to renew that title in itself when I had my injury was like wow I get to renew my faith in this just in this new body that that had sustained being paralyzed number two during my rehab at the hospital I was able to see the different types of injuries that were sustained by all types of injuries automobiles motorcycles I had a mild head injury so I was able to see those who had traumatic head injuries and at that point I realized that I was blessed that I was able to have my mind intact even though I'm I don't have the use of my legs I was able to see the differences so at that point the verse in the Quran when we hear we are made different to know one another was definitely made was definitely a sign of evidence right there that that we are made differently we come in different shapes and sizes and for me to cope was just to see what other types of abilities are out there so we'll end the program it's just starting right now I can't think of a better way to end the program than our dear brother Ahmad al-Qafeisi if you would please give a free shot