I spent the day blind accompanied by Jibraan El Ahmad, who has retinitis pigmentosa, a condition leaving him with only 5% of his sight. Remembering back on this experiment, I thought it would be easy, but I got a true insight into how the blind lives, and the blessing of sight that is bestowed upon us by Allah. 

Although many experiments about being blind have been done, we made sure to be accompanied by Jibraan to understand living with blindness does not only affect your vision. Jibraan and I ate, walked and prayed together both 100% blind with a friend as our guide. I was lucky enough to be able to take off the blindfold at the end of the day, but the appreciation I gained was incredible. 

The video was made with no intention to illustrate the complete experience of what it means to be blind and never was this the aim of the video. 

Jibraan experienced day to day life with such joy in spite of disability. He surrounds himself with positive experiences and energy that can be seen throughout the video, as well as teaching me many lessons along the way. 

The lessons I learnt from Jibraan, from everyday life – such as finding your food and eating it, to spiritual lessons of faith showed me how extremely grateful I am for my own sight, and also awe of the strength that Jibraan showed living with blindness. 

Following the experiment, Jibraan stated

“This has been just an amazing emotional and wonderful experience and a great Dawah project not only for people with disabilities but for the Australian Muslim community but also for the rest of the Australian community. I would like to thank Steve Dabliz and the entire Onepath Network team for their support, help, love, affection and encouragement for this project.”

After taking off my blindfold, I saw more to life than I had started the day with. The insight I gained from spending this day with Jibraan was powerful, to say the least. We must thank Allah every day for our blessings and truly enjoy every day because we never know when parts of our fundamental being, such as our sight, will be taken away from us. 

Watch the powerful social experiment here.