A Lecture by Ahmed Deedat
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MY FIRST MAJOR ENCOUNTER
Say: "Do you see? Whether this message be from Allah (God Almighty), and yet you reject it, and a witness from among the children of Israel bore witness of one like him...."
(Qur'an, Al-Ahqaf 46:10)
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen
The subject of this evening's talk - "What the BIBLE says about Muhammad " - will no doubt come as a surprise to many of you because the speaker is a Muslim. How does it come about that a Muslim happens to be expounding prophecies from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures?
As a young man, about 30 years ago, I attended a series of religious lectures by a Christian theologian, a certain Reverend Hiten, at the "Theatre Royal", Durban in South Africa.
Pope or Kissinger?
This Reverend gentleman was expounding Biblical prophecies. He went on to prove that the Christian Bible foretold the rise of Soviet Russia, and the Last Days. At one stage he went to the extent of proving that his Holy Book did not leave even the Pope out of its predictions. He expatiated vigorously in order to convince his audience that the "Beast 666" mentioned in the Book of Revelation - the last book of the New Testament - was the Pope, who was the Vicar of Christ on earth. It is not befitting for us Muslims to enter into this controversy between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. By the way, the latest Christian exposition of the "Beast 666" of the Christian Bible is Dr. Henry Kissinger [2]. Christian scholars are ingenious and indefatigable in their efforts to prove their case.
Reverend Hiten's lectures led me to ask that if the Bible foretold so many things - not even excluding the "Pope" and "Israel", then surely it must have something to say about the greatest benefactor of mankind [3] - the Prophet Muhammad .
As a youngster I set out to search for an answer. I met priest after priest, attended lectures, and read everything that I could lay my hands relating to the fields of Bible prophecies. Tonight I am going to narrate to you one of these interviews with a dominee [4] of the Dutch Reformed Church.
Lucky Thirteen
I was invited to Transvaal [5] to deliver a talk. Knowing that in that Province of the Republic of South Africa, the Afrikaans language is widely spoken, even by my own people, I felt that I ought to acquire a smattering of this language so as to feel a little "at home" with the people. I opened the telephone directory and began phoning the Afrikaans-speaking Churches. I indicated my purpose to the priests that I was interested in having a dialogue with them, but they all refused my request with "plausible" excuses. Number thirteen was my lucky number. The thirteenth call brought me pleasure and relief. A dominee Van Heerden agreed to meet me at his home on the Saturday afternoon that I was to leave for Transvaal.
He received me on his veranda with a friendly welcome. He said if I did not mind, he would like his father-in-law from the Free State (a 70 year old man) to join us in the discussion. I did not mind. The three of us settled down in the dominee's library.
