ELEGY FOR YOUSUF DEEDAT, FRIEND OF NIGERIAN MUSLIMS

Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un! We are from Allah, and to Him shall we return.

Two weeks ago, the Janaza (funeral prayer) of our friend and brother Yousuf Deedat took place after the morning prayer at Verulam Mosque near Durban, South Africa. The Janaza was followed by a special prayer and burial of Yousuf’s remains at the Verulam cemetery, where his own father, Shaikh Ahmad Deedat, and mother, Hauwa Deedat, were buried many years earlier.

Yousuf’s son, Raees (now a medical doctor but whom I knew since he was a child), made the announcement of the funeral arrangements shortly after Brother Yousuf, one of South Africa’s and the world’s leading Muslim activists, and a lover (like his late father) of Nigeria’s Muslims, succumbed to his injuries after being fatally shot by an unknown gunman the previous Wednesday. He had been airlifted to hospital and survived for two days.

Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un! We are from Allah, and to Him shall we return.

Yousuf was my very close friend since 2001 when I took up residence at the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban as a research student; and I had made the Deedat house my second home. At that time, the late Shaikh Ahmad Deedat had been bedridden for a number of years and was being nursed by Yousuf’s mother Hauwa, Yousuf himself and other family members. I spent most of my weekends at the Deedat home in Verulam, just outside Durban.

When my son Ja’afar (now 18) was born on October 1, 2001 in Durban, the mother and I had taken him to Shaikh Deedat for du’a. I reported that incident in my “Letter from Durban” in this newspaper’s predecessor, the Weekly Trust back then. For those who could remember (almost 20 years ago), I had posted the picture of the bedridden Shaikh Deedat, Ja’afar (then a week-old baby) and the mother Jamila. Other pictures included one with Yousuf, his mother Mrs. Hauwa Deedat and I. In the condition he then was, the Shaikh had ‘prayed’ for Ja’afar; a prayer interpreted by Yousuf.

Shaikh Deedat had himself died in August 2005, long after I had left South Africa. But less than a year later, I had returned to Durban to condole the Deedats. Yousuf had taken me to the Shaikh’s graveside where I had also prayed for the departed great Islamic scholar. I used the opportunity of that 2006 visit to invite Yousuf to visit Nigeria. The love to visit Nigeria among the Deedats has been legendary – but let me tell you a bit of history.

Sometime in October 1991, Shaikh Ahmad Deedat and his son Yousuf had arrived Aminu Kano Airport in Kano on a scheduled flight with a valid visa issued in London. However, on arrival in Kano, the father and son team of Islamic scholars were denied entry, on orders from high up, it was later revealed. The Shaikh, who had a lifelong ambition to visit Nigeria, was ordered back on to the plane that brought him in. Shaikh Deedat had refused.

Yousuf was later to tell me that there was no way his father and he could communicate with anyone in Kano, as there were no mobile phones, and they were virtual prisoners for the hours they were at the airport. The aircraft that brought them to Nigeria from London was also detained for several hours. The pilot, according to reports, had to personally appeal to the Shaikh to re-board so that the suffering of the other passengers still onboard could be eased. And that was how Shaikh Deedat never set real foot in Nigeria.

All of this Kano was oblivious. Then a few weeks later, a certain Reverend Reinhard Bonnke also arrived Kano airport. He was not denied entry, and was allowed in. Just a few weeks after Shaikh Deedat, the beloved of Nigerian Muslims, was denied entry. For those who remember history, the rest is history.

So, my invitation in 2006 to Yousuf to visit Kano was essentially a golden opportunity to fulfil what his father was denied during his lifetime – visiting Nigeria. We selected May 2007 for the visit, to coincide with the swearing in of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau for second term as governor of Kano State. I happened to be a Special Adviser to the Governor.

Even though Deedat father and son had visited several countries in the world, they had always wanted to visit Nigeria. Reason being that, according to Yousuf, of all the letters the Shaikh and his Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI) in Durban would receive, the largest number would always come from Nigeria. The Shaikh was always pleased with the Nigerian Muslims who, he always said, wrote with sincerity – writing longhand letters, enveloping them, going to the post office to buy stamps and post. So as soon as the Shaikh got a letter from Nigeria and, by extension sub-Saharan Africa, those letters were always treated with priority.

Yousuf Deedat arrived Nigeria in late May 2007. My associates – especially Ibrahim Sagagi, Director Admin at Kano State’s A Daidaita Sahu Societal Reorientation Directorate – organised a tour for him. Yousuf would visit all the important visitable places in the country.

Then Kano Governor Ibrahim Shekarau hosted Yousuf to a dinner, dedicated a ‘Shaikh Deedat Reading Room’ at the State Library and renamed Lodge Road opposite Government House as Shaikh Ahmad Deedat Road. Yousuf was also received by then Kaduna State Governor Muhammad Namadi Sambo in cabinet, and also visited the Sultan of Sokoto, the Emirs of Kano and Zazzau, spent a night at the palatial mansion of late Alhaji AbdulAzeez Arisekola Alao in Ibadan, and gave a lecture at 1004 Mosque in Lagos.

Yousuf always wanted to revisit Nigeria and bring his family along. He wanted them to see and feel a country that had so much love for their late patriarch, Shaikh Ahmad Deedat. Alas! Allah did not will that. May Allah forgive Yousuf Deedat and Shaikh Ahmad Deedat and us all.

Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un! We are from Allah, and to Him shall we return.