Student Life - May 2024
Recently, I watched a video of Nabeel Qureshi giving his testimony on stage at a church. And while he gave his testimony, I must admit I was incredibly moved by it. If you don’t know who Nabeel is, he is the author of a great book called “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus”. In his book, he explains his early life growing up and gives his testimony converting to Christianity. What’s incredible about his testimony is the intense journey it took for him to come to believe. Nabeel was born in California in 1983 and was raised by his family as a devout Ahmadi Muslim. And for his early life, he remained a devout Muslim, following in its practices and learning early on that America was a primarily Christian country. This caused Nabeel to need strong apologetics for his faith. And that is exactly what he did, he debated and argued with many Christians during his life, never faulting from the faith he had been born into.
But one day, while he was in college, he was involved in a public speaking and debate tournament. And while he was on this trip, he shared a hotel room with a friend named David. Now, what stood out to Nabeel was he saw David reading his Bible. And Nabeel took this opportunity to question David about his faith and debate yet another Christian, as he had done hundreds of times. However, this was the first time Nabeel had met an actual challenge. And as they discussed and debated each other’s opinions on Christianity that night, Nabeel was left challenged by David to research more into Christianity. This was because any of the arguments or points Nabeel tried to use to debunk Christianity, David refuted them. He had a firm apologetic for his faith. And after this debate, Nabeel had become a Christian!
Actually, that is not what happened. What’s incredible to me about Nabeel’s testimony is that it took him around three years after this conversation to convert to Christianity. What filled this time was incredible research into our Christian faith and history as well as incredible research into his own faith and history. And after he discovered that Christianity is true and his current faith was not, he was broken. Not only did he have to walk away from the faith he trusted in for most of his life, but he also had to walk away from the life he had built thus far. Besides his career, which was in the medical field, his entire life revolved around Islam - his family, social status, future careers, everything. To explain this further, in Islam if someone leaves the faith in apostasy (the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person) they are dishonored, dishonoring their entire family and family members before them, and are even allowed to be killed by this decision, according to Islamic law. Sadly, and understandably, all of this terrified Nabeel and he goes on to explain in his testimony that he spent many nights just crying.
Now, the reason why this testimony extremely impacted me was for two reasons. First, the amazing explanation of the cost to follow Christ. And second, the comfort of a friend walking with him. To elaborate on the first reason, Nabeel explains that he did not want to forsake everything he had to follow Christ, but was reminded by the words of Christ: “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” Luke 13:24. Nabeel understood that the price to enter in through the narrow door would cost him everything and entering into this door would not be easy. But Nabeel did not want to lose his family, especially his relationship with his parents. Then again Nabeel was reminded of the words of Christ: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me” Matthew 10:37. This among many other works of Christ and Scripture led Nabeel to accept Christ as His Messiah. However, his friend David also walked with Nabeel during his long 3 year fight with Christianity.
Thus, the second reason I love this testimony is because of the faith of a good friend. David knew this would not be an easy conversion for Nabeel, even in that hotel room. So you can see that David relied on the Spirit and Christ to do all of the work, and David would just walk with Nabeel during this time. And while David did this, he loved Nabeel as Christ would. Nabeel states in his testimony that he was incredibly thankful for David’s friendship. He said that if some random person told him to give up everything and follow Christ, he would think that person was crazy. But, if someone loves you and walks with you the entire time and tells you the cost for following Christ, it at least makes it easier. David’s friendship and faithfulness to Nabeel was instrumental to Nabeel’s walk and eventual faith in Christ. David’s words as a loving friend with Christ’s love in David strengthened Nabeel during what was at the time an impossible choice to make during his walk to faith.
So, church family, I write this testimony in my article to hopefully encourage you all with an amazing testimony of God’s work in someone’s life, but also to show an example of the importance of relationships. Absolutely the price we have to pay to submit to Christ as Lord of our life is hard, but it is oh so worth it when we gain the love of the Father and Christ our Lord. And the relationships we build with others is so important when considering our witness for Christ. We truly cannot offer anything of our own to someone to bring them to Christ. If we just show them Christ’s love, explain the Scriptures, and walk with them patiently, then we allow the One who is able to do all of the work. And just like for Nabeel, who for him it took around 3 years, Christ was able to work in him and redeem him. Praise God for the tremendous work that was done in Nabeel’s life and let it serve as an amazing testimony for us to grow from and to celebrate!
If you want to know more about Nabeel’s testimony, here is the link to the amazing video of Nabeel sharing his testimony:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aqGwE7ZFo0
To God be the Glory!