SEEKING ALLAH, FINDING JESUS:
A Devout Muslim Encounters Christ
By Nabeel Qureshi
Zondervan. 304 pages. £11.99
ISBN 978 0 310 527 237
‘God, I want your peace. Please have mercy on me and give me the peace of knowing you. I don't know who you are any more, but I know that you are all that matters. You created this world, you give it meaning, and either you define its purpose or it has none. Please, Lord God Almighty, tell me who you are! I beseech you and only you. Only you can rescue me. At your feet I lay everything I have learned, and I give my entire life to you. Take away what you will, be it my joy, my friends, my family, or even my life. But let me have you, O God. Light the path that I must walk . . . If it is Islam, show me how it is true. If it is Christianity, give me eyes to see! Just show me which path is yours, dear God, so I can walk it.’
This book, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, describes how the Triune God intervenes to answer Nabeel Qureshi’s agonised prayer.
Nabeel’s parents were devout Muslims from a Pakistani background. His mother was the daughter of missionaries who had served in Uganda while calling people to Islam. Nabeel’s father joined the US Army, and as he rose up through the ranks, the family travelled widely. Many happy childhood years were spent in Scotland. ‘Scotland was where I learned all about being Muslim, and where I had fallen in love with my Islamic faith.’ The remainder of Nabeel’s youth was spent in different locations in America. He describes the loving and happy home-life he enjoyed as a young person, and the security of his conservative Muslim training (his family belonged to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam).
Missionary for Islam
He enjoyed a huge sense of privilege as a child and young person, and was determined to be a ‘missionary’ for Islam, always living out the best of his faith to win others over. As a teenager, his mother urged him: ‘Whatever you do, be the most respectful, honest and dignified one doing it, so that people will praise Islam. Treat your teachers with the utmost respect! Treat them like you would treat me! When I visit them I want to hear that you are the most respectful student in the class.’
At school he attempted to witness to his friends and firmly believed that he could persuade Christians of the error of their ways. He had objections to counter all their arguments and generally came out better in the conversations he had with Christians.
Meeting a Christian
While undertaking medical training, Nabeel formed a close friendship with a Christian called Dave, who was willing to engage with him in a thoughtful way. Dave provided opportunities for him to meet with some of the best apologists for the Christian faith.
Nabeel was horrified to find that the answers he'd always relied on did not work when arguing with people who really knew the facts about the Bible, Christ, and the Resurrection. What he really wanted in life was to know Allah. As he sought a deeper knowledge of God, against his will and with terror for the anguish it would cause his family, he was forced to recognise the truth claims of Christianity. He was heartbroken to discover that the sanitised and romanticised view of the prophet Mohammed that he had been brought up to believe was just a legend. The reality was much darker.
Horror of 9/11
He had been brought up in a peaceful sect of Islam, and describes the horror he and his family experienced at the time of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers. But those very attacks propelled him into studying the foundational texts of Islam and he found that ‘the more violent variations of Islam are deeply rooted in orthodoxy and history’.
The foundations of his life, and the security he had known within his parents’ teaching, began crumbling. As is often the case with devout Muslims, Nabeel was also given confirmation of the Lordship of Christ by dreams and a vision. He was forced to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, and he now works as an evangelist and apologist with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
Joy and wonder
This is the best account I have read of the conversion of a Muslim to Christ. It provides a sympathetic insight into what life in a warm and loving Muslim home is like. It describes the high cost of converting from Islam. But Nabeel insists that the joy and wonder of knowing God through Christ has been worth even the sorrow of breaking from his beloved family.
Globally, Christians are the most persecuted religious group, and much of that persecution occurs in Islamic states. And we are daily confronted with news stories involving Islamic extremism and terrorism. Strategically, one could argue that a major and significant proportion of our private prayers and public intercessions should be that God would intervene in mercy and compassion and that the peaceable gospel of Christ would advance greatly among Muslims.
Encouragement to pray
A book like this is a timely reminder that many of them are far from violent, and, that many are seeking a true knowledge of God. Even more importantly, it is a great encouragement to pray for Muslims to be converted to Christ. Nabeel’s testimony is a wonderful example of someone who was impacted by the faithful and patient witness and prayers of a true Christian friend.
