A Message from Dr. Ali Shehata

[Almaghrib Florida]

Assalaamu Alaikum, 

please see below for a message that may interest you or someone you know. It is a project spearheaded by QNoor Resident Instructor and Physician Dr. Ali Shehata.

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Bismillah

As-salaam alaikum wa Rahmat Allah wa Barakaatuhu

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I write this letter to you today to invite you to share in a great reward by being of immense service to the Muslim community. It has been narrated on the authority of Abdullah ibn 'Umar, Jabir ibn Abdillah and Abu Hurairah in various hasan chains the statement of the Prophet (saas), "The best of people is the one who benefits others." Furthermore, we all know the famous hadith of Abu Hurairah in Sahih Muslim in which he reported that the Prophet (saas) said: "Whosoever relieves from a believer some grief pertaining to this world, Allah will relieve from him some grief pertaining to the Hereafter ....", and in another narration, "A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim - he does not wrong him nor does he forsake him when he is in need; whosoever is fulfilling the needs of his brother, Allah is fulfilling his needs; whosoever removes distress from a believer, Allah removes from him a distress from a distressful aspect of the Day of Resurrection ...."

As some of you may know, I have tried my best, in my limited capacity, to be an advocate for families that have been afflicted with the disease Autism. Autism is a heartbreaking condition that disables more than 1 out of every 100 children today, and this figure includes millions of Muslim children both here as well as in the Muslim world. My family has personally been tried with this condition as it affects my son.

The reason that I write to you all today is to make you aware of a project that I am trying to start to help these thousands upon thousands of families around the world. I have recently been exposed to an amazing training project called Competent Learner Method which when used as a teaching method with Autistic children has promising results and has been successful in helping them to overcome numerous obstacles in their life. I have spoken directly with the woman who has developed this learning program to try to help spread it around the world and she has been very supportive. The main ingredient which is lacking though is human support.

I hope with this letter that some of you out there who are yearning for a chance to make a difference - a profound and inspiring, direct difference - in the lives of Muslim families to contact me. This is not volunteer work, but it involves paid positions for people who want to learn how to teach these very special children. Those with a degree in education, speech/occupational therapy would be most ideal - but the factor that matters most is a sincere desire to impact positively in the lives of these families who have lost hope of communicating and sharing in the lives of their own children.

My desire is to help establish a team that would set-up a school, based upon these learning principles, in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and here in the US for Muslim children (primarily but not limited to them). Just to give you an idea of the need, Saudi Arabia has approximately 100,000 children with Autism and only 3 trained behavioral therapists (most recent data from last year). They need at least 2000 more therapists yesterday! here in the US, I am not aware of any Muslim schools that provide behavioral analysis therapy (of which CLM is a part) services to special needs children in the Muslim community.

Hence, I want to develop a team that would work daily to help children as well as train other teachers in this methodology so as to impact the greatest change as soon as possible. It is my sincere desire to implement this plan starting in the fall of 2011 with training for it to start as soon as a suitable number of people show interest.

I ask Allah the Most Generous, the Best of Providers, to cause this letter to be a motivation for those that read it and through it to choose the best of people to join in this effort to save our children from a life of dependence, frustration and pain; and to save their families from the depression and grief that affect them. Please forward this letter to all that you can insha'Allah so that we can begin working immediately to make a difference before Allah replaces us with others who will. Jazakum Allahu khayr wa barak Allahu feekum was-salaam alaikum wa Rahmat Allah.

Sincerely,

Dr. Ali Shehata
dr.sh...@gmail.com

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http://qnoor.org/