How a Blind Muslim is sharing Islam One Dot At A Time (Islam by Touch)

The episode opens with the recitation of Surah Abasa — “He Frowned” — the Quranic chapter revealed when a blind man came to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ seeking knowledge, and Allah gently corrected His Messenger: “As for he who came to you striving for knowledge while he fears Allah — from him you are distracted.” It is a profound opening for a conversation about two blind Muslims who are doing exactly that — striving relentlessly for knowledge of this deen and ensuring that every blind person in North America can do the same. Nadir, who is legally blind, and his wife Yadira, who is completely blind, are the founders of Islam by Touch — the first and only Muslim organization in North America dedicated to producing Islamic literature in Braille — and in doing so, they have filled a gap so glaring that virtually everyone who encounters their work responds the same way: “I can’t believe this didn’t already exist.”

A Convert’s Search for Knowledge — And the Silence That Launched a Mission

Yadira, a Puerto Rican woman raised Catholic, came to Islam after nearly a year of sincere conversations with Nadir, who was then a close friend. She took her Shahada — the Declaration of Faith in the oneness of Allah and the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ — at a masjid in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Her next instinct was entirely natural: she wanted to read. She wanted to sit in silence with Islamic texts, run her fingers along the lines, reflect on the verses, and build a living connection to the faith she had embraced. But when Nadir and Yadira searched for English Islamic literature in Braille, they found nothing — not in 2004, and not again when they returned to the search in 2016. There are over 285 million blind people worldwide, with more than 10 million in North America alone, yet there was not a single reliable English-language Islamic resource in Braille to give them. The National Library of Congress, which holds enormous Braille collections, offered only books written with a negative portrayal of Islam, or incidental titles like a biography of Malcolm X. Meanwhile, a Braille Bible sits in the library of virtually every guide dog school and blind training center across the country — because Christian organisations stepped up for their community long ago. In 2016, Nadir and Yadira resolved to do the same. They launched a crowdfunding campaign on LaunchGood, raised enough to purchase a Braille embosser and materials, taught themselves the production process, and Islam by Touch was born.

“We want the ability to love to read like you do. We want the ability to be accepted by the community as just a normal person like you do. Just because I can’t see well, don’t think that I’m deficient in any way.” — Nadir, Islam by Touch

One Dot at a Time — The Work, the Vision, and the Call to the Ummah

The production is painstaking by any measure. Using a Braille embosser — a printer that physically embosses raised dots onto heavy paper — Nadir produces the complete English meanings of the Quran across 10 volumes, each full set filling a 12×12 box. What a sighted reader carries in a jacket pocket becomes six to eight hours of printing and binding for a single complete set. They chose the Sahih International translation for its clarity and modern English, free of archaic language, so the message of Islam reaches the reader without barrier. Every single copy is given away free of charge. Yadira personally proofreads every volume for accuracy, and the organisation’s third board member — a blind woman who herself accepted Islam through Nadir and Yadira’s dawah — is evidence that the work is already bearing fruit. Plans are underway to produce a Spanish Braille Quran, recognising the vast and often overlooked Latino blind community. Islam by Touch aims to place these volumes in the libraries of blind organisations, guide dog schools, and training centres — spaces where a Braille Bible has long held a place — so that non-Muslim blind individuals encounter Islam from its authentic source rather than through distorted media narratives. Key pillars of their mission include:

• Producing the complete English meanings of the Quran in Braille across 10 volumes using the Sahih International translation, distributed entirely free of charge
• Operating as the only Muslim organisation in North America dedicated specifically to the blind community — a gap confirmed after extensive research
• Serving both Muslim and non-Muslim blind individuals, offering Islam from its own source and countering negative stereotypes perpetuated in mainstream media
• Developing a Spanish Braille Quran to extend accessibility to the Latino blind community
• Placing Islamic Braille materials in the libraries of guide dog schools and blind training centres alongside existing Braille Bibles
• Challenging sighted Muslims to stop taking their access to the Quran for granted — and to support this work as an act of collective responsibility

“You truly never believe until you love for your brother what you love for yourself.” — Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, cited by Nadir as the founding spirit of Islam by Touch

This hadith captures everything Islam by Touch stands for: the simple, radical insistence that the blind Muslim community deserves the same access to Islamic guidance, the same spiritual nourishment, and the same dignity within the Ummah as every sighted believer. Nadir’s message to those who can see is clear and direct — if the Quran sits on your shelf untouched while people are waiting months for a Braille copy they can finally read for themselves, it is time to examine your relationship with Allah’s book. Islam, as he describes it, is not complicated: worship the One Creator, submit your will to Him, live with moral purpose. That message crosses every boundary of ability, background, and language. The Quran itself opened with a chapter affirming that the blind man who came seeking knowledge was more deserving of the Prophet’s attention than those who thought themselves self-sufficient — and Islam by Touch carries that same affirmation into the present day. This is not charity in the conventional sense; it is the Ummah honouring its own history, reclaiming the prophetic tradition that elevated blind companions to positions of leadership, and restoring to every blind Muslim their rightful standing as a full, valued member of the community of faith. If this work moves you, support them — and if you have sight, open your Quran today, not only for yourself, but in solidarity with every brother and sister working one dot at a time to reach the same page.