Ahmed Husein Deedat (Gujarati: અહમદ હુસેન દીદત; Urdu: احمد حسین دیدات; Arabic: أحمد حسين ديدات; 1 July 1918 – 8 August 2005), was a South African and Indian self-taught Muslim thinker, author, and orator on Comparative Religion.

Arriving in South Africa, Deedat applied himself with diligence to his studies, overcoming the language barrier and excelling in school, even getting promoted until he completed standard 6.

[2] Deedat took a more active interest in religious debate after he came across the book Izhar ul-Haqq (Truth Revealed),[8] written by Rahmatullah Kairanawi, while he was rummaging for reading material in his employer's basement.

The book had a profound effect on Deedat, who bought a Bible and held debates and discussions with trainee missionaries, whose questions he had previously been unable to answer.

Seeing the popularity of the classes, Mr. Fairfax offered to teach an extra session on the Bible and how to preach to Christians about Islam.

A program of luncheons, speeches and free hand-outs was created to give an increasingly large number of international tourists what was often their first look at Islam.

[15] The next year Deedat established an Islamic seminary called As-Salaam Educational Institute on a donated 75-acre (30 ha) piece of land located in Braemar in the south of Natal province.

[16] The experiment was not a success, however, because of the IPC's lack of manpower and paucity of funds, and was taken over by the Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa in 1973.

Several monthly editions of the Muslim Digest of South Africa (July, August, September, October) in 1986 were almost entirely devoted to criticising Deedat's stance and "his various dangerous activities".

In this regard I refer to Islamic evangelist Sheik Ahmed Deedat, a South African who, on Good Friday, spoke about Easter, indulged in bible-bashing and incited racial hatred.

I do not know why he came to Australia or why he adopted such a confrontationist approach on Good Friday at a big public meeting at Sydney Town Hall when he disparaged the Christian faith.

[20]Ahmed Deedat suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed from the neck down because of a cerebral vascular accident affecting the brain stem (on 3 May 1996), leaving him unable to speak or swallow.

[21] He spent the last nine years of his life in a bed in his home in South Africa, looked after by his wife, Hawa Deedat, encouraging people to engage in Da'wah (proselytizing Islam).

Deedat also widely promoted a South African printing of The Holy Qur'an Translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali with commentary and a detailed index.

[citation needed] Deedat also produced a booklet entitled "Al-Qur'an: the Ultimate Miracle" featuring the theory of 'the Number 19' that was popularised by Arizona-based Egyptian computer analyst Dr. Rashad Khalifa.

He has little to say about the errancy of Sufism or Shi’ism, for instance, and makes no particular demand for establishing an Islamic state (though he was supportive of these efforts in Nigeria).

[38] "Deedat's debates and writings have been labelled as a form of "Apologetics through Polemics"[5] by David Westerlund, an associate professor at the department of comparative religion, Stockholm University and an expert on Islam in Africa.

[42] His supporters, among them his son maintain that he was "a promoter of free speech and dialogue,"[3] while Abdulkader Tayob of University of Cape Town comments that he was only responding to Christian proselytization in a manner that was "not good or bad – but worth reflecting on.