Islam

Muslims are individuals who follow Islam. Islam is one of the three major monotheistic Abrahamic faiths. Islam has a long tradition of accommodating deafness. The primary sacred texts, the Qur’an and the Hadith, each contain numerous references to deafness and Deaf people. The traditionally oral nature of Islamic practice, including the daily call to prayer and the recitation of the Qur’an, can lead to low self-esteem and feelings of exclusion for Deaf Muslims. The word Qur’an means “recitation,” and speaking aloud is a traditional component of Muslim life, adding to the isolation and insecurity of Deaf believers. To fully appreciate the relationship between Islam and being deaf, a brief review of the essential concepts of Islam and Islamic law is necessary.

Muhammad (570–632 CE) was born in Mecca, near the west coast of Saudi Arabia. The Arabian Peninsula was a religiously pluralistic world where traditional folk religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism thrived. Muhammad was a spiritual man who often sought refuge in the caves outside of Mecca for mediation and contemplation. The Qur’an tells us that when he was 40, he received his first angelic visitation. Though he doubted the first appearance, with encouragement from his first wife, Khadija, he accepted the vision as divine. He shared his future visions with his wife, his cousin Ali, and a close friend named Abu Bakr—the first Muslims. Muhammad spent the remainder of his life promoting monotheism and the spread of Islam.

The highest virtue of Islam is the submission to the will of God. Followers believe Islam is the first true religion and the prophets of Judaism and Christianity are part of a single progressive tradition. Muhammad is the last or the seal of the prophets. Muhammad then did not found Islam but restored the original faith of the prophets. The Qur’an is considered the direct and unalterable word of God, a belief that challenges the ability of members of the Deaf community to recite prayers both in sign and speech. To become a Muslim, one must profess belief in God by speaking the shahada: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.” When one utters the phrase, all sins are forgiven and one is a Muslim. The five pillars of Islam are faith, prayer, fasting, charity, and pilgrimage. The goal and responsibility of Muslims is to seek a socially just world community. To help humanity reach a state of peace, an aim inherent in Islam, Muslims turn to the Qur’an, the Hadith, and a collection of teachings known as Sharia, or the Islamic way. In practice, Islam is a religion of inclusion. Muslims seek the unity of all humanity and believe that every human should be afforded the right to profess belief in Allah and become a Muslim. The Sharia acknowledges the rights of the Deaf and accommodates various levels of hearing challenges in the community and religious practice.

The first task for studying deafness in the history of Islam is to distinguish the various references to deafness. Both the Qur’an and the Hadith are written in Arabic, and English translations struggle to maintain accuracy and consistency. It is not always clear that the Arabic term for deaf, al-summu, implies an individual who physically cannot hear. Depending on the translation, deaf or deafness appears between 11 and 15 times in the Qur’an. More than half of the references are distinctly metaphorical, alluding for example to one who is “deaf” to the call of God. The rest are more ambiguous and have inspired contentious debate and commentary. Although deafness is considered an adversity, textual evidence from 9th-century legal debates shows that deafness did not bar Muslims from the community. Judges authorized signs of Deaf people to enable participation in business. [Page 526]During the Ottoman Empire of the 16th century, records distinguish among hearing loss, deafness, and the inability to speak. In the Ottoman world, the discussion was complicated by degrees of auditory difference. The terms samam and tarash imply gradations of auditory difference, and akhrah indicates the inability to speak. The right of every Muslim to pray is not questioned, demonstrating an acceptance of Deaf and nonspeaking individuals in the community. Islamic legal authorities made specific legal provisions for those born deaf and unable to speak. Implicit in the law is a tradition of sign language extant in the 16th century. The law legitimates the use of customary or known signs in cases where an individual is incapable of verbal consent. Multiple Islamic and European texts from this period attest to the use of commonly known signs, ishara, that were used and taught in the Ottoman court, thus implying at least a rudimentary structured sign language.

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