Ahmed Deedat

Ahmed Hussein Deedat
Born	(1918-07-01)July 1, 1918 Gujarat, India
Died	August 8, 2005(2005-08-08) (aged 87) Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Region	Islamic Preacher
School	Sunni Islam
Main interests	Islamic Dawah Comparative religion Christianity and Islam
Website	www.ahmed-deedat.net

Sheikh Ahmed Hussein Deedat (July 1, 1918–August 8, 2005) was a Muslim scholar, charismatic public speaker and Islamic missionary of Indian-South African descent. He was best known for his numerous inter-religious public debates with evangelical Christians, as well as pioneering video lectures most of which centered around Islam, Christianity and the Bible. He also established the IPCI, an internationally renown Islamic missionary organization under whose auspices Deedat wrote and mass produced several booklets on Islam and Christianity. He was awarded the prestigious King Faisal Award in 1986 for his 50 years of missionary work. Deedat aimed at providing Muslims with theological tools for defending themselves against the intense missionary strivings of many Christian denominations. He used English instead of Arabic or any other language to get his message across to Muslim minorities in the western world.

Biography

Early Years 1918-1942

Ahmed Deedat was born in Gujarat, India in 1918. His father had emigrated to South Africa shortly after the birth of Ahmed Deedat. At the age of 9, Deedat went to join his father in what is now known as Kwazulu-Natal. His mother died few months after Deedat left for South Africa. Applying himself with diligence to his studies, Deedat was able to overcome the language barrier and excel in school, getting promotions until he completed standard 6. He had to start working at the age of 16.

In 1936, while working as a furniture salesman Deedat came across missionaries at a Christian seminary on the Natal South Coast. The missionaries in their efforts to convert people of Muslim faith, would often accuse the Prophet Mohammad of having "used the sword" to bring people to Islam. Such attacks were a major influence on Deedat's subsequent interest in comparative religion.

Deedat got his first break when, while rummaging for reading material in his employer's basement, he came across a book entitled "Izhar ul-Huqq" (Truth Revealed), written by Rahmatullah Kairanhvi. This book which chronicled the efforts of Christian missionaries in India from a century earlier. This book had a profound effect on Deedat who then purchased his first Bible and began holding debates and discussions with trainee missionaries, whose questions he had previously been unable to answer.

His foray into Bible Studies took a more serious turn when he started attending Islamic study classes held by a local Muslim convert named Mr. Fairfax. Seeing the popularity of his classes, Mr. Fairfax offered to teach an extra session on the Bible and how to preach to Christians about Islam. Deedat and a few others were delighted at the opportunity. However, only a few months into the project, Mr. Fairfax had to pull out of his engagement, and Deedat, who was quite knowledgeable about the Bible already, took over teaching the class. Which he did for three whole years and later credited for expanding his horizons significantly towards missionary work.

Early Missionary Work 1942-1956

Deedat's first lecture, entitled "Muhammad: Messenger of Peace", was delivered in 1942 to an audience of fifteen people at a Durban movie theatre named Avalon Cinema.. Over time, Deedat's popularity as a public speaker grew in Durban, to the point that he was invited to speak in other cities in South Africa. A decade later he was filling City halls with audiences numbering in the thousands in cities such as Johannesburg and Cape Town.

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 sophisticated program of luncheons, speeches and free hand-outs was created to give an increasingly large number of international tourists often their first look at Islam. Deedat himself featured as one of the guides, hosting tourists and giving succinct introductions to the Islamic Religion and the relationship between Islam and Christianity.

IPCI and as-Salaam 1956-1986

By 1956, missionary work in the form of frequent public speaking engagements and the popular guided tours of the Jumma Masjid had begun to pay dividends. Enquiries about Islam from the general public in South Africa had started to pour in at an increasing rate. Soon it became apparent that working from the mosque office was not going to be sufficient to handle the demand for literature and to facilitate an increasing number of people showing more than simply tourist level interest in Islam.

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, Deedat, together with Vanker and Rasool, founded the Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI) with the aims to print a variety of books on Islam and offer classes to new Muslims converts.

In 1958, Deedat also established an Islamic seminary called As-Salaam Educational Institute on a donated 75-acre piece of land located in Braemar in the south of Natal province.

With these newly founded missionary organizations as his backbone, Deedat engaged into a broader range of activities over the next three decades. He conducted classes on Biblical Theology and conducted numerous lectures. Da`wah (inviting people towards Islam) became the dominant factor of his life, with the audiences at his lectures reaching forty thousand. He later also went on to write a large number of booklets, distributing millions of copies of free literature and pamphlets across the world, conducted classes on Bible studies and also delivered numerous lectures and held debates on varied topics of Islam, Christianity and Judaism to large numbers of audiences.

International Fame 1985-1995

By the early 1980s, Ahmed Deedat's works was beginning to be known outside his native South Africa. In 1985, he twice rented the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London to debate in front of a packed audience. In 1986, he was awarded the King Faisal Award for his services to Islam in the field of Dawah (Islamic missionary activity). The award squarely brought Deedat into the limelight and the attention of the international community. At the ripe old age of 66, Deedat began a new phase in his lifetime mission of preaching to Christians, a ten-year long period of international speaking tours around the world. Travelling far and wide to Muslim communities from Australia at one end to North America at the other end. Some of his known tours include:

• Saudi Arabia and Egypt (on several occasions)
• United Kingdom (on several occasions between 1985 and 1988)
• Pakistan, where Deedat met Zia al-Haq, UAE and Maldives Islands (Nov-Dec 1987), where Deedat was honored by President Gayhoom.
• Switzerland (March 1987 where he spoke in Geneva)
• US Tour Number 1 (late 1986 featuring debates with Swaggart, Robert Douglas and several lectures including two in Arizona)
• Sweden and Denmark (late 1991 featuring three debates)
• US and Canada Tour (1994 tour featuring debate in Canada)
• Australia Tour (his last tour in early 1996 just before his stroke)

Illness and Death 1996-2005

On May 3, 1996, Sheikh Ahmed Deedat suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed from the neck down because of a Cerebral Vascular Accident affecting the Brain Stem, and which also meant that he could no longer speak or swallow. He was flown to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, where he was reported to be fully alert and hence taught to communicate through a series of eye-movements via a chart whereby he would form words by acknowledging individual alphabets read out to him; this way he would form complete sentences.

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 (Islam propagation). He was looked after by his wife, Hawa Deedat, and was reported to have no bed-sores at all. He continued to receive hundreds of letters of support from around the world, but was a target to many missionaries who tried to convert him to Christianity, to which he replied -via head and eye movements- with verses from the Bible. In October 2002 Deedat was visited by Reverend Naidoo who requested Deedat to let him read a verse of the Bible in order to inspire him and pray for his healing. Deedat in turn, through his eye-movements—the sole method of communication he had been taught at King Faisal Specialist Hospital after being paralyzed—asked him to read out and explain the moral of the event described in Genesis 19:30.For this the Reverend had no answer and thereafter left the place. A similar later attempt at converting Deedat was made by a young Christian gym owner named Ringo who claimed he could heal Deedat through a miracle by saying "Jesus heal him! Rise up!", however Deedat quoted Matthew 7:21 and then asked him "Why would Jesus tell you this when you came to do such a noble job?"

On August 8, 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.

Debates

File:Deedat debate.jpg

Video Cover of the Great Debate with Anis Sharrosh

Deedat's first well-known debate occurred in August 1981 when he debated well-known Christian apologist Josh McDowell in Durban, South Africa. Many of his debates were later broadcasted online on Youtube, among other sites.

Debates with Anis Shorrosh

Deedat had memorable tussles with Palestinian-American missionary Dr. Anis Shorrosh. Shorrosh first came to public attention when he showed up at the Q&A sessions on two separate occasions during Deedat's summer 1985 tour of the UK (where he debated Dr. Floyd E. Clark). Thereon ensued some back and forth and the result was two highly contentious debates, the first entitled Is Jesus God? took place right away in Dec 1985 at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London. The second debate was organized with much fanfare and held in Birmingham, UK on August 7, 1988; entitled The Quran or the Bible: Which is God's Word. This debate spanned a total of 240 minutes including the Q&A session.

Debate with Jimmy Swaggart

Deedat's most famous moment came when he managed to land a debate with televangelist Jimmy Swaggart in Swaggart's hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. The debate was entitled Is The Bible the Word of God, and was held in November 1986 at the University of Louisiana, attended by about 8,000 people at a time when Jimmy Swaggart was one of the leading faces of evangelical Christianity.

One Christian scholar wrote of the debate,

The debate is on the reasonableness of their competing faiths which was held at Louisiana State University. Great expectations were generated since both were experienced public speakers. Sadly, Swaggart merely relied on TV showmanship to influence the crowd. When Deedat challenged him to prove the Bible as the Word of God, Swaggart simply quoted John 3:16 and claimed that his life was changed by it. Even such a claim was shattered to pieces when Swaggart’s personal sexual weaknesses were later exposed in the press.

Before the debate, Swaggart is reported to have attacked Islam's allowance of Polygamy by asserting that he was "happy with one wife". His words were later proved to be false, when in a spate of just 5 years after the debate, Swaggart was caught twice in damaging sex scandals and lost most of his international following and stature soon after.

Other Notable Debates

In his US tour of 1986, Deedat also debated Dr. Robert Douglas, PhD (Zwimmer Institute) at the University of Kansas in November 1986 in a debate entitled Crucifixion: Fact or Fiction. Deedat's last major debate entitled Was Jesus Crucified? took place at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Canada on July 17, 1994 featuring Wesley H. Wakefield (Bishop General of the Bible Holiness Movement of Vancouver).

In Oct-Nov 1991, Deedat toured Scandinavia where he held three debates and several speeches. Two of these debates where held on successive nights against Pastor Stanley Sjöberg in Stockholm, Sweden. The first of these was entitled Is the Bible the True Word of God? . and the second debate was Is Jesus God?.. Deedat then traveled to Denmark where he debated Pastor Eric Bock in Copenhagen in a debate entitled Is Jesus God?

Deedat and the Pope

Needless to say, Deedat had a particular fondness for the Pope. In 1984, he challenged John Paul II to a public dialogue in the Vatican Square, but the Pope responded that he only agreed to a closed conference in his cabin. However, Deedat wrote back that he insisted "that such meeting should be public,". When the Pope stopped answering, Deedat distributed a pamphlet in January 1985 headlined His Holiness Plays Hide and Seek With Muslims.

His Writings and Speeches

Ahmed Deedat's The Choice

Deedat published and mass produced over one dozen palm-sized booklets focusing on the following major themes. Deedat then proceeded to record video lectures on the same topics, multiple copies of which are available featuring different locations from his many tours mentioned earlier. Most of his debates also focus on and around the same material below.

• Is the Bible God's Word?
• What The Bible Says About Muhammad
• Crucifixion or Cruci-Fiction?
  • several smaller spin-off titles on specific aspects of Crucifixion
• Muhammad: The Natural Successor to Christ
• Christ in Islam
• Muhammad The Greatest
• Al-Qur'an the Miracle of Miracles

In using the Bible as his primary source of evidence, Deedat in his writings on Crucifixion subscribes to the swoon hypothesis.

Capitalizing on his popularity in the Middle East following his receipt of the King Faisal Award, Deedat secured a grant to print a collated volume of four of his booklets. 100,000 copies of this book titled The Choice: Islam and Christianity were initially printed in a very high quality HB 'silk paper' edition with a striking burgundy cover with gold embossed title. This book was very popular in the 1990s, often available for free at missionary outlets across North America.

Later, a second volume in plain PB entitled The Choice: Volume Two came out featuring six more of Deedat's booklets collated together. Deedat also widely promoted a South African printing of The Holy Qur'an translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali with commentary and detailed index. This was widely made available at subsidized costs to the general public and is often mentioned in Deedat's speeches.

Deedat also produced a booklet entitled "Al-Qur'an: the Ultimate Miracle" featuring the theory of 'the Number 19' that was popularized by Arizona-based Egyptian computer analyst Dr. Rashad Khalifa. However, this booklet was later withdrawn from circulation after Dr. Khalifa publicly disclosed some controversial beliefs including his rejection of the entire Hadith literature of Islam.

In 1987, Deedat refuted rumors in South Africa that he was a Qadiani and was distributing a Tafseer of the Qur’aan attributed to a well-known Qadian, Muhammad Asad, by issuing a public statement clarifying his stand, re-stating his view that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad al-Qadiani was a 'Kaafir' (i.e. non Muslim), and so were his followers.

Criticism

Deedat's debates and writings have been labelled a form of apologetics. . Lloyd V. J. Ridgeon, professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Glasgow writes:

Ahmed Deedat's pamphlets are being recycled to a brand new British Muslim constituency. Thus, a new generation is exposed to his malicious new disinformations. The reason for the popularity of such polemicists as Ahmed Deedat is varied: Muslim self-understandings as "the best of all communities" leads them to suppose that Islam prevails over all religions. Combined with the wounded pride of living in a post-colonial world within the continuing hegemony of western culture,some dignity can at least be preserved by claimimg moral and religious superiority.

Still, Deedat's influence was certainly wider than confined to the underground. Muslim scholar Farid Esack has criticized Deedat, comparing him to such fundamentalists as Rabbi Meir Kahane and Jerry Falwell, and writing:

Deedat's multitude of anti-Christian, anti-Jewish and anti-Hindu videotapes have told us all that there is to be told about the other, and we are comfortable with that. There are times, of course, when questions surface about the importance of correct dogma, about the importance of labels to a God whom we believe sees beyond labels and looks at the hearts of people. Instead of pursuing these questions, we hasten back and seek refuge in "the known." We order another of those Deedat tapes.

The "Stephen Roth institute for the study of contemporary antisemitism and racism" calls Deedat "anti-Jewish" but does not elaborate. In France, his books have been forbidden for sale and distribution since 1994, being considered violently anti-western, antisemitic, inciting to racial hate.

External sources

• Arabs and Israel - Conflict Or Conciliation? by Sheikh Ahmed Deedat
• A List of Deedat's online books
• Islamic Propagation Center International
• High quality video collection of Sheikh Ahmed Deedat's debates and lectures in Windows Media-format
• Video collection of Sheikh Ahmed Deedat's debates and lectures] in RealMedia-format

See also

• Dawah
• Islamic view of Jesus' death
• Swoon hypothesis