Ahmed Deedat

Ahmed Hoosen Deedat was born on 1 July 1918 in the Surat district of British India. His father moved to South Africa with him in 1927. Deedat initially performed well at school, but financial difficulties forced him to leave formal education at the age of 16 and begin working in retail.

A significant influence on his intellectual development was his encounter with Izhar-ul-Haq (The Truth Revealed), a work about Muslim-Christian debates in India. According to the IPCI's account of his life, reading the book encouraged Deedat to pursue Islamic da'wah and comparative religious study. He subsequently studied Christian missionary literature and developed his own approach to presenting Islamic arguments in discussions with Christians.

Deedat began giving public lectures in the early 1940s. His first recorded lecture, “Muhammad: Messenger of Peace,” was delivered in 1942 in Durban. He also participated in programs at the Jumma Mosque in Durban, where he introduced visitors to Islam and discussed its relationship with Christianity.

In 1957, Deedat, together with Gulam Hussein Vanker and Tahir Rasul, founded the Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI) in Durban. The organization focused on producing and distributing Islamic literature and conducting educational and missionary activities. Deedat later became its president and spent decades delivering lectures, conducting Bible-study classes, and participating in interfaith debates.

Deedat also established the As-Salaam Educational Institute at Braemar in Natal in 1958, intended to train Islamic propagators. Although the institution did not ultimately continue under his direction, his wider propagation activities expanded considerably through IPCI.

From the 1970s through the 1990s, Deedat became increasingly well known outside South Africa. He traveled internationally and held public debates and lectures concerning Islam, Christianity, the Bible, and the Qur'an. The Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies at Oxford describes his approach as a form of religious apologetics conducted through polemical debate.

Deedat authored more than 20 books and booklets, many dealing with comparative religion and Muslim-Christian theological questions. His writings and recorded lectures were distributed internationally, and IPCI states that millions of copies of his literature were circulated.

In 1986, Deedat received the King Faisal International Prize for his service to Islam. The recognition came during the period when his international lectures and debates had made him a widely known figure in Muslim communities around the world.

In May 1996, Deedat suffered a severe stroke that left him paralyzed and unable to speak. He remained mentally alert and developed a method of communicating through eye movements. He spent the remainder of his life in this condition.

Ahmed Deedat died on 8 August 2005 in Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, at the age of 87. His work through lectures, books, recordings, and IPCI left a significant influence on modern Muslim-Christian debate and popular comparative-religion discourse.