Imtiaz Sooliman – An inside look at , the man behind The Gift of the Givers

Something really for South Africans to be proud of. Now, tell

me about when you were first introduced to Dr Suleiman. I met

Dr Suleiman many, many years ago, before in fact, he'd founded gift

to the givers. He was a member of the Islamic Medical Association,

and I saw this doctor giving a talk at a public function, and I

went there as a journalist, and what I noticed from the very

beginning was his enthusiasm, his vigorousness and his Never Say Die

attitude, and those are some of the characters and qualities I

think, that have kept him going for the past 20 or so years. Now,

we often hear Dr Suleyman on the radio. We see him on TV. We have

this idea of what he's like but, but we don't get to the experience

of seeing him in person like you did. Can you tell us about about

him? What motivates him to stay in gift of the givers and continue

doing this wonderful aid work? What motivates him is a sense of

being a servant of mankind. He's based

religiously, but in the sense that it's universal, he is a Sufi,

which is the one of the spiritual paths in the religion of Islam.

And it's a spiritual path that says that you have to help any

human being unconditionally, no matter where you might find them

in any part of the world. So this is basically his ethos. It doesn't

matter who you are, whether you're from Mars, whether you're from

Niger, Nigeria, whether you're from kailitha, his duty is to help

people. And he was given this inspiration by Sufi shechin

Istanbul, who, in 1992

was at a gathering, and he looked at mtrs, and he said, My son, you

are going to form an organization. It will be called gift of the

givers, and you will serve humanity for the rest of your

life. You will serve humanity, irrespective of religion, color or

creed. And just remember one thing, everything you do will be

done through you, and you must be grateful if you just get a kick up

your back. And that was basically the start of his organization.

That's incredible. Now,

how does he carry himself? What tell us about Dr Silverman when

he's when he's out in the field, when you've gone with him on a

mission, what's what's that like, his mind never stops. He never

he's got two telephones. They never stop going. I've been told

that by him, telephones never stop ringing. Well, I mean, I can

remember in on one mission, waking up at three o'clock in the middle

of the night, and Suleiman emtas Were still going for it. His

phones were going ballistic. In fact, I couldn't get back to sleep

after that. In fact, don't share a hotel room with him because you're

not going to

sleep. He doesn't sleep. He's on the go all the time. And the other

thing is, his optimism, no is just another opportunity to get a yes,

as far as he's concerned. And it's this persistence, this optimism

and his good manners as well, that opens doors where you can't,

cannot believe. In fact, now you write about Dr suleyman's

premonitions. Can you tell us about those? Yes, you know he

will. He will say, I've got a feeling that something big is

going to happen. And when he says that, his staff start canceling

their leave because they know that it's going to hit big time. And

there have been numerous times when he's been on holiday with his

family, 2004 with a tsunami. He was an on holiday in Cape Town,

and the tsunami hit, but within 48 hours, he had people on an

airplane flying towards the Far East. And this is what happens.

And in Pakistan, he got lost, and he said, No, no, I'm going to

follow my instincts. And he followed his instincts, and he got

back to camp. It was in a very dangerous part of the country, and

if you would have gone taken a wrong turning, it could have been

a wrong turning for the worse. So he sort of, it's amazing how he

uses his instincts. He says, prayer helps him Well, it

certainly helps the mission as well, yeah.