Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity

by Nabeel Qureshi

Unfortunately, I have found that many Christians think of evangelism the same way, foisting Christian beliefs on strangers in chance encounters. The problem with this approach is that the gospel requires a radical life change, and not many people are about to listen to strangers telling them to change the way they live. What do they know about others’ lives?

Effective evangelism requires relationships. There are very few exceptions.

I had plenty of Christian acquaintances, and I’m sure they would have been my friends if I had become a Christian, but that kind of friendship is conditional. There were none that I knew who cared about me unconditionally. Since no Christian cared about me, I did not care about their message.

Even though the gospel was his passion, he did not bombard me with his beliefs straightaway. The discussions arose much more naturally, after we became friends, and in the context of a life lived together. In fact, I was the one who brought it up.

It was then that I realized the value of apologetics and what the arguments had done for me. All my life, barriers had been erected that kept me from humbly approaching God and asking Him to reveal Himself to me. The arguments and apologetics tore down those barriers, positioning me to make a decision to pursue God or not. The work of my intellect was done. It had opened the way to His altar, but I had to decide whether I would approach it. If I did, and if I really wanted to know God, I had to cast myself upon His mercy and love, relying completely upon Him and His willingness to reveal Himself to me.

I subconsciously found ways and means to go on rejecting the gospel so I would not be faced with what I would have to pay.

These are the costs Muslims must calculate when considering the gospel: losing the relationships they have built in this life, potentially losing this life itself, and if they are wrong, losing their afterlife in paradise. It is no understatement to say that Muslims often risk everything to embrace the cross. But then again, it is the cross. There is a reason Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it” (Mark 8:34 – 35).

Because He had supernaturally guided me before, I had full faith that He would guide me once again. But the interim was agonizing.

I knew with utmost surety that God heard my cries and held the key to saving me. He would open the door to His truth at any moment.

Because of these verses, I had full faith that God — whether Allah or Jesus, whether the God of the Quran or the God of the Bible — would answer the prayers of my heart. The question was when and whether I could brave the storm until then.

I admitted that, despite all I thought I knew, I actually knew nothing. I needed God to show me the truth.

I continued reading fervently. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness? Not ‘blessed are the righteous’ but ‘blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness’? I hunger and thirst for righteousness, I do, but I can never attain it. God will bless me anyway? Who is this God who loves me so much, even in my failures?” Tears flowed from my eyes once more, but now they were tears of joy. I knew that what I held in my hands was life itself. This was truly God’s word, and it was as if I was meeting Him for the first time. I began poring over the Bible, absorbing every word as if it were water for my parched soul, a soul that had never before drunk from the fountain of life. As I read, I perused the study notes at the bottom of the page and cross-references in the margins, not willing to miss a single angle of a single verse. Questions would come into my mind, and within moments, either the text I was reading or its footnote would lead me to the answer. This happened more times than I could count. I could not put the Bible down. I literally could not. It felt as if my heart would stop beating, perhaps implode, if I put it down. I ended up skipping the whole day of school, but I really had no choice in the matter. The Bible was my lifeline.

It was not that Jesus was turning me against my parents. It was that, if my family stood against God, I had to choose one or the other.

“Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” To be a Christian means suffering real pain for the sake of God.

I had to give up my life in order to receive His life. This was not some platitude or cliché. The gospel was calling me to die.

Although I believed, I did not yet know the power of the gospel. To teach me that, God was going to break me completely.

it is imperative for Christians to pursue truth at all costs.

But He also recognized that His very purpose in this world was to endure such an ordeal.

I remain a follower of Jesus not because I was raised that way but because the historical evidence strongly suggests that His resurrection from the dead was an event that occurred in history.

The gospel or “good news” is the message of God’s victory over the devil and over human rebellion, corruption, and death. It isn’t about what I do for God; it’s about what He has done and is doing for me. Jesus isn’t a character sent by the Creator to tell us to straighten up and fly right; Jesus is the Creator who walked among us in humility to experience our fragility and to rescue us from our hopeless human condition.

Too often, emotions and issues of personal, community, and religious honor eclipse issues of truth. In these situations academic studies can provide dispassionate information for evaluation by individuals on all sides of the issue.

Instead of the Quran’s text being preserved perfectly from the time of Muhammad, it was shaped after his lifetime into a document that would command political and religious unity under the established and growing political power of the time.

If Christian scriptures were not grounded in history, all we would have to offer would be our personal opinions.

there is commonly an emotional element to doubt, although at the time this was seldom recognized in the research. Not only is this emotional element the dominant species of such uncertainty, but it is usually far more painful and often more stubborn than factual elements.

Although often very painful, the effects of emotional doubt may be eliminated or at least severely reduced.126 The remedy is the habitual and forceful application of techniques that correct our mistaken thinking and behavior.