Who is Ahmed Deedat?

_________________________________________
Ahmed Hoosen Deedat (1918 8 August
2005) was a South African writer and public
speaker of Indian descent. He was best
known as a Muslim missionary who held
numerous inter-religious public debates with
evangelical Christians, as well as video
lectures, most of which centered on Islam,
Christianity and the Bible. He also established
the IPCI, an international Islamic missionary
organization, and wrote several booklets on
Islam and Christianity which were widely
distributed by the organization. He was
awarded the King Faisal International Prize in 1986 for his fifty years of missionary
work. He used English to communicate with Muslims and non-Muslims in the
western world.

Early Years 19181942

Deedat was born in town of Tadkeshwar, Surat, Bombay Presidency, British India in
1918. His father had emigrated to South Africa shortly after his birth. At the age of 9,
Deedat left India to join his father in what is now known as Kwazulu-Natal. His
mother died only a few months after his departure. Arriving in South Africa, Deedat
applied himself with diligence to his studies, overcoming the language barrier and
excelling in school, even getting promoted until he completed standard 6. However,
due to financial circumstances, he had to quit school and start working by the time
he was the age of 16.
In 1936, while working as a furniture salesman, he met a group of missionaries at a
Christian seminary on the Natal South Coast who, during their efforts to convert
people of Muslim faith, often accused the Islamic Prophet Muhammad of having
"used the sword" to bring people to Islam. Such accusations offended Deedat and
created his interest in comparative religion.
Deedat took a more active interest in religious debate after he came across the book
Izhar ul-Huqq (Truth Revealed), written by Rahmatullah Kairanawi, while he was
rummaging for reading material in his employer's basement. This book chronicled
the efforts of Christian missionaries in India a century earlier. The book had a
profound effect on Deedat, who bought a Bible and held debates and discussions
with trainee missionaries, whose questions he had previously been unable to
answer. He started attending Islamic study classes held by a local Muslim convert
named Mr. Fairfax. Seeing the popularity of the classes, Mr. Fairfax offered to teach
an extra session on the Bible and how to preach to Christians about Islam. Shortly
thereafter, Fairfax had to pull out and Deedat, by this point quite knowledgeable
about the Bible, took over teaching the class, which he did for three years.

Early missionary work 19421956

Deedat's first lecture, entitled "Muhammad: Messenger of Peace", was delivered in
1942 to an audience of fifteen people at a Durban cinema named Avalon Cinema.
A major vehicle of Deedat's early missionary activity was the 'Guided Tours' of the
Jumma Mosque in Durban. The vast ornamental Jumma Mosque was a landmark site
in the tourist-friendly city of Durban. A program of luncheons, speeches and free
hand-outs was created to give an increasingly large number of international tourists
what was often their first look at Islam. Deedat himself was one of the guides,
hosting tourists and giving introductions to Islam and its relationship with
Christianity.

IPCI and as-Salaam 19561986

Among Deedat's close friends were Goolam Hoosein Vanker and Taahir Rasool,
whom many refer to as 'the unsung heroes of Deedat's career'. In 1957, these three
men founded the Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI) with the aim of
printing a variety of books on Islam and offering classes to new Muslims converts.
The next year Deedat established an Islamic seminary called As-Salaam Educational
Institute on a donated 75-acre (300,000 m2) piece of land located in Braemar in the
south of Natal province. The experiment was not a success, however, because of the
IPC's lack of manpower and paucity of funds, and was taken over by the Muslim
Youth Movement of South Africa in 1973. Deedat then returned to Durban and
expanded the IPC's activities.

International efforts 19851995

By the early 1980s Ahmed Deedat's work was beginning to be known outside his
native South Africa. His international profile grew in 1986, when he received the King
Faisal Award for his services to Islam in the field of Dawah (Islamic missionary
activity). As a result, at age of 66, Deedat began a decade of international speaking
tours around the world.
On the other hand, in South Africa problems arose after the publication of From
Hinduism to Islam (1987), a critique of Hindu beliefs and practices. Among others,
Deedat criticized South African Hindus for praying to their various deities and being
easily moved to convert to Christianity. Hindus and Christians had respected his
oratory skills and arguments until then. But now, they rejected Deedat and united
with other South African Muslim organizations in denouncing his attacks on other
religions. Two years later, Jews joined the criticism after Deedat published Arab and
Israel Conflict or Conciliation?

Illness and death 19962005

On 3 May 1996, Ahmed Deedat suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed from the
neck down because of a cerebral vascular accident affecting the brain stem, leaving
him unable to speak or swallow. He was flown to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in
Riyadh, where he was reported to be fully alert. He learned to communicate through
a series of eye-movements via a chart whereby he would form words and sentences
by acknowledging letters read to him. He spent the last nine years of his life in a bed
in his home in South Africa, looked after by his wife, Hawa Deedat, encouraging
people to engage in Da'wah (proselytizing Islam). He received hundreds of letters of
support from around the world, and local and international visitors continued to visit
him and thank him for his work. On 8 August 2005, Ahmed Deedat died at his home
on Trevennen Road in Verulam in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. He is buried at the
Verulam cemetery. Hawa Deedat died on Monday 28 August 2006 at the age of 85 at
their home.

Reema Badr Al-harbi

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Deedat