LikeA trusted brother:
“Last night I had a dream and Imam W.D. Muhammad was in it. I forgot parts of it…but I was with a few other guys. It was time for maghrib and we went into some building to pray (a masjid I guess.) Anyway, Imam WD Mohammed was there so we just prayed behind him. After salah, I asked him if he was dead, and he said no…he was busy studying the Qur’an…”
Allahu akbar! That is beautiful. Thank you for sharing this.
Assalamu Alaikum, Suhaibwebb
Thank you for sharing this beautiful dream of W.D. Muhammad. May Allah Bless You…Amin.
Wassalam
Imam Suhaib, can you please comment on seeing people who recently passed away in dreams? my father recently passed and I have had a handful of dreams with him in it. Most dreams were positive…
thanks
Matin
Asalamu alaykum,
It wasn’t my dream. It was the dream of another brother.
SDW
For dream interpertations a really good book is Tafseer al ahlam by Ibn Sirin. You could find it translated.
Assalamu alaykum Sr. Amany,
Ibn Sirin didn’t write that book, it’s falsely attributed to him. He was a great faqih (jurist), a muhaddith (hadith scholar).. he didn’t write books on interpreting dreams… I’m sure Imam Suhaib can verify what I’m saying.
As-Salaamu alaikum.
Few are those who truly leave behind a legacy. Imam W.D. Muhammad’s death reminded me of another figure who deserves a chapter in a study on contemporary influential Muslim figures…Ahmed Deedat.
This is an interview I conducted with him two years before his death, when he was in a state of paralysis (he had been for about nine years at the time).
Obviously the disclaimer: yes, he was controversial, yes he made mistakes…so do we all. But for many South Africans, he was viewed as being just what was needed as a morale booster for non-Whites facing oppression under the apartheid regime.
Besides, I met him on numerous occassions, and have watched him interacting with many people privately, I can tell you, he was one of the most approachable personalities I have met, AlHamdulillah.
I wanted to post this as an article, but not sure how to go about submitting, so please excuse the long comment…it’s actually an article:
Deedat – The Mission Continues
by Fatima Asmal
On October 26, 2002, at 7:30 in the morning, Reverend Naidoo made his way to 49 Trevennen Road in Verulam, KwaZulu Natal. His mission was clear: to convert Sheikh Ahmed Deedat to Christianity.
“Mr. Deedat, can I pray for you in the name of Jesus?” he began. “If I pray for you in his name, you will rise up and walk. You will speak in his name.”
“Can I read for you from the Holy Bible a verse of inspiration so that he (Jesus) may heal you?” he asked.
Sheikh Ahmed Deedat’s response, conveyed via eye movements, is recorded in a black notebook which lies at his bedside. “Mr. Naidoo,” he said, “Please read for me Genesis Chapter 19 Verse 30.”
Reverend Naidoo could hardly contain his excitement. “Dear Jesus, speak through the eyes!” he said, as he opened to the relevant page, and read: “And Lot went up out of Zo’ar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zo’ar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.”
Again, using a series of eye movements, Sheikh Deedat asked, “What is the moral of the story? What do you learn from it?”
Reverend Naidoo, rendered speechless, left, without answering the question, his mission having failed miserably.
Many before and after him have met a similar fate. Ringo, a young Christian bodybuilder and owner of a gym, visited Sheikh Deedat, hoping to “heal” him.
Claiming that the spirit of Jesus lived within him, Ringo said he would perform a miracle at the bedside of Sheikh Deedat. “Jesus heal him! Rise up!” he shouted, simultaneously engaging in a series of hand gestures. Sheikh Deedat observed the proceedings from his bed, before communicating a message to Ringo. Again, his message came from the Bible: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21–23).
“Why would Jesus tell you this when you came to do such a noble job?” he asked.
Ringo said he would return within a few days, with an answer. “To this day they have failed to come back,” says Yousuf, Sheikh Ahmed’s son.
And so in the nine years spent lying in his bed, unable to move, speak or eat, has Sheikh Ahmed Deedat, now 87-years-old, sent many a Christian missionary packing. “Every week, people from different faiths and denominations, come in, or write in, to preach their religions to my father,” says Yousuf. “In every instance, he throws a scud missile at them.”
Many have been embarrassed and silenced, others have been inspired and mesmerized. Like Sabiha Doolarkhan, who writes to him on a monthly basis. Sabiha says meeting Sheikh Deedat, and reading his books, played a vital role in her reversion to Islam, 20 years ago. “I was in awe of the stately man who sat behind the desk,” she says, in a letter to him. “You epitomizsed what I expected Islam to represent—your calm demeanour and comfortable disposition encapsulated the essence of the dignity of Islam—and I left positively and pleasantly imbued with the spirit of Islam.” Sabiha made a decision to write to Sheikh Deedat on a regular basis, after visiting him at his home. From her letters it is clear that even in his state of paralysis, Sheikh Deedat continues to inspire her. “No one can look as majestic or profound as you do on a sick bed,” she writes. “Surely that in itself is evidence that Allah is indeed well pleased with your life’s work.”
Tamara and Ahmed are a young married couple who have found their way to Verulam, using a map. Their lives, too, have been touched by Sheikh Deedat. “I had borrowed his tapes from a friend of mine’s in the States,” remembers Ahmed. “I couldn’t believe that someone who wasn’t born with the Arabic tongue could have such a deep understanding of the Qur’an.” Ahmed, an Egyptian, met Tamara in the United States—she had gone there as an au pair; he was working in the franchising industry. Tamara, at the time a devout Christian, married Ahmed and was first introduced to the works of Sheikh Deedat shortly thereafter when a colleague who was a revert to Islam began lending her his booklets and video tapes. She later accepted Islam and, after the events following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, moved to South Africa with her husband. “When I first met Ahmed, and told him that I lived in Durban, he was really excited and he said, ‘You come from Deedat’s city.’ I had no idea what he was speaking about,” laughs Tamara. “He couldn’t believe that I didn’t know.”
The many visitors like Tamara and Ahmed are warmly welcomed at the Deedat home. Sundays, Yousuf says, is a really busy day. I find myself wondering if the endless visits tire Sheikh Deedat out, if they pose something of an inconvenience to him. But when I ask the question, I am met with a resolute eye movement to the left—this means, “No.”
Unsatisfied, I ask, “What do they mean to you?” I wait expectantly, anticipating a long and meaningful response. The answer is short, but meaningful it is. His eyes spell out a single word: “Joy.”
Joy and blessings are concepts central to his world. I ask him how these past seven years have passed him by. Surely it must be difficult for him to have spent decades traveling the world, delivering lectures and debating, and then to abruptly find himself confined to a bed?
“I count my blessings,” he says. Yousuf explains that his father is referring to one of his favorite verses in the Qur’an, from Surat Ar-Rahman: [And which of the favors of your Lord do you deny?]
Among these blessings is an 80-year-old wife, unable to read or write, who single-handedly monitors his blood sugar levels, calculates the insulin he requires, and administers his injections. It is difficult to believe that as a young man in his late 20s, Sheikh Deedat was initially reluctant to marry Aunty Hawa. She speaks Gujarati and Zulu fluently, and has managed to tell Tamara and Ahmed everything about the Deedat family in broken English. The feast she lays out for us—samoosas, savory rolls, cakes, and cardamom tea—bears testament to superb culinary skills. And her exuberant personality overpowers even my 5-year-old cousin Hamza, who seemed to have lost his tongue the moment he met Sheikh Deedat. She whisks him away into her lounge and brings out a collection of her husband’s trophies for him to play with, while feeding him from a bowl of fruit.
Yousuf Deedat informs us that his mother was actually the 34th woman Sheikh Deedat had been to see, when he had decided to get married. “The other 33 turned him down,” he laughs. He later informs me that his father has told him to set the record straight: It was not the women who turned him down, rather it was their families who had refused him.
The sense of humor which his audiences had grown accustomed to is still there. More often that not, it is accompanied by a hearty, infectious laugh, which seems to emanate from the deep recesses of his throat. It is almost a guffaw—a mixture of a wheeze and a groan. It is the only response I get when I innocently ask a question, “Were you ever swayed by the arguments of your many Christian opponents?” The guffaw comes again when I comment on the Qur’anic ayah which is affixed to the mirror at his bedside: [And (remember) Ayyub when he cried to his Rabb, “Truly distress has seized me, but You are the Most Merciful of those that are Merciful”] (Al-Anbiyaa’ 21:83). This time, the guffaw isn’t a laugh.He guffaws, too, when I tell him that an Internet search engine calls up more than 12,900 Web pages when it is instructed to search for his name. This time I’m not sure whether it’s a laugh or a cry.
He asks me to tell the many who enquire and wonder about him that he is “feeling quite well.” He asks me to tell them to call people to Islam. “Read my books and listen to my tapes,” he says.
He doesn’t think back to the days of old when he used to travel around the world, calling people to Islam, he says. Rather, he looks forward to the future. What is it that he’s looking forward to, I ask. This answer is considerably longer than the others: “My great lecture on the concept of God in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.” Transfixed, I ask him where the lecture will be held, half-expecting him to say something like “In the hereafter” or “On the Day of Judgment.” But there is nothing confusing about the answer. “All over the world,” he replies.
Assalamu’alaikum,
There are 3 type of dreams:
1. Dreams from Allah (STW)
2. Dreams from Shaytan. It has been commanded by The prophet to not tell anyone any of the dreams that fall in this category and that you should seek refuge from Allah(STW) protection from shayton.
3. Dreams that have no meaning. Thing that you thought about the in the daytime and you dreamed them.
Assalaamu’alaikum