I wept for all the people I had led astray with my teaching.

I wept for the burden I had carried trying to earn salvation.

I wept for the distance I had felt from God all my life.

And then I prayed, not a formal prayer, not in Arabic, just honest words from a broken heart.

I said, “Jesus, I believe you are who you said you are.

I believe you are the son of God.

That you died for my sins.

that you rose from the dead.

I have nothing to offer you.

I have wasted my life serving a false image of God.

I have been a teacher of lies.

I am a sinner who deserves judgment.

But you said you came to save sinners.

You said you came to give rest to the weary.

I am weary.

I am so tired of carrying this burden.

Please save me.

I surrender.

I give up trying to save myself.

I trust in what you did on the cross.

Forgive me.

Make me yours.

The words were simple.

Nay, almost childlike.

But they came from the deepest part of my being.

And something happened.

I cannot fully describe it.

It was not dramatic in an external sense.

There were no voices, no visions, no physical manifestations.

But internally everything changed.

It was like a weight I had carried my entire life was suddenly lifted.

Like stepping out of a dark room into sunlight.

Like taking a breath after being underwater too long.

I felt peace.

Not the absence of problems, but a deep settled peace that did not depend on circumstances.

I felt clean as if I had been washed.

I felt loved in a way I had never felt before.

Unconditionally, completely, eternally.

I remained on my knees, tears streaming down my face, overwhelmed by the presence of God.

Not a distant, unknowable force, but a person, a father who loved me, a savior who died for me, a spirit who was with me.

I do not know how long I stayed there.

Time seemed irrelevant.

All I knew was that I had encountered the living God, and nothing would ever be the same.

When I finally stood up, my legs were shaky.

I looked around my study, at all my Islamic books, at my certificates and awards, at the evidence of my former life.

It all seemed hollow now, empty husks of dead religion.

I had been born again, though I did not yet know that was the term Christians used.

I had passed from death to life.

I had been found.

But even in that moment of joy and peace, I knew what lay ahead.

I knew the price I would have to pay.

I knew I could not hide this forever.

I knew that choosing Christ meant losing everything else.

And I knew it was worth it.

Because I had found treasure hidden in a field, and to possess it, I would gladly sell everything I had.

I had met Jesus.

And once you truly meet him, you can never go back to the shadows.

The light was too bright, too true, too beautiful.

I was home.

Finally truly home.

The days immediately following my conversion were strange.

I felt like I was living in two realities simultaneously.

Externally, nothing had changed.

I still looked like the same person, lived in the same house, had the same family and responsibilities.

But internally, everything was different.

I was different.

I had a secret that changed everything and I could tell no one.

I continued my daily routine but it felt surreal like being an actor in a play.

I led prayers at the mosque but in my heart I was praying to Jesus.

I taught Islamic juristprudence to my students but I no longer believed what I was teaching.

The words felt like ash in my mouth.

I knew this could not continue forever.

The duplicity was eating at me.

I had found truth.

And then truth demands to be lived openly, not hidden in darkness.

But I was terrified of what would happen when I revealed what had happened to me.

I started reading the Bible more openly, though still carefully.

When my wife asked what I was reading, I told her I was studying Christian theology to better refute it.

This was not entirely a lie.

I had been doing that before my conversion, but now my motivation was completely different.

I began to pray as Christians pray in calling God Father, praying in Jesus’s name, speaking conversationally rather than in formal Arabic phrases.

This was revolutionary for me.

I could talk to God like talking to a person who cared about me.

I did not have to perform ablutions first.

I did not have to face a particular direction.

I could pray in my own language, in my own words, anytime, anywhere.

And I sensed God’s presence when I prayed.

Not always dramatically, but consistently.

A sense of being heard, being loved, and not being alone.

I felt joy, genuine joy for the first time in my life.

Not happiness dependent on circumstances, but deep joy rooted in knowing I was saved.

I was forgiven.

I was a child of God.

But this joy existed alongside growing fear about the future.

I knew I needed to connect with other Christians.

But this was dangerous in Iran.

The Christian community was small, heavily monitored by authorities and mostly ethnic Armenians who kept to themselves or converts from Islam were the most vulnerable, subject to arrest, imprisonment or worse.

Through very careful and discreet inquiries, I eventually made contact with the small house church, a secret gathering of believers, most of them converts from Islam like me.

The first time I attended one of their meetings, I was scared beyond words.

I had to be sure I was not being followed.

I had to enter the building carefully, making sure no one saw me.

Ah, but when I entered that room and saw other believers, some of them former Muslims, some of them risking everything to follow Jesus, I was overcome with emotion.

I was not alone.

There were others who had found the truth and counted the cost.

We sang worship songs in Farsy quietly so neighbors would not hear.

We prayed together.

We studied the Bible together.

We shared communion remembering Christ’s sacrifice.

I wept through most of that first meeting.

These people became my true family.

Are my brothers and sisters in Christ.

We shared a bond deeper than blood, a bond forged in the risk we were all taking for our faith.

They told me their stories.

One man had been beaten by his own father when he converted.

A woman had been disowned by her entire extended family.

Another man had lost his job and lived in poverty rather than deny Christ.

Their testimonies strengthened me and sobered me.

They warned me about what was coming.

They told me to prepare myself for loss.

I tried to prepare.

And but how do you prepare to lose everything? For several months, I lived this double life.

Islamic scholar by day, Christian in secret.

The strain was immense.

I felt like I was betraying everyone.

My family by hiding the truth.

My new faith by not confessing it openly.

My students by teaching them things I no longer believed.

The Bible I read said that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

It said not to be ashamed of the gospel.

It said that whoever denies Jesus before men, Jesus will deny before his father in heaven.

I knew I had to come clean.

I knew I could not keep living this lie.

But I kept delaying, telling myself I needed to find the right time, the right way.

The decision was made for me.

One afternoon, I was in my study at home.

I thought I was alone, but my teenage son had come home early from school.

I did not hear him enter the house, and I was reading the Gospel of John, and I had become less careful about hiding the Bible, assuming I would hear anyone approaching.

My son opened the study door without knocking, and he saw the Bible open on my desk.

He stared at it, then he stared at me.

His face registered confusion.

then shock, then something like horror.

He asked me why I had a Bible.

I could see in his eyes that he already suspected the answer, but was hoping for some innocent explanation.

I could have lied.

I could have given the excuse about studying to refute Christianity.

Part of me wanted to, but looking at my son’s face, I knew I could not lie to him.

Whatever happened next, I had to tell him the truth.

I said, “I am reading it because I have come to believe it is true.

” The color drained from his face.

He took a step back as if I had struck him.

He asked me what I meant.

I told him as simply and calmly as I could that I had studied deeply and come to believe that Jesus is the son of God and that he died for our sins and rose again and that I had given my life to him.

My son’s reaction was immediate and visceral.

He began shouting, asking how I could betray our family, betray Allah, betray everything I had taught him.

His shouts brought my wife and younger son running.

They found us in my study, the Bible open on the desk, my older son crying and yelling, and me sitting quietly knowing my life had just irrevocably changed.

My wife demanded to know what was happening.

I, my son, told her.

He said I had become an apostate, that I’d left Islam for Christianity.

I’ve never seen such a look on my wife’s face.

It was betrayal, disgust, fear, and grief all at once.

She stared at me as if I had become a stranger, a monster.

She asked me if it was true.

I told her it was.

What followed was chaos.

She screamed at me, asking how I could do this to her, to our children, to our family.

She said I had shamed them all.

She said I had destroyed everything.

pop.

My younger son was crying, confused.

My older son was still shouting, saying things I will not repeat.

I tried to remain calm.

I tried to explain that I had not taken this decision lightly, that I had studied deeply, that I had found truth and could not deny it.

But they did not want to hear explanations.

To them, this was pure betrayal.

Apostasy from Islam is seen as the ultimate treachery, worse than murder, worse than anything.

My wife demanded I recant immediately.

I do that I renounce this insanity and return to Islam.

She said if I did not, she would tell her family, tell the authorities, tell everyone.

I told her I could not deny what I knew to be true.

I told her I loved her and our children, but I could not go back.

She spat at me.

My own wife spat in my face.

Then she told me to leave the house.

She said I was no longer her husband, that she wanted nothing to do with an apostate.

I tried to reason with her, but she would not listen.

She was hysterical.

Uh, and I understood why.

In her worldview, I had just damned myself to hell and brought shame on our family.

I packed a small bag with a few clothes and essential items.

My hands were shaking.

My younger son begged me not to go, crying and clinging to me.

It broke my heart to leave him, but I had no choice.

My older son would not look at me.

My wife stood with her arms crossed, her face hard as stone.

I walked out of my home, the home where I had lived for over 20 years, and where my children had been born, where I had thought I would grow old.

I walked out with nothing but a small bag and the knowledge that I had just lost my family.

I went to stay with a Christian brother from the house church who had offered shelter to believers in trouble.

His apartment was small, but he welcomed me with open arms.

That night, lying on a thin mattress on his floor, I wept harder than I had ever wept in my life.

The reality of what I had lost crashed over me in waves.

my wife who had been my partner for decades, my children whom I loved more than my own life, my home, my comfort, my security.

I questioned God in my grief.

I asked why this had to be so hard.

I asked if there had been any other way.

But even in my grief, I knew the answer.

There was no other way.

Truth is costly.

Following Jesus meant taking up a cross.

He had warned that he came not to bring peace but a sword that he would set family members against each other that we must love him more than father, mother, son or daughter.

I had read those words.

Now I was living them.

The next few days were a nightmare.

Word spread quickly.

My colleagues at the seminary heard.

My students heard.

My extended family heard.

My phone rang constantly with calls from people shocked, angry, trying to convince me to recant.

Some were genuinely concerned for my soul.

Others were concerned for the family’s reputation.

Some made threats.

I I received messages telling me I would be killed for apostasy.

I received messages saying I had brought dishonor on everyone who knew me.

I received messages from former friends saying they never wanted to see me again.

My position at the seminary was immediately terminated.

My writings were pulled from publication.

My name was removed from everything.

It was as if I had never existed.

I was now unemployed, separated from my family with a target on my back.

Though the authorities came looking for me at my old house, my Christian brother told me I needed to move, that it was not safe to stay in one place.

For the next several weeks, I moved from safe house to safe house, never staying more than a few days anywhere.

I was now a fugitive essentially though I had committed no crime other than changing my beliefs.

I tried to contact my wife to explain to ask about my children.

She refused to speak to me through a mutual acquaintance.

I learned that she had filed for divorce on grounds of apostasy which was legally valid.

She was telling people I had died that she was a widow.

To her, I was dead.

I wondered if I would ever see my children again.

The thought was unbearable.

In those dark days, I clung to Jesus like a drowning man clings to a life preserver.

I prayed constantly.

I read the Bible constantly.

I attended house church meetings whenever possible, drawing strength from other believers.

They were remarkable people.

pal.

These secret Christians in Iran, they had all suffered.

They all had stories of loss and persecution.

But they had a joy and peace that transcended their circumstances.

They truly lived as if Jesus was more valuable than everything else.

One evening at a house church meeting, an older brother who had been a Christian for many years shared from the Gospel of Matthew.

The he read Jesus’s words.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.

For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

He looked at me and said, “Brother, you are blessed.

You are suffering for Jesus’s name.

This is a privilege.

” At first, his words seemed insane.

How could suffering be a blessing? How could loss be a privilege? But as I reflected on it, by began to understand, the prophets were persecuted, the apostles were persecuted, Jesus himself was persecuted and killed.

Suffering for righteousness was a sign that I was on the right path, that I had joined the company of the faithful throughout history.

And I was learning something I could have never learned in comfort.

Jesus was enough.

When everything else was stripped away, he was sufficient.

His presence, his promises, his love, they sustained me in a way nothing else ever had.

And I learned to pray differently in those days.

Not prayers asking God to remove my suffering, but prayers for strength to endure it faithfully.

Not prayers asking God to restore what I had lost, but prayers thanking him for what I had gained.

Because I had gained everything that truly mattered.

I had gained eternal life.

I had gained a relationship with the living God.

I had gained forgiveness and peace and hope.

Yes, I had lost my family, my career, my reputation, my security, and but I had found my soul.

And Jesus said, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” Months passed.

I survived by doing odd jobs, paid in cash, working for people in the Christian underground network who were willing to help.

It was humble work far below my former status as a scholar.

But I did not mind.

I was learning humility.

I was learning dependence on God.

I continued to study the Bible now with a hunger I had never had for the Quran.

Every page seemed to speak to my situation.

The Psalms became especially precious to me as David wrote so often about being persecuted, about crying out to God, about trusting despite circumstances.

I studied the book of Acts and read about the persecution the early church faced.

Steven was stoned to death for his faith.

James was killed with the sword.

Peter and John were imprisoned and beaten.

Paul was constantly hunted, beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned.

Uh yet they rejoiced to suffer for the name of Jesus.

I was in good company.

One night I had another dream.

I was walking through a dark valley, stumbling over rocks, exhausted and afraid.

Then Jesus appeared beside me.

He did not remove the darkness.

He did not make the path easy, but he walked with me.

And his presence made all the difference.

When I woke from that dream, I understood something profound.

Jesus never promised to remove our suffering.

He promised to walk through it with us.

While he promised that he would never leave us or forsake us.

He promised that nothing could separate us from his love.

And I felt that love tangibly daily.

In the kindness of Christian brothers and sisters who shared their meager resources with me, in the comfort of scripture, in the sense of God’s presence when I prayed, in the peace that sustained me despite circumstances that should have destroyed me.

I thought often of my children.

I prayed for them constantly.

I prayed that somehow someday they would come to know Jesus themselves.

I prayed that they would understand why I had made the choice I made.

I thought often of my former students, of the thousands of people I had taught Islamic theology to over the years.

I grieved that I’d led them away from truth.

I prayed for their salvation and I began to feel a burden, a calling.

If I had been deceived and found the truth, I needed to help others find it, too.

I needed to reach Muslims with the gospel, and I needed to warn them about the deception I had lived under for so long.

This calling grew stronger over time.

Eventually, I began writing about my journey secretly at first, sharing my testimony online under a pseudonym.

I explained why I left Islam and came to Christ.

I addressed the theological issues.

I shared the gospel.

The response was overwhelming.

Some Muslims cursed me and sent death threats, but others wrote to say they had similar doubts, that my story resonated with them, and that they wanted to know more about Jesus.

I began connecting with other ex-Muslim Christians, other scholars who had converted.

We formed a network supporting each other, sharing resources, developing materials to help Muslims understand the truth about Jesus.

This work became my new calling.

I could no longer teach in a seminary, but I could teach online.

I could no longer write for Islamic publications, but I could write articles and books explaining Christianity to Muslims.

My life had been destroyed.

But from the ruins, God was building something new, something more important than my former career or reputation.

He was using my experience, my knowledge of Islam, my understanding of how Muslims think to reach people I never could have reached as an Islamic scholar.

I realize now that God was preparing me all along.

Every year I spent studying Islam deeply was preparation for understanding where Muslims struggle and how to address their questions.

Every verse of the Quran I memorized was preparation for comparing it to the Bible.

Every student I taught gave me insight into how to communicate with Muslims.

God wasted nothing.

He redeemed it all.

Would I choose this path again, knowing what it would cost? The question haunts me sometimes.

I think of my younger son’s tears.

I think of my wife’s face when I left.

I think of everything I lost.

But then I remember the alternative.

I remember the emptiness of Islam, the fear, the hopelessness, the distance from God.

I remember the burden of trying to earn salvation through my own efforts.

I remember the darkness and I know that even if following Jesus cost me everything earthly, it gave me everything eternal.

And that is a trade I would make again and again because nothing in this world compares to knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake, I have lost everything, and I count it all as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.

” The Apostle Paul wrote those words 2,000 years ago.

Now, I understood them from experience.

Jesus was worth it.

He is worth it.

He will always be worth it.

It has been 7 years since I left Islam and gave my life to Christ.

7 years since I walked out of my home with nothing but a small bag and a new faith.

7 years of living as an exile, a fugitive, a witness to truth.

In those seven years, I have seen God’s faithfulness in ways that still amaze me.

The da I have seen him provide when I had nothing.

I have seen him protect me from real threats.

I have seen him use my broken story to reach people I could never have imagined reaching.

I am no longer in Iran.

After 2 years of hiding and moving from place to place, I was able to leave the country with help from Christian organizations that assist persecuted believers.

I now live in a country where I can practice my faith openly, where I cannot be arrested or killed for following Jesus.

And the relief of this freedom is something I cannot adequately describe.

But my heart remains with the people I left behind.

My heart remains with Muslims who were trapped in the same deception I lived under for 43 years.

This is why I must speak.

This is why I risk even now to share my testimony publicly cuz I know what it is like to live without the truth and I cannot stay silent while others remain in darkness.

I want to speak directly to my Muslim brothers and sisters and especially those who like me have questions they are afraid to voice.

I want to tell you what I have learned, what I wish someone had told me years ago.

I understand your devotion to Islam.

I understand your love for Allah as you have been taught to know him.

I understand your reverence for Muhammad and the Quran.

I understand your fear of even questioning these things.

I felt all of this deeply.

But I ask you to consider what if you have been sincerely wrong and what if devotion to Islam is not the same as devotion to the true God.

The Quran itself commands you to investigate and seek truth.

It says in surah 17:36 not to follow what you do not know.

So I ask you to investigate even if it is frightening.

Let me share with you the key truths that changed everything for me.

First, understand who God truly is.

The Quran describes Allah as utterly transcendent, completely other, unknowable in his essence.

The names of Allah include the proud, the subduer, the giver of harm.

Allah is described as the best of deceivers.

He is arbitrary in his mercy, choosing whom to save and whom to damn according to his will alone.

This creates a relationship based on fear and submission, not love and intimacy.

You can never know if Allah truly loves you.

You can never have assurance of salvation.

You live in perpetual anxiety about your standing before him.

But the God revealed in the Bible, inculcating in Jesus Christ is radically different.

Yes, he is holy and just.

Yes, sin offends him and must be dealt with.

But his fundamental character is love.

The Bible says God is love, not just that he has love.

This God does not remain distant.

He comes near.

He enters into his creation taking on human flesh in Jesus Christ.

Why? Because he loves us and wants relationship with us.

Jesus revealed that God is father, not a harsh taskmaster, not an arbitrary judge, but a loving father who cares for his children.

Jesus taught us to pray our father something unthinkable in Islam.

And this makes sense of reality in a way Islam never could.

Love requires relationship.

If God is eternally loving, he must be eternally relational.

This is why Christians believe in the trinity.

One God eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In perfect loving relationship, Allah being absolutely one in a unitarian sense as cannot be eternally loving because there was no one to love before creation.

Love requires an object.

Second, understand who Jesus truly is.

The Quran honors Jesus in remarkable ways more than any prophet except Muhammad.

It says Jesus was born of a virgin, performed miracles, is the word of God, a spirit from God, and will return.

But then the Quran denies the most important claims about Jesus, that he is the son of God, that he died on the cross for our sins, that he rose from the dead.

You must ask yourself, why does the Quran written 600 years after Jesus contradict what all historical sources from the first century confirm? Every early source, Christian and non-Christian, agrees Jesus was crucified.

Roman historians confirm it.

Jewish historians confirm it.

Early Christian documents from within decades of Jesus’s life confirm it.

The crucifixion is one of the most historically certain events of ancient history.

And yet, the Quran denies it based on no historical evidence whatsoever.

Why? Because if Jesus died on the cross and rose again, then everything he claimed about himself was validated.

He claimed to be God.

He claimed to be the only way to the father.

He claimed his death would atone for sin.

If he rose from the dead, these claims are true.

And if these claims are true, Islam is false.

I studied the historical evidence for the resurrection extensively.

The empty tomb, the appearances to hundreds of witnesses, the transformation of terrified, scattered disciples into bold proclaimers, the beginning of the church despite intense persecution.

The fact that these witnesses were willing to die horrible deaths rather than deny what they had seen.

People do not die for what they know is a lie.

The disciples truly believed they had seen the risen Jesus.

And the best explanation for their belief is that they actually did see him.

Third, understand how salvation truly works.

Islam teaches salvation by works.

Your good deeds must outweigh your bad deeds.

You must perform the rituals correctly.

You must obey the law.

And even if you do all this, you have no assurance because Allah may still choose to send you to hell.

This creates a crushing burden.

You never know if you have done enough.

You live in fear.

Even Muhammad himself was not certain of his fate as recorded in the Quran.

One, but Christianity proclaims something radically different.

Salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

This means salvation is a gift, not wages earned.

It is based on what Christ did, not what you do.

His perfect life, his sacrificial death, his triumphant resurrection.

This is what saves you.

When you trust in Jesus, God credits his righteousness to you.

Your sins are forgiven completely.

Not because you earned it, but because Christ paid for them.

You are declared righteous because Christ’s righteousness is given to you.

This is grace, unmmerited favor, God giving what we do not deserve.

And this provides assurance, not arrogant presumption, but humble confidence based on God’s promise.

The Bible says that those who believe in Jesus have eternal life, not might have or hope to have, but have.

It is certain because it rests on Christ’s finished work, not our imperfect efforts.

When I understood this, it was like a massive weight lifting from my shoulders.

I had spent my entire life trying to earn salvation, and I was exhausted and still uncertain.

But Jesus offered rest, offered assurance, offered peace.

Fourth, examine Muhammad honestly.

I know this is difficult.

Muslims are taught that Muhammad is the perfect example, the best of creation.

To criticize him is considered grave sin.

But if Muhammad is truly a prophet of God, he should be able to withstand honest examination.

Compare Muhammad’s life to Jesus’s life.

Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the hungry, forgave his enemies, taught radical love, never married, owned nothing, died as a sacrifice for others.

Muhammad led armies, ordered executions, took captives as slaves, married many women, including a child, accumulated wealth and power, and died of illness after being poisoned.

Which life better reflects the character of a loving God? Look at Muhammad’s revelations.

Many of them conveniently served his personal interests.

When he desired his adopted son’s wife, a revelation came allowing it.

When his wives complained, revelations came rebuking them.

When he wanted more than the four wife limit imposed on other men, a revelation came allowing him special privileges.

Does this sound like divine revelation or human desire cloaked in religious authority? Look at the violence Muhammad commanded and participated in.

I am not talking about defensive warfare.

And I am talking about offensive jihad, raids on caravans, assassinations of poets who criticized him, executions of hundreds of men who had surrendered.

Compare this to Jesus who healed the ear of the man who came to arrest him, who prayed for those crucifying him, who taught his followers to love their enemies.

I know these comparisons are painful.

They were painful for me.

But truth matters more than comfort.

Fifth, read the Bible for yourself.

Do not rely on what Muslims say about it.

One, do not accept claims that it had been corrupted without examining the evidence.

Read the Gospels.

Read Jesus’s own words.

Read about his life, his teachings, his death, his resurrection.

Then ask yourself honestly, does this seem like truth or fabrication? The Bible has been preserved with remarkable accuracy.

We have thousands of early manuscripts.

The variants are minor and do not affect any core teaching.

No serious historian doubts that we have the Bible essentially as it was written.

The the claim that Christians corrupted the Bible to hide prophecies about Muhammad makes no sense when you examine it.

If Christians were so intent on corruption, why did they keep passages that make them look bad? Why keep stories of the disciples failures of Peter denying Jesus? Why keep difficult teachings? And when exactly did this supposed corruption happen? Muslims claim it was before Muhammad’s time, but the Quran affirms the Torah and Gospel as they existed in the 7th century.

Bonned calls them God’s word.

So which is it? Now let me address the common objections Muslims raise.

You say the trinity is illogical that three cannot be one.

But we do not believe in three gods.

We believe in one God who eternally exists in three persons.

This is mysterious.

Yes, but not contradictory.

And it makes sense of how God can be eternally loving and relational.

You say God cannot become man, that it is beneath his dignity.

But God can do anything.

And if he chose to reveal himself by becoming human, who are we to say he cannot? And the incarnation makes perfect sense.

If God wants to truly reveal himself to humanity, the most effective way is to come himself.

You say the Bible is corrupted, but you have no evidence for this claim.

Every manuscript discovery confirms the Bible’s reliability.

Meanwhile, the Quran has variance in manuscripts, lost verses, and was compiled after Muhammad’s death with disagreements about what to include.

Uh, you say Jesus did not die on the cross, but you are rejecting unanimous historical testimony from eyewitnesses based on a claim made 600 years later by someone who was not there.

I say these things not to attack you, but to plead with you to examine your beliefs honestly.

Your eternal destiny is at stake.

I know what you were thinking because I thought the same things.

You were thinking, “This man has been deceived by Satan.

He has lost his way.

He has traded truth for lies.

” I understand that is what I would have thought about someone like me when I was a Muslim.

But consider this possibility.

What if Satan’s greatest deception is not to make people worship him openly, but to make them worship God wrongly? What if Satan’s strategy is to take people’s sincere religious devotion and direct it toward a false image of God, toward a false prophet, toward a false hope? What if Islam itself is the deception? I know that thought is terrifying.

It was terrifying for me to admit you have been wrong about something so fundamental that your parents were wrong, your teachers were wrong, your entire civilization was wrong.

This is incredibly difficult.

But truth is truth regardless of how many believe it or how long it has been believed.

At one point almost everyone believed the earth was flat.

That did not make it true.

I am not asking you to accept my word.

I am asking you to investigate for yourself.

Read the Bible to study the historical evidence for Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection.

Compare the character of Muhammad and Jesus honestly.

Examine the logical problems in Islam and pray.

Pray to the true God, whoever he is, and ask him to show you truth.

Do not pray to Allah as you have been taught because you are assuming Allah is the true God.

Instead, pray to the God who created you and ask him to reveal himself.

I prayed that prayer when I was in crisis, asking for truth above comfort and and God answered by leading me to Jesus.

He will answer your honest prayer too.

To my Christian brothers and sisters, I also have words for you.

You must understand how difficult it is for Muslims to consider the gospel.

Islam is not just a religion but a total system that encompasses identity, family, culture, and law.

Leaving Islam costs everything.

Be patient with Muslims who are seeking.

They are wrestling with questions that could destroy their entire life.

They need time and space to process.

Share your own testimony.

Muslims respect personal experience.

Tell them what Jesus has done in your life.

Tell them about the peace, the assurance, the relationship with God that Christianity offers.

Learn about Islam so you can engage meaningfully.

Understand what Muslims believe and why.

This shows respect and makes you more effective.

Do not be afraid of the difficult questions.

The gospel can withstand scrutiny and truth is not threatened by honest examination.

Above all, love Muslims genuinely.

They can sense whether you truly care about them or just see them as conversion targets.

Jesus loved people first before they believed anything about him.

And pray.

Pray for Muslims to encounter Jesus.

Pray for dreams and visions.

God is using these powerfully in the Muslim world today.

Pray for protection for secret believers and for those who share the gospel openly at great risk.

And the harvest among Muslims is ripe.

More Muslims are coming to Christ now than at any point in history.

Despite persecution, despite opposition, the spirit is moving.

To those who are seekers who are reading this with curiosity or perhaps secret doubt about Islam, I want you to know Jesus is worth it.

Yes, following him may cost you everything.

It cost me my family, my career, my reputation, my home.

I live as an exile, unable to return to my country.

And I may never see my children again in this life.

But Jesus is worth it.

The peace I have now, the joy, the assurance, the intimate relationship with God.

I would not trade this for anything.

I have eternal life, not uncertain hope, but certain promise.

I know my sins are forgiven.

I know I am loved unconditionally.

I know I am a child of God.

Islam never gave me any of these things.

It gave me rules to follow, rituals to perform, fear of judgment, and uncertainty about my fate.

Jesus gave me everything Islam could not.

He gave me himself and he offers himself to you.

The question is what will you do with Jesus? You cannot remain neutral.

You cannot call him just a good prophet when he claimed to be God.

Either he was telling the truth or he was a blasphemer and liar.

There is no middle ground.

CS Lewis put it well.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher and he would either be a lunatic on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg or else he would be the devil of hell.

You must make your choice.

Either this man was and is the son of God or else a madman or something worse.

Who is Jesus to you? The Quran calls him the word of God, born of a virgin, sinless performer of miracles, the Messiah.

The Quran says he will return at the end of days.

But it stops short of the full truth.

Jesus is the son of God and the exact representation of the father.

The one through whom all things were made.

The one who took on flesh to save us.

The one who died for our sins and rose again.

The one who is alive today and reigning as Lord.

He is calling you right now as you read these words.

He is calling you to come to him.

He is calling you to lay down your burden of religious performance and receive the rest he offers.

He is calling you to stop trying to save yourself and trust in what he has already done.

And he is calling you to know God not as a distant judge but as a loving father.

He is calling you to life, abundant life now and eternal life forever.

What will you do with this call? I pray that you will respond as I did.

I pray that you will have the courage to follow truth wherever it leads, even if it costs you everything.

Because in the end, gaining Jesus and losing everything else is not loss.

It is gain beyond measure.

He is the treasure hidden in a field.

He is the pearl of great price.

He is worth selling everything to possess.

7 years ago, I was a respected Islamic scholar, comfortable, secure, certain in my beliefs.

Today, I am an exile, cut off from family, living modestly, considered a traitor by those who once honored me.

But I would not go back.

I would not trade what I have in Christ for all the comfort and security of my former life because I have found the truth.

And once you know truth, you cannot unknow it.

Once you see light, you cannot pretend to be blind.

And once you taste living water, you cannot be satisfied with sand.

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the father except through me.

” This is either the most arrogant claim ever made by a human or it is the most important truth in the universe.

I have examined the evidence.

I have weighed the cost.

I have experienced the reality.

And I know I know that it is true.

Jesus is the way.

He is the truth.

He is the life.

And he is offering himself to you.

Come to him.

Trust him.

Follow him.

It will cost you everything.

But you will gain what no money can buy, what no achievement can earn, what no religion can provide.

You will gain God himself.

And in him you will find everything your soul has been longing for.

This is my testimony.

This is my plea.

This is my hope for you.

May the God who revealed himself in Jesus Christ open your eyes to see truth.

give you courage to follow it and grant you the eternal life that only he can give.

Amen.

 

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