"Never will you attain the good [reward] until you spend [in the way of Allah] from that which you love. And whatever you spend - indeed, Allah is Knowing of it." (The Qur'an, 3:92)

A little about the organisation:

Muslim Deaf UK (MDUK) is the first Deaf Muslim organisation in the UK,
which was formerly known as the Muslim Deaf Group. It was initially set up in 1994 to provide access for socially excluded Deaf people from BME communities and from diverse Muslim cultural backgrounds across the United Kingdom.  Muslim Deaf UK is committed to providing
various services to meet their needs.

Deaf people often face barriers in their everyday lives, such as isolation at home and communication barriers within the hearing community.  Deaf people who use sign language have their own unique identity and culture. Society can place barriers in the path of deaf people if they do not understand these linguistic and cultural differences. MDUK promotes the use of British Sign Language (BSL) and Deaf culture. MDUK is fully aware of the barriers Deaf people face in society and actively seeks ways to overcome these.

The cause:

One of MDUK’s stated aims is to increase the knowledge and
understanding about Islamic issues, the Qur’an. The Qur’an has been translated into many different spoken languages. This has allowed the message of Islam to spread throughout the world. However, there is still one community that does not have access to this. Deaf people are denied access to much information because of linguistic and societal barriers to communication. Because of this, Deaf Muslims are unable to access knowledge about Islam and the teachings of the Qur’an so are unable to understand Islam properly and what is required of them in being good Muslims.

In order to do this MDUK is seeking ways in which to translate the Qur’an into BSL so that this information can be accessed by Deaf people. This will be the first time it has ever been done. Equal access to the Qur’an for Deaf people will result in a better understanding of Islam and being able to choose the right path upon which to lead their lives.

The translation of the Qur'an into BSL, once started will take some time to complete and is a long-term project. Milestones will be created from the objectives and this will help us to schedule the project. From our experience for a daily work including preparation and studio work, it is anticipated that it would take an average of 30 ayahs (verses) per day. There are a total of 6,236 verses in the Quran. It would probably take over 200 days to complete the whole BSL Qur’an translation. This means it would take over 4 years to complete if we do it once a week and also over 2 years if we do it twice a week and so forth.

How it will work:

In the first instance the project will seek to translate Surahs 90–114. These have been selected as they are each contained on one page and should be straightforward to translate. Insha'Allah after that the project will be able to continue and translate Surahs 78–90. 

Our aim:

We will be striving to get as a faithful meaning of the translation of the Qur'an as possible, checked by scholars.

The videos will be available to view online on the MDUK website and on YouTube, in the first instance.

Deaf Muslims will finally start to be able to access the teachings of the Qur’an. This has the potential for radically changing the way Deaf Muslims live their lives.  It will help them make decisions about their faith and possibly bring them closer to Allah and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).