INNALILLAHI WAINNAILAIHI RAJIUUN
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Muslims Mourn Late Sheikh Deedat
Deedat was a self-educated caller to Islam.
By Fatima Asmal, IOL Correspondent
DURBAN, South Africa, August 8, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - Hundreds of people
are expected to attend the funeral of South African caller to Islam Sheikh
Ahmed Deedat, who passed away in the early hours Monday, August 8.
Sheikh Deedat, 87, passed away at his home in Trevennen Road, Verulam in
the province of KwaZulu Natal at 7 a.m.
His son Yusuf told IOL that the cause of his death was heart failure.
The family was not in a state of shock, said Yusuf. “As Muslims we believe
that every soul shall taste death.”
He added that the last moments of his father’s life were peaceful, and
coincided with the commencement of a recitation of "Surah Yaseen" on an
Islamic radio station.
“Channel Islam had just introduced and begun to play Surah Yaseen when the
throes of death began,” he explained. “My father just looked at us and then
passed away.”
Funeral
Sheikh Deedat will be buried in the Verulam cemetery after Salaatul-Maghrib
(Maghreb prayers) Monday.
Hundreds of people from around the country are expected to participate in
his funeral prayer, and his family says that people from across the world,
such as India, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates have been calling to convey their condolences.
“His death comes as a shock to us,” Maulana Ahmed Kathrada, of the Jamiatul
‘Ulama (Scholars' Group), a local theological body, told IOL.
He added that Sheikh Deedat had served not only South Africans, but the
Muslim Ummah at large, for many years.
“We pray that Allah Grants him a lofty position in Jannah (Paradise), and
that He Grants his family patience, especially his wife who has endured so
much during the last few years.”
Dedicated Wife
He was bed-ridden for almost a decade.
Mrs Hawa Deedat, who had spent the last nine years nursing her husband and
administering his daily injections, was present at her husband’s side at
the time of his death, and she is well, said Yusuf.
“She is the wife of a soldier, and can therefore only be a soldier
herself."
Several other religious leaders and political figures expressed their
sadness at the news of Sheikh Deedat’s death.
Mr. Ashwin Trikamjee, president of the South African Hindu Maha Sabha, said
that Sheikh Deedat would be missed by Muslims worldwide and the greater
South African Muslim community.
“I think that the Islamic community has lost a great man, who was totally
committed to the cause of Islam,” he said.
Mr. Trikamjee said that Sheikh Deedat had made a huge impact on
constructive religious debate.
Mr Riaz Jamal, a director of the Al-Ansaar Foundation in Durban, South
Africa, who had done a thesis on Sheikh Deedat as part of his Masters in
Islamic Studies, said that there was a need for the Muslim and Christian
worlds to continue to bring audiences together for religious debate and
dialogue.
“Sheikh Ahmed Deedat was a global caller to Islam,” he said.
"I don’t think any other Muslim wrote to the Pope, inviting him to Islam,
but Sheikh Deedat did. It’s our responsibility to continue in propagating
his message.”
Sheikh Deedat’s health had been steadily deteriorating in the last few
months after he had suffered various complications related to the lock in
syndrome stroke which had left him paralysed and bed-ridden for almost a
decade.
His death marks the end of an era of Da’wah in which his name became
synonymous with breaking down inter-faith barriers.
His Life
Born on July 1, 1918, Sheikh Deedat arrived in South Africa, from India, as
a nine-year-old in August 1927.
Although he hadn’t previously been exposed to the English language, he
learnt it in six months, excelled at school and finished top of his class.
However, due to financial considerations, his father removed him from
school during his early years of secondary schooling. He was sent to work
in a store in a rural area, where his mission of Da’wah began.
Students from a Christian missionary school would visit the store preaching
their beliefs to him, and knowing little more than the shahadah (testifying
that no god but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet), he found it difficult
to defend his beliefs.
He then stumbled upon a book which carried a religious dialogue between a
Muslim imam and a Christian priest, and this proved to be the first of many
books which he would read on the subject.
He began researching both religions and recording his findings in a
notebook, after which he started delivering lectures in South Africa.
First Lecture
Deedat became famous for a debate with US Reverend Jimmy Swaggart, on the
topic “Is the Bible the Word of God.”
His first lecture was entitled “Muhammad (peace be upon him): Messenger of
Peace,” at 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 felt that his style was blunt, many
others reverted to Islam, and Da’wah 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, enthralled 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
paralysed 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.
Mohd Nazri Chik
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