Imtiaz Sooliman – Founders’ Day 2022 Guest Speaker’s Address
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AI: Transcript ©
The best among people are those who benefit mankind.
Good morning, one and all.
Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming our guest speaker, the
founder and chairman of the gift of the givers Foundation, Dr
Suleiman.
Dr Suleiman matriculated in 1978
and went on to study medicine at the University of KwaZulu Natal,
qualifying as a medical doctor in 1984
he commenced his private practice in Pietermaritzburg in 1986 but
closed his flourishing practice in 1994
to focus his attention to the gift of the givers Foundation, which he
founded in early August 1992
one of the reasons why the gift of the givers Foundation came to be
was when Dr Suleiman, spiritual leader from Istanbul Turkey,
called on him to serve all people of all races, of all religions, of
all colors, of all classes, of all political affiliations and of any
geographical location,
a calling he honored then and continues To honor today.
His endeavors in this regard, have seen the gift of the givers
foundation emerge as one of the most respected humanitarian
organizations in the world, and is today the largest disaster
response agency of African origin, anywhere on the continent.
Since 1992 Dr Silliman has steered the organization to many notable
achievements and world firsts, including delivering more than 3.8
billion rand in aid coming to the assistance of millions of people
in no fewer than 45 countries across the globe, including South
Africa,
developing the world's first and only containerized mobile hospital
of its kind, and has been compared to any of the best hospitals in
Europe,
innovating the world's first groundnut soy, high energy and
protein supplement for people suffering from such conditions
like HIV, AIDS, TB, malnutrition, cancer and other debilitating
disorders, heading the first organization in the history of
South Africa to have received 60 million Rand from government for
the design and successful rollout of 204,000
food parcels,
alleviating the ravaging drought in South Africa by drilling 400
boreholes in just 18 months, rescuing 64 year old inazizi alive
after she had been trapped under rubble for eight days without
food, all water, little oxygen, and a fractured hip in the
aftermath of the Haiti earthquake of 2010
this was a world first for an African organization involved in
earthquake, earthquake search and rescue outside Africa,
one and all, please help me in giving a very warm welcome to Dr
Suleiman.
Thank you very much for that introduction. Thank you, everyone
being here. Cerest, Emma Tommy, all the management gentlemen from
America, all the parents, all m&la alumni, the students, the tricks,
everyone. Thank you very much for having me here this morning.
Before I go into my background,
we need to reflect.
Isn't today a beautiful day.
You can feel the spirituality. You can feel the blessing. You can
feel the goodness. Whenever you start an event remembering the
Almighty. There is blessing when you remember the founding members
of something that is good. There is blessing when you instill in
your children the value of educate education and teach them values of
religion, spirituality, morality and ethics, there is goodness.
This is the goodness that our country so desperately needs,
spirituality, morality, values and ethics has to filter to every
aspect of government.
The corporates, private sector, religion, public sector, everyone,
and we do that, we will rebuild our country in the most incredible
way.
Religion has been known to divide and split human beings, to tear
communities apart, and that's not the purpose. Whoever does that has
actually moved away from religion, and it is important and admirable
that your college, and this is a monster College. I've never spoken
to so many people at one time in any school, congratulations
that this college instills those kind of values in their children.
So let's bring a little bit of the blending of religions.
The story starts, and there's a lot of spirituality in what I'm
going to say. The story starts in 1985
I wanted to qualify. I was in the final year of internship, and I
wanted to specialize as a doctor in internal medicine. I couldn't
get a post to study further. God had other plans.
January 86 I moved to Peter marisburg from Durban and started
my own practice. The first week I moved to Peter marisburg, an
African guy from Pretoria moved to marisburg, also to come and teach
French in the university UK in mansburg,
my neighbor said, I've got this guy came here, he bought meat, and
he needs a doctor. And I told him, my name is a doctor.
We became friends, and we spoke. And the spiritual teaching in 1985
to 1986 started as we were going. Every time I treated him, he
spoke. He spoke about Saint John the Divine in New York, and I've
been there, and it talks about a spiritual teacher from Istanbul
who had zikr sessions. Zikr in Islamic teaching in Sufism, is a
celebration of God's names, the one and only kind, compassionate,
merciful, all knowing, all wise, all seeing, charity nourishes,
sustainable and so on. And I said people of all religion joined him,
Jews, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, those who say they don't believe
everyone is welcome. And everybody was permitted, in Saint John the
Divine, to follow a Muslim Safi teacher.
What could be more unique in terms of unity of your religion.
At some point he tells me, You need to go to meet the teacher.
After this teacher passed on in 1985
to Istanbul in Turkey. And I said, Mother, it's 1986 I still haven't
seen Cape Town.
When am I going to see Turkey.
He said something very, very profound,
and you will understand that. He said, what God wants happens.
There's a time and a place, and the time and place was August,
1991
I landed up there with my wife, and it was a bit of a shock,
because this was post Gulf War. Gulf War polarized us as
communities, as religions, as civilizations, as nations. The
perception was there that it was the East against the West,
Christians and Jews on one side and the Muslims on the other side.
Coming from an apartheid past didn't help. Stereotypes were
built. People were looked at with suspicion and with that kind of
mindset. I go to Turkey with my wife,
I walk into a Muslim holy place, and lo and behold, Americans,
Russians, Europeans, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus,
Tamils, people of all religion and people of no religion in a Muslim
holy place. No friction,
no discord, harmony, understanding, acceptance, no
imposition. The ideal world. If you can achieve that, it's the
leaders of today who can bring that achievement.
Now, when you go somewhere like when I came here, everybody,
welcome. Dr Suman, how are you? How are you? That kind of stuff?
People greet you. When I walked into Turkey, the spiritual
connection was made. Immediately I saw the spiritual teacher. He saw
the shock on my face, and his first question to me was not, how
are you? Where do you come from? How's the stay in Istanbul? How's
the hotel? How's the weather? No,
what do you see?
He saw the shock on my face, and he said, What do you see?
So I said, I'm confused. I'm seeing people of all religion and
no religion in Muslim only place, and we fought with each other all
over the world. How is that possible?
And he says, My son, you see, right?
And we went on to say,
mankind is one single nation.
The God of all mankind is one. We just call him by different names.
Yes, the bad behavior of a group of people, individuals and a small
sector is not representative of religion, culture, civilizations
and nations. Any Imam, Sheik Sufi, Priest, Rabbi, Pandit, who
promotes violence, extremism, terrorism, discord and fiction is
not a man of God. Don't follow him.
Anyone who preaches love, kindness, compassion and mercy is
a man of God. Follow him. I fell in love with what I saw. I made
the intention with God's grace, mercy and grace that I will go
back. Six, August, 1992
I was given the grace of going back. It was a Thursday night in
Islamic tradition, Thursday night is the beginning of Friday,
because our day starts after sunset, and
the spiritual teacher at 10pm again, after the zikr ceremony,
looks me directly in the eye. He makes eye contact and looks
heavenwards at the same
time in FLUENT Turkish. And I don't speak a word of Turkish, but
I understood every single word that he said in Turkish.
He said, My son, I am not asking you spiritual instruction. I'm
instructing you to form an organization. The name in Arabic
will be Waqf waqen, translated it means gift of the givers. You will
serve all people of all races, of all religions, all colors, all
classes, all cultures, of any geographical location and of any
political affiliation, but you will serve them unconditionally.
You will expect nothing in return, not even a thank you. In fact, in
what you're going to be doing for the rest of your life, expect to
get a kick up your back. If you don't get a kick up your back,
regard it as a bonus. Serve people, but love, kindness,
compassion and mercy, and remember the dignity of man is foremost. So
if someone is down in the ground, don't push them down further, hold
them, elevate them. Wipe the tear of a grieving child, care caress
the head of an orphan. Say words of good counsel to a widow. These
things are free. They don't cost anything, grow the naked, feed the
hungry, provide water to the thirsty, and in everything you do,
be the best at what you do, like you're striving for excellence
here, but not for ego, but because you're dealing with human life,
human emotion, human dignity and human suffering.
He went on to say, this is an instruct for the second time. This
is an instruction for you for the rest of your life. And then he
says something very spiritual, once again, that whatever you do
is done through you and not by you.
30 years I'm a loving witness that everything you guys write and see
and TV that is not me. That is the grace of God Almighty operating
through me, because what is happening is not humanly possible.
And this was great instruction and a great feeling, and I've
experienced it for 30 years. I told you, I don't speak a word of
Turkish, but I understood every Turkish word that he said. And I
asked him, How is it that when you speak Turkish, I understand, and
other people speak Turkish, I don't understand.
He said, My son, when the hearts connect and the souls connect, the
words become understandable.
I asked him, now, what is all this? What does it mean? I'm a
doctor in private practice. I have three surgeries in South Africa
and a place throughout Peter marisburg. Is this after hours,
weekends, long weekends, public holidays, school holidays. When am
I supposed to know? What am I supposed to do?
You gave me one answer, one line
you will know
for 30 years, I do know what to do, how to do, what not to do,
when to do, what to touch, what not to touch. And has been
happening for 30 years when I need to speak to somebody, they call
me. When any information, it comes to me. When I have to be in some
area, I get a message. You got to get involved in there. Everything
happens in that way. The first inspiration came out the moment I
walked out of the door on the sixth of August 92 my inspiration,
it came respond to the civil war in Bosnia, and we took in 32
containers of aid in August 1992 November 92 eight containers of
aid. And February 1993 we built the world's first containerized
mobile hospital. But what did they tell me that told me that gift for
the givers, in essence, was going to be a disaster intervention
organization? There's lots to talk about. And, I mean, I don't think
the whole day, so I'm just going to cut it
short. I'll do some examples. After 2004
we had no personnel going out. It was 10th.
Lancas, food, medicines. 2004 for the first time, we put a primary
health care team to respond to the tsunami. We went to a place called
half food on the northeast of Somalia. At the same time, what
are not, not to the medical team we responded to the in the tsunami
in Sri Lanka. Also, we were the first team in the world in Sri
Lanka in that July, in that December, 2004
in August, 2005 again, we took a primary health care team to Niger
for famine in the country. In October, 2005
for the first time. We now at the trauma teams and post op rehab.
And I want to give some examples of what happened
here. We went to Pakistan. It was a massive earthquake. From Rabat
bindi right up to the Kashmir border, 1000s of villages went
into the ground. We landed in the airport, and the Pakistani general
came to me and said, Do you mind not going to the earthquake? So I
asked him, which hospital you going to give me? So he said, you
understand? I said, I understand. So my team said, Why did you come
if you're not going to the earthquake. So I said, he's
telling you that everything is destroyed on the top. You can't
get things done. So I said, Have you got helicopters for my
patient, my teams to go and stabilize those that are alive?
You said, no, sorry, all it. Helicopters are important
missions. So in disasters, you think on your feet. So I looked
around. I said, Ooh, Mr. American, remember, there's the American Air
Force. So I go to the guy, I say, a big black guy. I said, Brother,
where are you from? He says, I'm from America. I said, No, you're
black. You're
from Africa.
He said, Yes, I'm from Africa. I said, Me too. I come from Africa.
So I said, I need help, but it's a favor. He said, what you need? I
said, I need helicopter. He said, Take three, two Black Hawks and
another helicopter. Two minutes, let the two governments talk.
We'll still be waiting for the helicopter two minutes. And we got
the three helicopters. And the teams went to the mountain. The
other team went to the cantonment hospital of Rawalpindi. And as we
walked in, we saw teams from the northern countries. Oh, where are
you from? You see a white guy speaks Afrikaans. White guy speaks
English. They can't understand accents. Then you got a Hindu guy,
and you got a guy like hashimola with a big beard, and the other is
getting very confusing. And then there's black people. Where the
* you come from? Mr. Africa? Oh, what did you come to fetch?
You guys from Africa? Always want free things.
So I said, you will eat your words, my friend. And as we walked
inside there, we got a stench of gangrene of children lying with
stretches, no drips, no medical care, no disinfectant, no doctors,
no nothing. And I called the military guy. Said, What is this?
Is this an organized killing field? He said, what you mean? I
said, Come and see for yourself. The superintendent comes. She
basically to the front and he says, We shutting down this
hospital. It's supposed to be decommissioned. I told him, You
guys are crazy. So he said. The military man asked me, What can we
do? So I said, I'll give you a shopping list. You give me the
shopping list, and I'll show you what South Africans can do. So you
give me the shopping list, and within 24 hours, a hospital, the
cantonment hospital of Rawalpindi, that was shutting down the South
African medical team, converted that into a 400 bed emergency
hospital. So
which did 75 operations a day and saved many lives in 2006 the
Pakistan president, then parvas Musharraf, gave us the
Presidential Award for intervention in Pakistan
in December, something unique happened, an Africana white
Christian lady from Turkish calls me a specialist in spinal rehab,
physiotherapy. She says, Dr Suleiman, I like to go to
Pakistan. So I said, Karina, when would you like to go? So he says,
in Christmas. I said, you can't be feeling well.
I said, when does a Christian person go on a voluntary mission
in Christmas to a Muslim country?
She says, the only time I get off.
So she goes, and she makes people walk, and she serves them and
brings out the unity of religion. And when she leaves, the patients
cry, their families cry, the medical staff cry, and the
military cries. They showed such unity and compassion across
religion in a Muslim country, we've achieved the beauty of
Ubuntu in South Africa, and we took it across in 2010 I think
this is the last story before Celeste tells me something
in 2010
2005
we said, what we don't have. We've evolved. We've had we've had
trauma teams, post op, rehab teams, trauma counselors. There's
one thing lacking in gift of the givers, and that is a search and
rescue team. 2010 12, January.
The earthquake hits Haiti, and we're ready with a search and
rescue team within an hour, we put them on the plane, we speak to the
French Consulate, and we asked dork to talk to them that time
called foreign affairs, and we tell them, speak to the French. We
need Schengen visa to stay in, to go bypass the country. So the
French said, Come. No paperwork, no pictures, no people, just one
person, and get a Schengen visa in 10 minutes for the whole group.
But
you know what's important? We got it for free. You know, we Indians,
we like free things.
So we get the visa. And I said, Okay, I'll give Air France a
business. I tell Air France, give me in writing. You'll get my
team's supporter Prince. I said, You will not get them there. They
said, we will get them there. I said, the airport will close. They
said, the airport is open. I said, it will close. So they give it to
me in writing. We'll get you there. I said, big mistake. Any
case, the teams go, the churches come and greet the teams off at
the airport. I think the Methodist Church was part of them. Greets
them in the airport, and as they leave, I found the Catholic
society Johannesburg. I said, Hello, I don't on you. I don't
know you. I need the Pope.
So the guys will study card talk for 30 seconds. What does the
Muslim guy want the pope for?
So I said, my friend, Are you Christian guys not connected all
over the world? We must be connected all over the world.
So he said, what you want the bomb for? So I said, I want the
Catholic organization to meet my teams in Dominican Republic and
take them across the border into Port au Prince, into 80
gets me back to me three hours later, he said, Caritas and
Catholic Relief Services will meet your team in Dominican Republic.
My teams land in Paris. We got a problem. I said, I know Port au
Prince is closed. Airport is closed. Your flights have been
changed. In two hours you are going to Dominican Republic.
Here's the number to get to Dominican Republic, CRS, Canada's
South African team. Welcome, food, blankets, medicine, water,
accommodation, visas, everything, and they taken across into Haiti.
There's looting. They're shooting in the streets. They've been given
refuge with the Catholic society in a compound inside Haiti. 20th,
January, 2010 the South African team makes world history in the
Catholic Church. That collapsed via sounds in the rubble, and few
hours later, they pull out alive, 64 year old and Azizi The moment
she comes out, no oxygen, no food, no medicine, flexion, Heap she
comes out. And the first word, she says, I love God, almighty. You
inspired hope in somebody several 1000 kilometers away. And the
second thing she said, I love you. The South African team made world
history, because never before in the history of this continent has
anybody been taken alive out of the rubble in the earthquake
outside the continent. The medical team comes behind and they come to
the front. The northern country guys are there again. We can't do
this. No city scan, no X ray, no ICU, no other machines. So we
said, it's an earthquake. What do you expect? Everything is
destroyed. The
South African team steps forward. Johnny De Beer is the orthopedic
surgeon,
and we said, we need a drill, an orthopedic drill, and somebody
comes with a blackened Decker.
Johnny says, No problem. The team says, No problem. The Burma plan,
and the guys start working, and they start saving lives. To the
credit of the northern country teams, they come and say that if
you want help, if you want healing, if you want to love, then
go to the Dream Team. And the Dream Team is from South Africa.
Take your education very seriously. Take your commitment
very seriously. Be passionate about what you do. Thank you very
much.
Difficult to follow,
so when I became head boy last year in my opening address to the
school,
I recited lines from a poem by William Wordsworth called
afterthought. And the poem goes as follows, the form remains, the
function never dies, while we the brave, the mighty and the wise, we
one and all or who, in our mourn of youth defied the elements must
vanish. Be it so enough, if something from our hands have
power to live and act and to serve the future hour, and if toward the
silent whom we go through love, through hope and faiths
transcendent our we feel that we are greater than we know.
I think that after listening to Dr Suleman speech today, we can all
agree that he has lived, acted and served not only the future hour,
but every hour that has come. I.
I've been at the school for 13 years now, and I remember lots of
guest speakers on Founders Day, but I can truthfully say that I
remember no message that has touched me so deeply.
So your messages of reflection at the start is so important,
particularly after the two difficult years that we've had
without being able to gather on the field like this Founders Day,
the message and premise of spirituality moved and touched
everyone's souls, and I know that for a fact, your sense of humor,
of course, brightened up everybody's day, and your ideas of
harmony and unity have set a goal for the matrix. So I asked the
matrix, let us set forth into the world and strive to spread that
unity and harmony in all the ways that we can.
I then just want to invite our guests to scan the QR code in the
program to find out more about the gift of the givers, the inspiring
work that they do, and the ways to contribute to the many ways in
which they make a difference, bringing hope and restoring
dignity to the most vulnerable.
I'd like to end with the words of Dr Imtiaz Suleiman today,
anyone who preaches love, kindness, compassion and mercy is
a man of God. So let us preach those things and let us keep on
giving.
I would like to now call on Dr Suleman to come and accept a token
of our appreciation. We thank you so much. Let's give him another
warm saints, round of applause. You.