Adnan's Story
Adnan Tariq has been visually impaired from birth and was diagnosed with
two ocular conditions: Degenerative Myopia and Congenital Nystagmus. He is also
partially deaf and colour blind.
From the age of 2 he attended a special school in Bradford for the visually
impaired but at the age of 13 was made to move into a secondary mainstream school
when the school was closed down. Here, he faced many challenges including the
large class sizes and lack of access to large print material. However, this became
a learning curve for himself, his fellow pupils and teachers and thus he soon
adapted to life at the school and took part in most activities.
Alhumdulillah (Praise be to God), he has achieved many things so far, including
attaining GCSEs in Maths, English, Science, Business and Communication and History.
He is currently finishing his A-Levels in English Language, Sociology, and Government
and Politics. Insha’Allah in September he hopes to attend University and study Law.
Adnan has always enjoyed the outdoors, especially when attending residential
trips with the Outlook Trust,
where he took part in such activities such as canoeing,
cycling, sailing, abseiling and caving. This charity especially taught Adnan and
other participants how to be independent and also that being visually impaired
doesn’t mean you can’t achieve anything.
When talking about his disability, he says "Because I was born this way, I never
really thought of it as a limitation. Admittedly, I do feel regret that I can’t do
things like my friends, such as driving cars or seeing the beautiful colours of life,
however it is something I have learnt to accept and cope with. I truly believe that
Allah (swt) Knows Best and all fate, Good or Bad, is from Him. It has taught me to
appreciate the subtle gifts from Allah (swt) such as the sense of sound and touch.
The physical eye is not as important as the spiritual eye. The spiritual eye is
more sensitive, and losing my physical eye has helped me to appreciate and work on
opening the spiritual eye, which in effect opens the heart. And so, I would like
to thank Allah (swt) for creating me this way, for He knows what I know not."
By working on this project Adnan hopes to help other visually impaired people to
have access to traditional Islamic knowledge. To help them adapt and cope with
their disability and to inspire them to fulfil their goals in life.
Lastly, Adnan enjoys reading literature especially fiction, non fiction and poetry.
He also writes his own poetry and runs an
online blog.
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