Twelve years after the passing of the esteemed Shaykh Ahmed Deedat, on Thursday the Muslim community bid farewell to the shaykh’s brother, Abdullah, a respected scholar in his own right.
Speaking to VOC News, Shaykh Ahmed Deedat’s son, Yousuf, explained that while the news of the passing of his uncle was met with sadness, he holds onto the Islamic premise that everyone is promised death.

Yousuf says that Shaikh Abdullah was a luminary amongst the Deedat’s, having studied at al-Azhar University.

“He was a great orator with regards to the great poet Iqbal; these are qualities that Abdullah had, and these are qualities of the Deedat’s – the Deedat’s who I call an endangered species.”

He says that while his father is widely known for his scholarship, his uncle shared in the love of the study of Islam.

“My father was a passing comet, Abdullah was the tail of the comet. I am nobody – I am just the fragrance of that comet.”

“Abdullah was a great man and I pray Allah grants him a place to the Rasool [May peace be upon him] and my father and mother.”

Like all families, the Deedat family was not without problems. Yousuf says that despite their roller-coaster relationship, they loved each other.

“If it is our Janaza, we will carry each other’s janaza, we loved each other – we are Muslim.”
He recalls nostalgically the continued call by his uncle to hold tight onto the rope of Allah and to not be divided amongst ones family.

Abdullah, along with his brother Ahmed, were known to have been passionate advocates of Islam, sharing their wisdom with those within the midst.

“None of them wanted to hurt each other, but they disagreed on certain issues and that is a quality of a Muslim…so in their relationship I would say the good outweighs the bad.”

Meanwhile, Imam Saeed Mohamed, who knew Shaykh Abdullah during his tenure as the Head of Dawah at the Islamic Propagation Centre, described Abdullah as a shaykh in the true sense of the word.
“He had a good understanding of the Arabic language, thus he had a good grasp of the Qur’anic message and he also was an avid reader – of course the Call of Islam.”

Having joined the centre in 1987, Mohamed says that Abdullah notably engaged with concerns within the Muslim community.

“Very often we don’t find courageous scholars, he was one of those individuals that moved away from the time were people were restricted…he was very innovative in his thinking.”
Abdullah, known to be fluent in English, Arabic, Urdu, and some Farsi was, therefore, able to relate to classical scholarship.

Mohamed says that while Shaykh Abdullah respected his peers, he understood the need for adapting to modern times in order to address the issues that impact the Muslim community.

“Very often he went against certain dogmatic ulama and this is the problem that we have today…and I always remember him for the expression ‘in the world of change, conformity is important’.

“At one stage we had people saying that TV was haram, but here he moved away from those restrictions and he will always be remembered in the latter years on iTV.”

Importantly, he notes that Abdullah always called attention to the need for unity.

“Although he went for issues that were very challenging he tried to not steer away from unity – something which is greatly lacking today.”

The Janazah of Sheikh Abdullah Deedat will leave 56 St Jerome Avenue Mayfair-West at 2.30pm for West Park Qabrastaan, Janaazah Salaah will be at 3pm.