Ismaeel Nakhuda

Saudi Gazette

 

With humble beginnings in British India, Ahmed Deedat (1918-2005) was perhaps one of South Africa’s most renowned yet controversial figures.



In “Ahmed Deedat: The Man and His Mission,” fellow South African Goolam Vahed, a university professor and author, charts Deedat’s remarkable and intriguing life.



The son of a tailor who struggled to make ends meet, Deedat started life as a salesman, eventually packing lecture theatres across the world.



In spite of criticism of his delivery style, Deedat gained widespread admiration from across the Muslim world and ultimately the King Faisal Award for Services to Islam.



Born in Tadkeshwar, a rustic village in rural Gujarat, Deedat was largely self-taught. Having arrived in South Africa as a young boy, it was his early experience with students and teachers at a South African Christian missionary school in the late 1930s who taunted him about Islam that led to “sleepless nights in tears” for not being able to defend his faith.



One afternoon, he stumbled on a “worm-eaten book full of mildew that caused him to sneeze uncontrollably” and which, he later explained, transformed his life.



The book was an English translation of Izhar-ul-Haq based on a debate between Mawlana Rahmatullah Kairanawi (181-1891) and German missionary Karl Pfander in Agra in 1854.



Described as the “greatest debate,” Pfander was the leading Christian missionary in the Islamic world at the time. The debate was a landmark affair, attended by all and sundry, including the colonial administrator Sir William Muir.



During the debate, Pfander refused to continue and was transferred to Peshawar “fuelling speculation that he wished to avoid another debate.”



Vahed writes that the “debate was a game-changer, Muslims in India had recently lost their political power and their religious beliefs were being infringed on.



This was the first intellectual defeat of Christian beliefs on their home turf and changed the landscape.” A few years later, during the 1857 Indian Mutiny, Mawlana Kairanawi was placed on a wanted list and migrated to Makkah where he received accolades for his debates, established the Madrasah Sawlatiyyah (which still runs today) and was sponsored by the Ottomans to write Izhar-ul-Haq published in 1864.



It was this chance encounter with the mawlana’s work that empowered Deedat. “It made me ponder as to how so many unwary Muslims are being constantly assaulted by Christian evangelists who carry out a door-to-door campaign, and being invited in by the proverbially hospitable Muslim.



I thought of how the merciless missionary munched the samoosas and punched the wind out of the Muslim with snide remarks against his beliefs,” wrote Deedat.



And so Deedat began delivering lectures and writing pamphlets. In this thoroughly researched book, Vahed draws on extensive sources and interviews individuals who knew Deedat throughout his life.



It speaks of his origins, his simple background, how his father moved to South Africa leaving him in the care of his mother who passed away a few months later, how he arrived in South Africa aged nine, how his father could not afford his school fees, and the jobs he did before reaching worldwide popularity. A humbling read indeed.



Aside from chronicling Deedat’s life, Vahed also delves on the organization, Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI), that he established, his various debates and how he—like his inspiration Mawlana Rahmatullah did over a hundred years before—received widespread popularity in the Middle East.



Throughout the 1980s, with the advent of video cassette recorders, the Deedat swagger became legendary. “The way in which Deedat packaged his message appealed to many and affronted others.



Deedat’s publications had bold graphics and were easy on the eye and mind. His literary style was ‘characterized by clearness and simplicity.



It lacks academic complexity and jargon,’ and includes both ‘humor and human interest,’ making it accessible to a wide non-academic readership,” writes Vahed.



However, his manner also attracted the disapproval of some fellow Muslims, including his own father. Yet, as Vahed points out, Deedat was a product of his environment and time.



“As far as he was concerned, a polite approach was inappropriate because Islam … was facing a ‘total onslaught.’ He regarded it as his duty to challenge Western perceptions of Islam and to awaken Muslims from their slumber,” writes Vahed, who also provides interesting insight into Christian missionary work in South Africa, particularly those targeting Muslims in the Cape.



Vahed also highlights some of Deedat’s other contributions, including the awareness he created on issue of Palestine. He also details his debates, especially his epic one with Jimmy Swaggart in 1985 and his involvement in the Rushdie Affair.



This is an engaging read that not only covers the fluffy bits regarding Deedat’s life, but also includes criticism. Additionally, it is not just a biography about Deedat the debater, but documents Islam in South Africa, including the country’s various Indian communities and the remarkable Malays of the Cape.



Vahed writes regarding Deedat, “It was a remarkable journey from the streets and back alleys of Durban. Along the way he met kings and politicians, and debated with some of the West’s leading evangelists. Even more remarkably, he never entirely gave up on everyday proselytizing.”



By Goolam Vahed Published by IPCI (2013)