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He
was bed-ridden for almost a decade.
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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
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Deedat
became famous for a debate with US Reverend Jimmy
Swaggart, on the topic �Is the Bible the Word of
God.�
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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.
