Biography
Ahmed Deedat was born in Tadkeshwar, Gujarat, India in 1918. Soon after his birth, his father emigrated to South Africa, where later A. Didat also moved. Here he will show his zeal in his studies for the first time, but due to financial difficulties at the age of 16 he will be forced to leave his studies and start working.
In 1936, Ahmed Deedat worked as a salesman in a furniture store, where he would meet a group of Christian missionaries who claimed that the Prophet Muhammad spread Islam exclusively by force - "with the help of the sword" brought Islam to the people. The work of Rahmatullah Kairanvi "Izhar al-Haq" (Arabic: إظهار الحق) also influenced the activity of A. Didat. These events strongly influenced the future theologian and forced him to engage in comparative analysis of religions.
Ahmed Deedat will give his first lecture in 1942 in Durban for an audience of only 15 people, it is noteworthy that the lecture was called "Muhammad - Messenger of Peace" (eng. Muhammad: Messenger of Peace) .
Deedat was engaged in a call to Islam without access to modern technology, telecommunications, the Internet and satellite television. But despite this, with his speeches and disputes with Christian theologians, Ahmad Deedat made a revolution in the minds of many people, and his works have been translated into all major languages of the world.
Foundation of the International Center for Islamic Appeal
Ahmad Deedat was well aware that his work on calling to Islam through a scientific debate with theologians of other confessions should continue after his death. For this it was necessary to prepare a solid base. So, with special persistence and enthusiasm, the Muslim scholar set about realizing his goal. Thanks to his efforts, several educational institutions and centers were opened in South Africa, among which the main place was undoubtedly occupied by the International Center for Islamic Calling (IRCI) in Durban, where the method of Ahmad Didat is used. Training at the center lasts two years and consists of eight courses. The teaching is carried out by scientists and preachers, many of whom have passed Didat's school and knew him personally.
Sickness and death
On May 3, 1996, Ahmed Didat suffered a stroke, as a result of which his entire body below the neck was paralyzed. The paralysis affected the vessels of the brain and the brain stem, as a result of which Deedat could not move, speak and eat independently for the last nine years of his life. In Riyadh, he underwent rehabilitation, where he was taught to form words and sentences with the help of his eyes.
Awards
Sheikh Deedat has received high awards in a number of Arab and Islamic countries, including the King Fahd Prize, which he received in 1986.
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- ... imam.ru. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
Excerpt characterizing Didat, Ahmed
Once again it pushed from there. The last, supernatural efforts are in vain, and both halves opened silently. It has entered, and it is death. And Prince Andrew died.But the instant he died, Prince Andrew remembered that he was asleep, and the instant he died, he, making an effort over himself, woke up.
“Yes, it was death. I died - I woke up. Yes, death is awakening! " - suddenly brightened in his soul, and the veil, hiding the unknown until now, was raised before his soul's gaze. He felt, as it were, the release of the force previously bound in him and that strange lightness that had not left him since then.
When he woke up in cold sweat and stirred on the sofa, Natasha went up to him and asked what was wrong with him. He did not answer her and, not understanding her, looked at her with a strange look.
This was what happened to him two days before Princess Marya's arrival. From that day on, as the doctor said, the debilitating fever took on a bad character, but Natasha was not interested in what the doctor was saying: she saw these terrible, more certain for her, moral signs.
From that day began for Prince Andrey, together with awakening from sleep - awakening from life. And in relation to the duration of life, it did not seem to him more slowly than awakening from sleep in relation to the duration of a dream.
There was nothing scary and abrupt in this relatively slow awakening.
His last days and hours passed in an ordinary and simple way. And Princess Marya and Natasha, who did not leave him, felt this. They did not cry, did not shudder, and lately, feeling this themselves, they no longer went after him (he was no longer there, he left them), but after the closest memory of him - behind his body. The feelings of both were so strong that the external, terrible side of death did not affect them, and they did not find it necessary to indulge their grief. They did not cry either in his presence or without him, but they also never spoke about him among themselves. They felt they could not express in words what they understood.
They both saw how he deeper and deeper, slowly and calmly, descended from them somewhere there, and both knew that this was the way it should be and that it was good.
He was confessed, given the Holy Communion; everyone came to say goodbye to him. When they brought his son to him, he put his lips to him and turned away, not because it was hard or sorry for him (Princess Marya and Natasha understood this), but only because he believed that this was all that was demanded of him; but when they told him to bless him, he did what was required and looked around, as if asking if there was anything else to be done.
When the last shudders of the body, abandoned by the spirit, occurred, Princess Marya and Natasha were here.
- Is it over ?! - said Princess Marya, after his body had already been lying motionless for several minutes, growing cold, in front of them. Natasha came up, looked into the dead eyes and hurried to close them. She closed them and did not kiss them, but venerated what was the closest memory of him.
“Where did he go? Where is he now? .. "
When the dressed, washed body lay in the coffin on the table, everyone approached him to say goodbye, and everyone cried.
Nikolushka was crying from the suffering bewilderment that tore his heart. The Countess and Sonya cried out of pity for Natasha and that he was no longer there. The old count cried that soon, he felt, and he had to take the same terrible step.
Natasha and Princess Marya were crying now, too, but they were not crying out of their own personal grief; they wept from the reverent tenderness that gripped their souls before the consciousness of the simple and solemn sacrament of death that took place before them.
The totality of the causes of phenomena is inaccessible to the human mind. But the need to look for reasons is embedded in the soul of man. And the human mind, not grasping the infinity and complexity of the conditions of phenomena, of which each separately can be considered a cause, grabs the first, most understandable rapprochement and says: this is the reason. In historical events (where the subject of observation is the essence of the actions of people), the will of the gods is the most primitive rapprochement, then the will of those people who stand in the most prominent historical place - historical heroes. But one has only to delve into the essence of each historical event, that is, into the activities of the entire mass of people who participated in the event, in order to make sure that the will of the historical hero not only does not direct the actions of the masses, but is itself constantly guided. It would seem that it is all the same to understand the meaning of a historical event in one way or another. But between the person who says that the peoples of the West went to the East because Napoleon wanted it, and the person who says that it happened because it had to happen, there is the same difference that existed between people who claimed that the earth stands firm and the planets move around it, and those who said that they do not know what the earth is supported on, but know that there are laws governing the movement of both it and other planets. There are no reasons for a historical event and cannot be, except for the only reason for all reasons. But there are laws governing events, partly unknown, partly groping by us. The discovery of these laws is possible only when we completely renounce the search for reasons in the will of one person, just as the discovery of the laws of motion of the planets became possible only when people renounced the idea of the affirmation of the earth.
During the apartheid period Ahmed Deedat, founder of the International Center for Islamic Calling and the Al-Salam Institute in Durban, challenged Christian missionaries and questioned the traditional dominance of Western culture. By publicly discussing religious issues with some of the highest-ranking representatives of Christian churches, he helped Muslims, tired of feeling like second-class citizens, regain their sense of self-confidence. Over the course of six decades of teaching A. Didat, debating and mentoring, many people have converted to Islam.
Born in July 1918 in India, Ahmed Deedat began helping his father Hussein, who moved with his family to South Africa, in August 1927, when he was barely 9 years old. Having become acquainted with the English alphabet at the Anjuman madrasah, he learned English and entered school. In six months, Ahmed became the best student in his class. However, due to financial difficulties, he was soon forced to interrupt his studies. He had to earn his own living on his own. He got his first job in a shop near Adam's Mission, an institute on the outskirts of Durban that promoted and taught Christianity. Mission students often approached the chief of Ahmed, who was a Muslim, urging him to convert to Christianity. This aroused the indignation of young Ahmed. At that time, he decided to obtain the necessary information about Islam and Christianity. The book "Izhar ul-haq", written in the form of a religious dialogue between a Christian priest and an imam, dramatically changed his life. It was the first of those works that A. Didat, along with the Bible, studied very carefully.
In 1940 Deedat came to the big stage to talk about Islam and the contradictions contained in the Bible as part of a study on comparative religion. His conversations became very popular. Soon Ahmed began lecturing to thousands of listeners. During his speeches, he was often challenged by dozens of disaffected people, but along with this, many converted to Islam.
In Cape Town, he lectured at the Good Hope Center. Many Muslims living in this city were brought from Indonesia and Malaysia as slaves or prisoners. They felt overwhelmed and tired of being second-class citizens. In this regard, the attitude towards his lectures at Cape Town was extremely sympathetic.
By the 50s, the number of those who wanted to listen Ahmed Didat reached about 40 thousand people. It was too much. Therefore, in 1957, the Islamic Call Center was established, specializing in book publishing and fundraising for lecturing. Soon one of Ahmed Deedat's friends donated 70 acres of land on the South African coast to the center. Subsequently, the center "Al-Salam" arose on this base, in which Ahmed Deedat taught young Muslims until he returned to Durban in 1973 to pay more attention to his lectures. It was during this time that he received international recognition. The 1976 conference of the World Association of Muslim Youth in Riyadh was another turning point in his life.
In July 1985, A. Deedat agreed to take part in a debate with the American missionary, Professor Floyd Clark, at the King Albert Hall in London, concerning the crucifixion of Jesus (peace be upon him). Since then, he has made a number of trips to Denmark, Morocco, Sweden, Kenya and Australia. Sheikh Ahmed also took part in a debate with Jimmy Swaggart in the US on "Is the Bible the Word of God"? With each trip he made new friends, but also new enemies.
After some time, the center founded by Ahmed Didad, now called the International Center for Islamic Calling, moved to more spacious premises, where Sheikh Ahmed began to teach numerous representatives of various religions, some of whom initially came to point out to A. Didat about the mistakes he was making. The conversions of these people to Islam became more and more common. Among such people was the one who first approached Sheikh Ahmed at the age of over forty. He asked the sheikh more and more questions. Having reached the age of 63, this person was ready to accept Islam. However, when he appeared to convey this good news to Sheikh Ahmed, he learned about a serious illness that befell him in May 1996. Only three years later, the trustees of the International Center for Islamic Propaganda found a replacement for him, appointing a new president of the center.
Today Sheikh Ahmed is virtually unable to move. He is looked after by his devoted wife. Despite the fact that the entire body of the sheikh, from the neck and below, is paralyzed, he is fully conscious and has not lost his wit and sense of humor. Deprived of the ability to speak, the sheikh communicates with others using eye movements.
Ahmad Hussein Didat was born in India on July 1, 1918. His family lived in Surat. Shortly after Ahmad's birth, his father, Hussein Didat, learned of the new financial opportunities that were opening up in South Africa's booming economy. He soon found work there as a tailor. Hussein Didat had to make a risky but courageous choice and leave his young son in India under the supervision of his mother. And only 9 years later, young Ahmad saw his father. When Hussein's position became more favorable and stable, he decided to move his son to South Africa. And it was then that Ahmad received his first passport issued by the British colonial administration.
Ahmad's journey across the continent was marked by a series of curious incidents and was an unforgettable experience for a nine-year-old boy. He went to South Africa alone on a long sea voyage. By the grace of Allah, young Ahmad arrived safely in August 1927. Just days before his arrival, the African government set strict rules for the entry of migrants into the country and set a deadline after which no child could enter the country unaccompanied by a mother. Ahmad arrived at the port just 24 hours after the ban was imposed. The new law came into full force. This meant that Ahmad Deedat and the rest of the children who were on the ship must be returned to India. However, his father did his best to prevent this from happening. Ahmad was the only child who was allowed into the country that day. The decisive character of his father, his strength and confidence were transferred to Ahmad, who later became a great personality.
Education
Ahmad Deedat entered the school. And despite the fact that he had never attended school before, it was soon discovered that he was ahead of all his classmates in terms of knowledge. In just 6 months of study, he became the best student in the class. However, his bright future and academic prospects were overshadowed by the severe pain of loss - his mother died. She lived only a few months after her son left for South Africa.
Ahmad's emotional distress intensified further when he faced financial problems. He found that his father had nothing to pay for his studies. His sadness and concern was noticed by a local businessman. He promised Ahmad to pay all the tuition fees. However, this promise turned out to be a cruel joke. The father had to take the boy out of school. Like millions of his peers, young Ahmad was forced into trade. He found a job 30 km outside Durban in an old local store across from a Christian missionary parish. Young Africans were recruited here to spread Christianity in South Africa. These young people often visited the store where Ahmad worked and read sermons to him, and sometimes arranged whole disputes. Ahmad Deedat tried in every possible way to defend his faith.
Ahmad Deedat and religion
This work was carried out continuously day after day. And for the young Ahmad, this became so unbearable that, despite the difficulties in finding a job, he seriously began to think about quitting and devoting himself to religion. Knowing only the testimonies of faith and the basic tenets of Islam, Ahmad found himself unable to defend his own religion. However, he felt an irresistible desire, an inner impulse that pushed him to seek knowledge that would help him strengthen his faith and clarify his spiritual life. But it turned out that all the answers he was looking for were on the surface.
The moment of enlightenment came when Ahmad decided to inspect the store's warehouse. There he discovered an old book that changed his life forever. Ahmad realized that she was able to answer all the questions that tormented his mind. The book was a description of the many meetings between Muslims and Christian missionaries who came to India to preach the gospel. The book also contained articles on a fascinating debate between Muslim theologians and missionaries. For the young Deedat, it was a whole religious story. Ahmad Deedat began to study it.
Self-education of Ahmad
Seized with good enthusiasm, the young Deedat eagerly read page after page. He was amazed at the depth of the arguments and the consistency of the answers given by Muslim scholars. In addition to providing Ahmad with invaluable information, the book also inspired the young reader to embark on the path of seeking knowledge and facts about various religious traditions from an Islamic point of view. But most importantly, the book reunited him with Islam. He began reading the Qur'an and memorizing verses while doing his own research on the Bible and the New Testament. Over time, Ahmad Deedat began holding meetings with missionaries.
Bible Study
As he became more confident in his knowledge, Ahmad began attending local Bible studies given by an Englishman who had converted to Islam. Ahmad attended lectures with great enthusiasm. He learned a lot about comparative religion, about the provisions of the Bible. After a few months, the Englishman stopped teaching, and Deedat decided to take his place. His charisma and style of presentation were so convincing that for the next three years he did not stop giving lessons.
Preacher of islam
Long gone are the days when young missionaries bombarded Ahmad with questions and provocative statements, and long gone are the days of timid answers and half-hearted attempts to defend his faith. Now he began to challenge missionaries about the authenticity of their own scriptures.
Ahmad Deedat began to look for a new platform for his lectures. He pioneered previously unknown approaches to traditional ways of invoking Islam. He was one of the first to offer advertisements in local newspapers in support of Islam. Soon, Ahmad acquired an English translation of the Qur'an and began to memorize it. Islamic appeal became the main work of Deedat's life, its dominant factor. Soon he was invited to Cape Town, where he gave lectures in huge halls in front of an audience of more than 40 thousand spectators. Ahmad Deedat's books were a success and were very popular among the audience of the lectures.
Having received material support from one of the businessmen, Ahmad and his family set off to the southern coast of Natal, where he became the founder of the Al-Salam organization. The aim of this organization was to teach comparative religion. Ahmad served as director for 17 years. Soon he began to develop a more ambitious project - the International Center for the Spread of Islam. And he succeeded in this.
During the apartheid period Ahmed Deedat, founder of the International Center for Islamic Calling and the Al-Salam Institute in Durban, challenged Christian missionaries and questioned the traditional dominance of Western culture. By publicly discussing religious issues with some of the highest-ranking representatives of Christian churches, he helped Muslims, tired of feeling like second-class citizens, regain their sense of self-confidence. Over the course of six decades of teaching A. Didat, debating and mentoring, many people have converted to Islam.
Born in July 1918 in India, Ahmed Deedat began helping his father Hussein, who moved with his family to South Africa, in August 1927, when he was barely 9 years old. Having become acquainted with the English alphabet at the Anjuman madrasah, he learned English and entered school. In six months, Ahmed became the best student in his class. However, due to financial difficulties, he was soon forced to interrupt his studies. He had to earn his own living on his own. He got his first job in a shop near Adam's Mission, an institute on the outskirts of Durban that promoted and taught Christianity.
Mission students often approached the chief of Ahmed, who was a Muslim, urging him to convert to Christianity. This aroused the indignation of young Ahmed. At that time, he decided to obtain the necessary information about Islam and Christianity. The book "Izhar ul-haq", written in the form of a religious dialogue between a Christian priest and an imam, dramatically changed his life. It was the first of those works that A. Didat, along with the Bible, studied very carefully.
In 1940 Deedat came to the big stage to talk about Islam and the contradictions contained in the Bible as part of a study on comparative religion. His conversations became very popular. Soon Ahmed began lecturing to thousands of listeners. During his speeches, he was often challenged by dozens of disaffected people, but along with this, many converted to Islam.
In Cape Town, he lectured at the Good Hope Center. Many Muslims living in this city were brought from Indonesia and Malaysia as slaves or prisoners. They felt overwhelmed and tired of being second-class citizens. In this regard, the attitude towards his lectures at Cape Town was extremely sympathetic.
By the 50s, the number of those who wanted to listen Ahmed Didat reached about 40 thousand people. It was too much. Therefore, in 1957, the Islamic Call Center was established, specializing in book publishing and fundraising for lecturing. Soon one of Ahmed Deedat's friends donated 70 acres of land on the South African coast to the center. Subsequently, the center "Al-Salam" arose on this base, in which Ahmed Deedat taught young Muslims until he returned to Durban in 1973 to pay more attention to his lectures. It was during this time that he received international recognition. The 1976 conference of the World Association of Muslim Youth in Riyadh was another turning point in his life.
In July 1985, A. Deedat agreed to take part in a debate with the American missionary, Professor Floyd Clark, at the King Albert Hall in London, concerning the crucifixion of Jesus (peace be upon him). Since then, he has made a number of trips to Denmark, Morocco, Sweden, Kenya and Australia. Sheikh Ahmed also took part in a debate with Jimmy Swaggart in the US on "Is the Bible the Word of God"? With each trip he made new friends, but also new enemies.
After some time, the center founded by Ahmed Didad, now called the International Center for Islamic Calling, moved to more spacious premises, where Sheikh Ahmed began to teach numerous representatives of various religions, some of whom initially came to point out to A. Didat about the mistakes he was making. The conversions of these people to Islam became more and more common. Among such people was the one who first approached Sheikh Ahmed at the age of over forty. He asked the sheikh more and more questions. Having reached the age of 63, this person was ready to accept Islam. However, when he appeared to convey this good news to Sheikh Ahmed, he learned about a serious illness that befell him in May 1996. Only three years later, the trustees of the International Center for Islamic Propaganda found a replacement for him, appointing a new president of the center.
Today Sheikh Ahmed is virtually unable to move. He is looked after by his devoted wife. Despite the fact that the entire body of the sheikh, from the neck and below, is paralyzed, he is fully conscious and has not lost his wit and sense of humor. Deprived of the ability to speak, the sheikh communicates with others using eye movements.
During the apartheid period, Ahmed Didat, founder of the International Islamic Call Center and the Al-Salam Institute in Durban, challenged Christian missionaries and questioned the traditional dominance of Western culture. By publicly discussing religious issues with some of the highest-ranking representatives of Christian churches, he helped Muslims, tired of feeling like second-class citizens, regain their sense of self-confidence. Over the course of six decades of teaching A. Didat, debating and mentoring, many people have converted to Islam.
Born in July 1918 in India, Ahmed Deedat began helping his father Hussein, who moved with his family to South Africa, in August 1927, when he was barely 9 years old. Having become acquainted with the English alphabet at the Anjuman madrasah, he learned English and entered school. In six months, Ahmed became the best student in his class.
However, due to financial difficulties, he was soon forced to interrupt his studies. He had to earn his own living on his own.
He got his first job in a shop near Adam's Mission, an institute on the outskirts of Durban that promoted and taught Christianity. Mission students often approached the chief of Ahmed, who was a Muslim, urging him to convert to Christianity.
This aroused the indignation of young Ahmed. At that time, he decided to obtain the necessary information about Islam and Christianity. The book "Izhar ul-haq", written in the form of a religious dialogue between a Christian priest and an imam, dramatically changed his life. It was the first of those works that A. Didat, along with the Bible, studied very carefully.
In 1940, Deedat took to the big stage to talk about Islam and the contradictions in the Bible in a comparative study. His conversations became very popular. Soon Ahmed began lecturing to thousands of listeners. During his speeches, he was often challenged by dozens of disaffected people, but along with this, many converted to Islam.
In Cape Town, he lectured at the Good Hope Center. Many Muslims living in this city were brought from Indonesia and Malaysia as slaves or prisoners. They felt overwhelmed and tired of being second-class citizens. In this regard, the attitude towards his lectures at Cape Town was extremely sympathetic.
By the 50s, the number of those who wanted to listen to Ahmed Didat reached about 40 thousand people. It was too much. Therefore, in 1957, the Islamic Call Center was established, specializing in book publishing and fundraising for lecturing. Soon one of Ahmed Deedat's friends donated 70 acres of land on the South African coast to the center. Subsequently, the center "Al-Salam" arose on this base, in which Ahmed Deedat taught young Muslims until he returned to Durban in 1973 to pay more attention to his lectures.
It was during this time that he received international recognition. The 1976 conference of the World Association of Muslim Youth in Riyadh was another turning point in his life.
In July 1985, A. Deedat agreed to take part in a debate with the American missionary, Professor Floyd Clark, at the King Albert Hall in London, concerning the crucifixion of Jesus (peace be upon him). Since then, he has made a number of trips to Denmark, Morocco, Sweden, Kenya and Australia. Sheikh Ahmed also took part in a debate with Jimmy Swaggart in the US on "Is the Bible the Word of God"?
With each trip he made new friends, but also new enemies.
After some time, the center founded by Ahmed Didad, now called the International Center for Islamic Calling, moved to more spacious premises, where Sheikh Ahmed began to teach numerous representatives of various religions, some of whom initially came to point out to A. Didat about the mistakes he was making. The conversions of these people to Islam became more and more common.
Among such people was the one who first approached Sheikh Ahmed at the age of over forty. He asked the sheikh more and more questions. Having reached the age of 63, this person was ready to accept Islam. However, when he appeared to convey this good news to Sheikh Ahmed, he learned about a serious illness that befell him in May 1996. Only three years later, the trustees of the International Center for Islamic Propaganda found a replacement for him, appointing a new president of the center.
Today Sheikh Ahmed is virtually unable to move. He is looked after by his devoted wife, Khava. Despite the fact that the entire body of the sheikh, from the neck and below, is paralyzed, he is fully conscious and has not lost his wit and sense of humor. Deprived of the ability to speak, the sheikh communicates with others using eye movements.
"The Story of Ahmed Deedat", Al-Madj (documentary), 2002
