Sheikh Ahmed Deedat, a widely known Muslim televangelist, Islamic preacher, and the mentor of the most famous Islamic preacher Dr. Zakir Naik, was a man of utmost wisdom and diligence in comparative religion. He was a one-man army standing with the Muslims against Christian missionaries and their harassment.
When the Christian missionaries under the British Kingdom were subjugating Muslims and trying their best to defame Islam, he was fighting like a warrior for the sake of Allah.
He was a founder member of the Islamic Propagation Center International (IPCI) and became its president, a position he held until he passed away in the year 2005.
24 Inspiring Sheikh Ahmed Deedat Quotes
1. “Language is the key to the heart of people.”
2. “Have faith. Have hope.”
3. “Someone said: Women are the cause of problems in the world. Yes, I agree; because she suffered nine months to bring a fool like you into life to say that women are the reason for the problems.”
4. “When you keep looking for flaws in others, that’s all you’ll see. You won’t see their beauty. Start focusing on what’s good in people.”
5. “The biggest enemy of Islam is the ignorant Muslim, whose ignorance leads him to intolerance and whose actions destroy the true image of Islam. And when the people look at him, they think that Islam is what he is.”
6. “Islam will win with or without you. But without Islam, you will be lost and you will lose.”
7. “Life’s a constant struggle. Always try to do better. When others make mistakes, don’t look down on them. Help them up with your wisdom.”
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8. “If I did despair of the mercy of Allah, I would not be Muslim.”
9. “Don’t be busybodies, meddling into the affairs of others. Avoid prying into things that are of no concern to you. Focus on your own life.”
10. “If you love Allah, you have to love the Prophet (peace be upon him). If you can’t love the one you can see, how can you love the one whom you can’t see?”
11. “Your brain and your heart are the two most powerful organs in your body. Do not give control of them to anybody.”
12. “We want to make the world a better place but we are not prepared to improve ourselves.”
13. “Don’t envy the lives of others. Often you only see the surface. If you delve deeper, everyone faces challenges. Each one, without exception.”
14. “Christianity is not the religion of Jesus, but it is the religion of Paul. If Christians really followed Jesus, they would have been Muslims.”
15. “If your heart is always content, then you are the same as or even better than he who has everything in this world.”
16. “Women — they are your mother, they are your sisters, they are your daughters, they are your aunts. They have to be loved and cherished and not for sale; so I don’t advertise them.”
17. “Peace with oneself brings about positiveness, calmness, focus, contentment, and goodness in our thoughts, actions, character, and being.”
18. “Protect yourself, your children, and the coming generations by knowledge and wisdom.”
19. “Arrogance creates a mental block preventing you from taking good advice. Humility allows you to open up, seek advice, and imbibe knowledge.”
20. “Life is not guaranteed at all, but death is absolutely guaranteed upon all; yet we still prepare for life more than death.”
21. “We believe that Allah is the only Creator, and He sent us messengers and prophets to guide us.”
22. “Go back to the Qur’an. Allah gives you directions on how to do the job. He is giving you example after example, but Muslims are not reading the books. They rattle it off. They memorise it, they recite it beautifully, and they put people in ecstasy when they recite. But WHAT ARE WE READING? Are the sound, the melody, and the voice the reward that we are reading for?”
23. “We have got so much energy that we don’t know how to use it. So what are we doing now? We are using this energy to bash each other — busy, busy, busy: ‘you know about your beard, that it is not the standard fist size,’ ‘you are wearing Mushrik clothes’ — busy, busy, busy in such petty matters. What I say is: look, the important thing in life is that you must identify who are the people there to subvert you, who are out to steal your children, and so on. Instead of worrying about the beard or the moustache, whether it should be shaved or trimmed. What is this luxury that we are enjoying? We can’t afford this luxury, because these are the things going on that are going to destroy us, that are going to break us up.”
24. “In Karachi in the 1950s, living in Pakistan, Katcheri Road, second floor, I get a knock at the door early in the morning. I open the door and a Caucasian, a white man, says, ‘Good morning.’ I say, ‘Good morning, what can I do for you?’ The man says, ‘Look, I have got some literature for you.’ I said, ‘Come inside.’ He comes in. Sits down. I say, ‘Where do you come from?’ He says, ‘I come from England.’ A few days later, another knock at the door. I open the door and another white man — right in the centre of Karachi. I say, ‘What can I do for you?’ ‘I have some literature for you.’ ‘Where do you come from?’ ‘America.’ This guy is coming from 6,000 miles, that guy is coming from 10,000 miles to preach me in my country. I want to know what am I doing? Nothing. Nothing. It is an obligation of the Muslims to deliver the message long before Salah, Zakah, and Hajj became Fard. Allah tells His prophets, and through him, He is telling us: ‘You deliver the message, because it is your duty.’”
Key takeaways from these quotes:
- Knowledge before debate. “Protect yourself, your children, and the coming generations by knowledge and wisdom” — Deedat’s recurring instruction is that ignorance, not the missionary, is the real threat (quotes 5, 18, 19).
- Read the Quran to understand it, not just to recite it. Quote 22 is the clearest single sentence Deedat ever gave on this: melody and memorisation without comprehension is not the reward Allah promised.
- Language is dawah strategy. “Language is the key to the heart of people” (quote 1) is why he chose English as the primary medium of his lectures, debates, and 20+ books distributed free worldwide.
- Stop policing minor matters; deliver the message. Quotes 9, 23, and 24 all return to the same point — missionaries crossed continents to preach in Karachi while Muslims argued over beard length. Dawah is fard, not optional.
- Character is the argument. Quotes 4, 7, 13, 15, 17 and 19 cluster around a single theme: a Muslim’s contentment, humility, and refusal to look down on others is itself the most persuasive comparative-religion argument he can make.
Sheikh Ahmed Deedat Books
Ahmed Deedat published over 20 books and distributed millions of copies free of charge. He delivered thousands of lectures around the world and successfully engaged Christian evangelists in public debates.
Several thousand people entered the fold of Islam as a result of the hard work of Ahmed Deedat.
He authored many books to train young Muslims to get involved in dawah work and invite people to taste the sweetness of Islam.
- The Choice — Between Islam and Christianity (Volume I)
- Is the Bible God’s Word?
- Al Quran — the Miracle of Miracles
- What is His Name?
- Christ in Islam
- What Was the Sign of Jonah?
- What the Bible Says About Muhammad (peace be upon him)
- Resurrection or Resuscitation?
- Arabs and Israel — Conflict or Conciliation?
- Crucifixion or Cruci-Fiction?
May Allah accept his deeds and bless his soul with Jannatul Firdaus for his path-breaking efforts in dawah of Islam worldwide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Sheikh Ahmed Deedat?
Sheikh Ahmed Deedat (1918–2005) was a South African Muslim preacher and scholar of comparative religion. He is widely described as a Muslim televangelist whose lectures and public debates on Islam and Christianity reached audiences across the world. He was a founder member of the Islamic Propagation Center International (IPCI) and served as its president until his death, and he was the principal mentor of the better-known Islamic preacher Dr. Zakir Naik.
When did Ahmed Deedat die?
Ahmed Deedat passed away in 2005, having held the presidency of the Islamic Propagation Center International (IPCI) until that point. In the final years of his life he was bedridden following a stroke in 1996 that left him unable to speak, but he continued to receive visitors and oversee IPCI’s dawah work until he passed away.
What organisation did Ahmed Deedat found?
Deedat was a founder member of the Islamic Propagation Center International (IPCI), based in Durban, South Africa. IPCI publishes and distributes free literature on Islam and comparative religion, organises lectures and debates, and trains Muslims in dawah work. Deedat held the presidency of IPCI from the centre’s founding period until his death in 2005.
What is Ahmed Deedat best known for?
Deedat is best known for his public debates with Christian evangelists on the comparative theology of Islam and Christianity — most famously with Jimmy Swaggart, Anis Shorrosh and Robert Douglas. He is also known for his short, accessible books on subjects such as Is the Bible God’s Word?, What the Bible Says About Muhammad, and Crucifixion or Cruci-Fiction?, and for using English as the primary medium of dawah at a time when most Muslim scholarship was written in Arabic or Urdu — reflecting his own quote: “Language is the key to the heart of people.”
How many books did Ahmed Deedat write?
Deedat authored more than 20 books on Islam, Christianity, and comparative religion, and IPCI distributed millions of copies worldwide free of charge. His best-known titles include The Choice — Between Islam and Christianity, Is the Bible God’s Word?, Al Quran — the Miracle of Miracles, What is His Name?, Christ in Islam, What the Bible Says About Muhammad and Crucifixion or Cruci-Fiction? The titles were written primarily as dawah training material for young Muslims preparing to engage with Christian missionary literature.
Who was Ahmed Deedat’s most famous student?
Ahmed Deedat’s most famous student is Dr. Zakir Naik, who has explicitly described Deedat as his mentor and credits Deedat’s lectures with shaping his own approach to comparative-religion dawah. Naik went on to found the Islamic Research Foundation in Mumbai and now reaches audiences via Peace TV; the methodology of citing chapter and verse from the Bible alongside the Quran, used heavily by Naik, was Deedat’s signature style first.
Related quotes collections: Omar Suleiman quotes, Nouman Ali Khan quotes, Bilal Philips quotes.
