About us
There are many Blind Muslims in the United Kingdom. Many without access to Islamic knowledge or community support.
Before we introduce Kitaba, and some of the wonderful things working together we’ve achieved, meet Sayka, one of our Directors. In the video below, she talks about her experiences as a Blind Muslim. We thank our partners Ayn Academy for producing this video.
Our vision
Our vision statement is that: “We strive for an inclusive society built on equality, empathy and service to others where individuals are empowered and encouraged to fulfil their potential.”
Driving us is the prophetic saying, “Allah will always grant assistance to His slave as long as His slave grants assistance to his brother.” [Muslim]
Our mission
Our mission statement is: “The Islamic text for the Blind project is a social enterprise organisation dedicated to empowering and promoting the growth and well-being of visually impaired Muslims and their community through meeting their religious, educational and developmental needs, thereby advancing accessibility and awareness.”
Our highlights
We recognise that Muslims with visual impairments have to overcome many barriers. Our primary focus is on providing access to information and knowledge relevant to their Islamic needs. We also support families, teachers and other service providers who are supporting Muslims with a visual impairment. As a social enterprise we produce books to fund our activities. You can find out more about our services on our services page. By Gods enabling success our highlights include:
Braille and Audio productions
We continue to increase the number of our productions in Braille. So far this includes: Forty Hadith of Quran, Living with Blindness and A Guide to Makkah and Madinah. In large print we have: Taqwa and Knowledge. And in paper back: The Book of Worship and Forty Hadith of Imam al-Nawawi.
Teaching Qur’anic Arabic Braille
We have a number of Qur’anic Arabic Braille teachers around the country, who have helped teach many people around the world.
Consultation and Adaptation
We have delivered training on marginalisation and independent living in Glasgow and Copenhagen, and held talks, along with seminars in Glasgow, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Oslo, Copenhagen, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bradford, Dewsbury, Luton, Woking and Oxford. Kitaba has also been successful at garnering exposure on National radio in Malaysia, RNIB Radio and national newspapers in Singapore and the UAE, letter published in the Sunday Times.
Awareness Raising
We have organised and attended conferences, such as for the Deaf in partnership with Utrujj foundation and various other organisations catering for deaf people, as well as, Conferences on Disability in Denmark, Norway and Australia. In addition, we have established and developed partnerships with EHRC (Scotland), MID (Denmark), Council of Mosques (Norway) and Al-Isharah (UK)
Assisted Umra Pilgrimage
We continue to organise ‘Umra trips for visually impaired and disabled Muslims in partnership with Dirasa (Scandinavia).
Your help
We are a volunteer run organisation and it is with thanks to our volunteers that we have been able to continue with our efforts. To read more about us you can meet our team. To volunteer, please visit our Get Involved page. In addition you can always:
- Make dua, your prayers
- Help provide interpreters or sponsor large print books
- Make an effort to actively seek and support people with sensory impairments
