I recently met a thirty-seven-year-old man who grew up in a Muslim family, learned to obey the laws of Islam, memorized many verses from the Quran, and followed the rituals of his denomination and his family’s roots without hesitation or doubt. As he grew older, he followed the teachings of his Shia sect. Since the death of the Prophet Muhammad, they have been under the threat of being eliminated and oppressed by infidels and Sunni Muslims, so they felt they must defend their sect with everything they have.
After he graduated from university and witnessed the bloody events unfolding in our region, he decided to investigate and understand the causes of the conflict. After studying, he noticed a terrifying amount of religious and political contradictions, treachery, and betrayal among individuals who were supposed to carry a heavenly message, and that Islam is a religious system that is not settled on anything, just justifications for actions that do not even follow the morals they claim as a religion. Of course, he was working and following all the ritual instructions. Still, his religious life was a mere formality, repeating everything without conviction or even believing in it fully.
One Friday, he didn’t go to the mosque to pray, so his father asked him, “Did you fulfill your assignment and your obligation towards Allah?” He answered his father, saying, “Why? Are my prayers an obligation or an assignment?” His father answered, “If you don’t fulfill your obligations toward Allah, you deserve hell.” So, he asked his father, “Are you sure that you will go to heaven, because I’m not?” His father looked at him and said with a very loud voice, “The prophet will intercede for me, because I’m serving our religion, and you should be doing that.”
After that, more questions accumulated in his head: Is God true? Is our religion true? If I die, where will I go? There was no answer!
The Lord opened the door for us to meet through multiple connections, and when we met, we began to discuss God and His love for us. He asked, “Why does He love us?” I began to explain to him who God is to me and His love towards us, which brings us to Him as our Father and believers as His children. And that even when you pray, if you don’t have a personal relationship with God, your life has no meaning.
“Those are sweet words,” he said, “but I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
I told him to think about what I said, and if he wants, we could meet again.
We met more and talked about who the True God is. One day, he asked if he could read the Bible to learn about the true God. He began to read the Bible, accepting it as the Word of God and a tangible book in his hands. He would read a chapter three times before he moved on to the next one. One day, he told me that the words in the book had affected his mind. Then after I answered a few of his questions about the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, I asked him, “Why are you trying to lose yourself and live in doubt? If you notice these words are affecting your mind, the Lord Jesus is talking to you through His Word. Don’t harden your heart. Today is a day of salvation. Accept Him and enjoy your relationship with Him as Savior and God. Remove all that confusion from your mind and heart.”
That day, he came to know salvation and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Since then, he has become very faithful and active in our ministry.
