The True Disability.

In todays society, disabilities will always be put aside. We talk about race and gender stereotypes, we talk about the different ways media perceives ethnicities and race, and we talk about those in the lower class of society. Yet when it comes to the people who require most attention in our society, we don’t give the impaired a second thought.

We often use people with disabilities to make ourselves feel better about our minor imperfections. When we are around the impaired, we feel empowered and strengthened by their “weaknesses”. Our lack of perfection has suddenly taken a back seat, while we pity and show compassion to those who we consider lesser than us.

We do not realize that people who are disabled may be more able than we are. They may have the ability to do things that we are not capable of. People with no arms may be able to run faster. Those with no legs may be able to lift heavier. Individuals who are deaf, more often than not, have vision which is stronger, and people who are blind may be able to hear better.

The Prophet (PBUH) mentions in a hadith that, “If Allah can take away something you never expected losing, He can replace it with something you never imagined having.” Allah has a reason behind giving or taking something away from a person, and will always replace it with something that is more beneficial.

When we are taking a look at the disabled parts of society, we need to realize that they are more than just their lack of physical ability. Although they may have a disability in our eyes, they will always have another person’s version of ability. The true disability we should fear are not the ones that disable us physically but rather the ones that disable our hearts.