Tribute to Ahmed Deedat
Faris Jawad
Ahmed Deedat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Deedat
Ahmed Hoosen Deedat (July 1, 1918 - August 8, 2005), born in the Surat
district of India, was an Islamic scholar, author and lecturer. His family
migrated to South Africa in 1927. He established the first Islamic religious
institution in South Africa to train preachers at the Assalaam Institute in
Braemar. He was the president of the Islamic Propagation Centre
International (IPCI), an organization which he helped found1 until he
suffered from a stroke which left him paralysed. He published over 20 books
and distributed millions of copies of pamphlets for free, many of which had
been translated into various languages. His first lecture was entitled
"Muhammad (peace be upon him): Messenger of Peace," and it was delivered in
1940, to 15 people at a cinema in his province.
Within a short space of time, the numbers grew and people crossed the racial
divides which were then prevalent in apartheid South Africa, to listen to
him, and to participate in the questions and answers sessions which followed
his lectures.
Although some Christians and Muslims criticized him for his blunt style,
some people did convert to Islam because of his books and lectures, and
da`wah (teaching Islam) soon began to dominate his life, with the audiences
at his lectures reaching forty thousand. In 1957, Sheikh Deedat, together
with two of his friends, founded the Islamic Propagation Center which
printed a variety of books and offered classes to new Muslims. In 1986, he
visited Saudi Arabia for a conference, and in his first television
interview, became notable in the Arab world with his dynamic personality and
in-depth knowledge of comparative religion. He then visited the United
Kingdom, Morocco, Kenya, Sweden, Australia and Denmark on lecture and
debating tours. In the United States, he became famous for a debate with the
American Reverend Jimmy Swaggart, witnessed by 8,000 people on the topic "Is
the Bible the Word of God."
On May 3, 1996, Sheikh Ahmed Deedat suffered a stroke which left him
paralyzed from the neck down, and also meant that he could no longer speak
or swallow. He was flown to a hospital in Riyadh, where he was taught to
communicate through a series of eye-movements. He spent the last nine years
of his life in a bed in his home in Verulam, South Africa, encouraging
people to engage in da`wah. He continued to receive hundreds of letters of
support from around the world. During these years, rumors spread throughout
the Internet that he was already dead, and even some websites that contained
his pamphlets mentioned as early as 2002 that he was dead.
On August 8, 2005, Ahmed Deedat passed away at his home in Trevennen Road,
Verulam in the province of KwaZulu Natal after succumbing to his prolonged
illness due to a stroke he suffered in 1996.
Many of Deedat's books were about comparisons between Islam and other
religions, particularly Christianity. He wrote about topics such as the role
of Jesus Christ in Islam and his belief that Muhammad was prophecised in the
Bible, with many of the prophecies which Christians believe deal with Jesus
actually deal with Muhammad. Deedat believed that Jesus Christ survived his
ordeal on the cross, his quick recovery being the miracle rather than his
resurrections as Christians say. He engaged in many debates with Christians,
who believe that he died on the cross and was resurrected, and with other
Muslims, who believe that Jesus escaped and sent a substitute to die for him
on the cross.
Tribute to Ahmed Deedat
http://www.islamonline.net/English/In_Depth/volunteers/2005/08/08b.shtml
Torpedo
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