Dubai: A book detailing the life of Shaikh Ahmad Deedat, one of Islam’s greatest scholars and missionaries, will be available in the UAE this week at the Juma Al Majid Centre for Culture and Heritage.
Titled “Ahmed Deedat: The Man and His Mission,” the 280-page book was written by university professor and author Goolam Vahed and published by the Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI), an organisation founded by Deedat in 1957 and based in South Africa.
“The book entails the life of Shaikh Ahmad Deedat from the time he arrived in South Africa at the age of nine years. As he lived in South Africa, he took up menial jobs and worked in a factory. He was highly disturbed by Christian missionaries knocking on the doors of Muslims [to share their faith] in South Africa at that time,” Shabir Basha, IPCI representative, told Gulf News.
From that point on, Deedat studied comparative religion and equipped himself to propagate Islam. The South African writer and public speaker of Indian origin dedicated 40 years of his life to mission work in South Africa and the rest of the world. He was best known for his message, “Come into the light, or stay in the dark. The choice is yours,” in many of his public lectures to spread Islam.
Through Deedat’s life-long work, several thousands of people embraced Islam. He was awarded the King Faisal International Award in 1986 in recognition of his dedication to mission work. He passed away in 2005. He suffered a stroke for nine years earlier.
Basha said the book, available in English and distributed free of charge, was published to reconnect the world with the scholar, to remember and honour him, and “to pay respect to him in that to date his works are very much appreciated and studied”.
