Ahmed Deedat

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Ahmed Hoosen (Hussein) Deedat (born July 1, 1918 in Surat , Bombay , British India ; died August 8, 2005 in Verulam , eThekwini , South Africa ) was a Muslim writer and speaker. He was best known for his numerous public interreligious debates with evangelical Christians as well as for lectures accessible through the Internet . His subjects are Islam , Christianity and the Bible .

Deedat was the founder of the IPCI, an international Islamic missionary organization, and publisher of brochures on Islam and Christianity.

Life

Beginnings

He left India at the age of nine to follow his father, Hoosen Cassim Deedat, who had emigrated to South Africa - his mother died shortly afterwards. In South Africa, he overcame the new language barrier while at school. He was educated at Carlisle High School in Durban and at the Indian Higher Grade School . He later trained at ML Sultan Technical College in Durban. For financial reasons, he dropped out of school and started working at the age of 16.

In 1936, while working as a furniture seller, he met a group of missionaries in a Christian seminary on the coast of Natal who were trying to convert people to the Muslim faith. They claimed that the Prophet Mohammed spread Islam "by the sword". Deedat then developed an increasing interest in the world religions. He was impressed by reading the book "Izhar ul-Haqq" by Rahmatallāh al-Kairānawī , which describes the efforts of earlier Christian missionaries in India. Deedat bought a Bible and began having discussions with missionaries who were still to be trained, whose questions he had not been able to answer before. He studied Islam with a Muslim convert named Fairfax. Fairfax taught him the Bible and taught him how to teach Islam to Christians.

First missionary work

He gave his first lecture “Muhammad: Messenger of Peace” in 1942 at the “Avalon Cinema” in Durban in front of 15 people. Slowly, Deedat gained more attention and was invited to give lectures, mainly in South African cities like Johannesburg and Cape Town .

IPCI

In 1957, together with Goolam Hoosein Vanker and Taahir Rasool , Deedat founded the organization "IPCI-Islamic Propagation Center International", with the aim of printing and offering a large number of books on Islam. The target group were mainly converts. He gave lectures on the Bible and Da'wah , "inviting people to Islam" became the most important factor in his lifestyle.

Deedat began to preach internationally, u. a. in Great Britain, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, the USA, Sweden, Denmark, Australia and Canada.

The last few years

On May 3, 1996, Deedat suffered a stroke that partially paralyzed him so that he could no longer speak or swallow. He was taken to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh , where he learned to communicate through a series of eye movements. He spent his last nine years in the care of his wife Hawa Deedat in Verulam, a district of the metropolitan municipality of eThekwini in South Africa.

Awards

literature

  • What Christ crucified ?: Based on Bible . Ansari Publications, Karachi, 1965
  • What the Bible says about Muhummed . Islamic Propagation Center, Birmingham, 1976
  • Resurrection or resuscitation? Islamic Propagation Center International, Birmingham, 1978
  • Who moved the stone? Islamic Propagation Center International, Birmingham, 1988
  • What was the sign of Jonah . Kanoo Group, Durban, 2000.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Islamic Propagation Center International: Our founder . www.ipci.co.za (English)
  2. ^ Solomon Academic Trust, Center for Muslim-Christian Studies: Ahmed Deedat . on www.cmcsoxford.org.uk (English)
  3. ^ Ahmed Deedat Islamic Research Foundation. Retrieved July 29, 2009.
  4. ↑ Fatima Asmal: Ahmed Deedat - How It All Began . Islamic Voice, September 2005, at www.islamicvoice.com (English)
  5. ^ A b Sheila Keeble (Ed.) SPP Kutumela, A. Booley: The Black Who's Who of Southern Africa Today . African Business Publ., Johannesburg 1979, 1st edition, p. 110
  6. ^ Asim Khan: The life of Shaikh Ahmed Deedat . News from January 21, 2006, on www.aljazeera.com (English)
  7. ↑ a b Goolam Vahed: Obituary: Ahmed Hoosen Deedat (1918-2005) . on www.cci.uct.ac.za (English)
  8. ↑ Demystifying Islam and Debating Christianity, Imran Garda, 2006
  9. ↑ Islamic Propagation Center International ( Memento from September 10, 2001 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Deedat, Ahmed
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Deedat, Ahmed Hoosen (full name); Deedat, Ahmed Hussein
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Islamic writer and speaker
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Surat , Bombay, British India
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 2005
Place of death Verulam , eThekwini , South Africa