Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume II — Page 173
173 think and ponder over the means to solve this problem. Europeans have devised some ways to handle this issue. They don’t have Friday sermons , but they have gatherings or offices where h undreds of men and women work. R ooms are prepared where nurses are hired near the workplace. M others leave their children there and the nurses take care of them. But our women sometimes do not even have soap to wash their clothes so h ow could they afford to hire nurses? These are indulgences of the rich and cannot be expected of Muslims. They are rich , so they can afford these means. Muslims do not have wealth so they cannot employ this method. Respect the One who Delivers the Sermon Another complaint t he same new convert lady made was that when the speaker who delivered the sermon in my absence was one who stuttered, and the ladies would laugh when ever he did so. This be havior is extremely regretful. To make fun of someone’s physical in ability is despicable and disgraceful. Lajna Ima’illah should direct their attention to this. F irstly, because a khateeb [one who delivers the sermon] holds an honorable and respectable position and his sermon must be listened to with respect and reverence. The Holy Prophet sa wa s very careful in this regard. Ha z rat Bilal ra was from Africa and was unable to correctly pronounce ‘sheen’ [Arabic letter that produces the ‘sh’ sound] and some o ther Arabic letters. His duty was to deliver the Adhan a nd because of his inability to pronounce some of these sounds, he would make mistakes when calling the Adhan. The companions would laugh and w hen Holy Prophet sa not iced this, h e admonished them saying, “I see that some of you laugh when he mispro no unces ‘sheen’ as ‘seen’ [Arabic letter that produces the ‘s’ sound] and you look down upon Bilal ra , although God sits in heaven and praises him. ” Similarly, you also think that the khateeb’s stuttering is his weakness , but the Holy Prophet sa did not find this to be appropriate. He always condemned this. The female administrators should try to correct such behavior. The khateeb is one of us and if we laugh at his physical disabilities then our adversaries w ill [ feel at liberty ] to heckle him. If a nation does not respect its own leaders , then others will behave towards them however they like. ( Al - Musleh , 28 January 1954, p p 1 - 2 )