“I ENJOYED MAKING CHRISTIANS UNHAPPY”: THE
STORY OF AN ISLAMIC LAWYER WHO WAS
CONVERTED BY JESUS HIMSELF:
------------------------------------------
HAJIA BINTA FARUK'S CONVERSION STORY
I was born into the Muri kingdom, which is mostly
Fulani. My mother, Hajia Aminat Jalingo, is of the
Kutep tribe. Contrary to the Islamic tradition of
multiple wives, my father married and maintained
only my mother. I am the fifth of nine children.
My father lived in many parts of Nigeria, serving
in the Army till 1996. My mother also worked with
the Nigerian Medical Corps until her retirement in
1992.
I attended the Army Children School, Ikeja
Cantonment, Lagos, completed my secondary
education at Government Girls’ College Enugu. I
studied Mass Communication at the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). After my studies, in 1996, I
worked as Programme Producer/Director with the
Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), Yola. I got
married on April 27, 1997 and God blessed us
with a set of twin boys – Hassan and Hussain.
I never believed that I needed salvation for
whatever reason, because every Moslem is
convinced that Muhammad was the last Prophet
in the long line of those that Allah had sent
before. The Islamic Hadith (Mishkat) speaks of
about 124,000 people who lived at various times
in history. Twenty-eight of them are mentioned by
name and most are found in the Bible. Since each
of them was sent with a word from Allah to warn
the respective people not to practice idolatry, to
live righteously and to consider the coming Day of
Judgement, it is perceived by Moslems that Isa
(Jesus), the one to whom is given the greatest
prominence in the Qur’an, was like Ibrahim
(Abraham), Musa (Moses) and most others sent to
the Jews. Therefore, when I heard Christians call
Him, Lord, I became mad at them.
As a young girl, in the secondary school, and even
as an undergraduate, I would delightfully pack
copies of the Holy Bible and take them to Kaduna
for destruction, I thought the Bible was demonic.
Many are still doing it today, I became Vice
President of the youth wing of the Jamaatu Nasril
Islam. Very often, I saw Christians happy in every
situation; yet, my success at school, which gave
me the job at NTA, and brightened my chances of
a good husband, could not bring me such peace
and happiness, Several people had talked to me
about Christianity, but to me then, Muhammad
was the final seal of the prophets. This was my
pride as a Fulani girl who saw herself in the
greatest religion of all time.
Qu’ran does not teach salvation in Jesus Christ,
but it gives Him the greatest prominence. The
wonderful statements in the Qu’ran are enough
to compel one to search more about Him. The
name Jesus (Isa) occurs about 25 times in the
Qu’ran, and the title Messiah is used 93 times.
I hated anything that had to do with Christianity. I
was always happy seeing a Christian unhappy and
enjoyed hearing that Christians were suffering,
but on the 25th of September 1999, I was caught
in a web. The day before, we attended the Friday
prayers and all went well. At about 1:30a.m.
suddenly, an unusually bright light appeared in
the bedroom with a mighty wind blowing and
throwing all the pictures and other valuables to
the ground. My husband and I became afraid. He
got up from bed, brought out charms, known in
Hausa as “Hayaki”. He placed it on the ground, got
hot charcoal and placed the charm on it, but the
mighty wind threw it all down.
Before we could make out anything, a voice
thundered, saying: “You have been baptized by
the Holy Spirit. Go and be “Tabitha” unto my
people”. I asked my husband if he could
understand what the voice was saying, but he said
that he did not hear any voice. He later concluded
that I belonged to a secret cult, which accounted
for my hearing voice that he could not hear. He
thought that I wanted to sacrifice him or our set
of twins. He got angry, took our twins to the
guestroom and abandoned me in the bedroom. I
was very worried and couldn’t sleep. In the
morning, again, I heard the voice saying: “Tell your
husband that you have accepted Jesus as your
personal Lord and Saviour”. I said “No, I can’t.
What has a Fulani got to do with Jesus Christ”, I
thought that demons were after me. The thing
happened again on 28th and 29th, and each time,
there was an invitation to “come and serve”. So I
told my husband that I would go to Church the
following Sunday. “Not in this house”, he retorted,
He might have received my word with shock, yet
joy and peace flooded my heart at that time. I
knew what I was passing through and it would be
disastrous for me not to do what God would want
me to do for Him.
On Saturday, after speaking to him about it, I
went ahead and bought for myself the first Bible I
ever bought or read in my life, and hid it under
my box. The next day, Sunday, I picked up my
Bible, got into my car and drove to the nearby
Baptist Church.
After the service, I came back and met my
husband at home. I greeted him but he asked me
where I was coming from; I wanted to lie, but
heard a voice saying ‘what were you taught in the
church today?’ It was "Ye shall know the truth and
the truth shall make you free" So, I told him that I
was coming from the Church. He got up in anger,
gave me a beating, snatched the Bible from me
and wanted to tear it but I told him of the danger
of tearing the Bible, so he stopped. He was
shocked because he knew that it was my role in
the past. So he dropped the Bible in anger and
left till the evening. I brought out food for him as
usual, but he kicked the food away and warned
his sister that no one should eat the food I
cooked in the house again for he had declared me
an infidel and as a result, I would have nothing to
do with the family, even with my own kids. The
next day, he went to fetch my father from
Makurdi. As I welcomed my father, he too, started
beating me with his military belt and boots, until I
was unconscious and was taken to the hospital
where I stayed for three days. Wonderfully, on
the third day, at about 2 a.m., the Lord appeared
to me. I noticed a touch on my feet and I woke up
trying to see who it was that touched me, but the
face was shinning like the sun in such a way that I
could not see his face. I only looked at Him from
His feet to the chest. I was afraid and screamed
for help. One of the nurses came, prayed with me
and asked me not to be afraid again. As I said
amen to her prayers, I began to speak in tongues
for about three hours. I was saying things they
could not understand. Some of them thought I
was mad but a psychiatric doctor who was called
in, confirmed that I was normal.
The figure appeared again. This time He said unto
me, "Be bold, for this is temporary: you will
overcome the temptation". The fourth day, I was
discharged from the hospital. On getting home,
my husband gave me a divorce letter, which I
collected with joy and told him. ‘I am married to
Jesus.’
After that, I packed my things, including my two
cars, kept them in someone’s house and travelled
to Lagos. My husband took my twins to Saudi
Arabia. Not done yet, my father had the man that
I had kept my belongings in his house arrested on
the grounds that he had abducted me from my
husband’s house. On hearing that, I returned to
Jalingo and arranged his release. Then, my father
collected my cars and other belongings claiming
that he bought them for me as wedding presents.
In trying to make me renounce my faith in Christ,
the Management of the Nigeria Television
Authority (NTA), Yola, had my appointment
terminated, under pressure from my husband.
My father and some Islamic fanatics took me to
one Alhaji’s house in Jalingo and there chained
my feet and my hands. After seven days, I was
released, with a threat of death, if I went to
Church again.
My mother arranged for my uncle, her elder
brother to reconcile my father and me. As we
went talking, my father got angry, picked up his
gun and shot at me. As God would have it, the
little movement I made at the sight of a gun
overturned the seat where I was sitting and I was
pushed to the ground. The gun sounded but the
bullets did not enter me but passed through the
chair and to the wall. Everybody was alarmed, my
mother started weeping that he had killed her
only daughter. Later, my mother advised me to go
and stay with her elder brother. Being a moslem,
he too was unhappy with me and made life
difficult. Once, he threatened to kill me with a
cutlass so I left his house for Lagos and later,
Maiduguri.
I was denied my rights in the family; my father
had me thrown into prison on false allegation. He
had initially gone to a Sharia court but I protested
against that since I am now a Christian. So, he
took me to a Magistrate court at Hadeja. The
Magistrate ordered that I be remanded in prison
for calling my father, my neighbour. I was in
detention for six months without trial and bail
until some Christians on prison visitation, learnt
that I was there for becoming a Christian. The
matter was reported to the Christian Association
of Nigeria (CAN) Chairman who wrote a petition
that led to my proper trial. The Magistrate
sentenced me to two years imprisonment plus a
fine of five thousand Naira. One Christian Women
Fellowship in the area paid the fine while I was
taken to prison. That was September 5, 2000.
Some inmates asked me to appeal but I told
them, confidently, that the Lord Jesus would do a
great Appeal for me. At midnight, I prayed: ‘Lord, I
want you to deliver me from this prison before
December. If you don’t, the people will ask me,
where is your God?’ I reminded him of how He
answered Hezekiah. On October 2, 2000, less than
a month after my imprisonment, a letter came
from Abuja ordering my release and I was set
free. My prison experiences brought me closer to
God that I developed more faith in God’s ability to
see me through.
After two months, I decided to go and share the
Lord Jesus with my grandparents. The moslem
youths were looking for me everywhere, to kill
me. They hid me until I couldn’t be hidden. I fled
to the bush for four days. On the fourth night, I
woke up with a snake beside me. That day, I told
God that I wanted to go back to Islam. I couldn’t
continue like that in the bush but He quickly
reprimanded me. He asked "Upon all the
sufferings you’ve been through, you still want to
go back? If I didn’t shut the mouth of the snake,
wouldn’t it bite you while you slept? I repented
and told him that I was sorry; I will never go back
to Egypt".
I found out that God actually took me to prison to
teach me some things. One was to read the Bible
and, two, because of a female Christian warder
who left and married a Moslem and God shut her
womb. In the prison, God told me in a dream that
she was going to have a baby. When I told her,
she became angry, tortured me, called me names,
but I kept praying for her, that the name of the
Lord be glorified since I had said the Lord told
me. Later, she actually had the baby, and that
converted her and her husband. Eight molems in
the prison gave their lives to Christ. They were
baptized in the Holy Ghost before I left. Seeing
what the Lord used me to do in the prison, I knew
that I would do better outside.
One day, some moslem youths came and
kidnapped me. They laid me on the ground,
raised their cutlasses to kill me but their hands
remained hanging in the air. That happened to
three of them and the others fled. They were later
taken to the police who wanted them killed but I
told them it was the Lord’s battle not theirs. I told
them that I had forgiven them. As I was leaving,
they asked for their hands to be restored. I said
"In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, let your
hands come down" and their cutlasses dropped.
Today, they are Christians and live with me. On
another occasion, another group of moslem
youths kidnapped me. They were taking me to
Sokoto. On the way, scorpions emerged and
started to sting them. They dropped me, begged
me and even gave me money to take me back
home. Yet on another occasion, they kidnapped
me and wanted to inject me with poisonous
material but they couldn’t find those materials
and had to let me go.
The Bible says we must start from our Jerusalem.
Moslems and Fulanis are my Jerusalem. Many of
them live in ignorance, not having heard of Jesus
till today. And if I am one of the fortunate ones
that God brought out, I need to go out and say
something to them. That is why I say I would fight
the cause with my blood. I am not limiting myself
to Nigeria; I intend to go to the Middle East,
planting a church in Saudi Arabia where my
children are. I tell God that my children in Saudi
Arabia are Ambassadors of Christ and they must
become Pastors in Saudi Arabia.
So, any time I hear a moslem is converted
somewhere and is persecuted, I take them in. I
have forty-nine under my roof right now. They call
me "mama". The oldest is eighty-nine years. She
became a Christian and her children threw her
from upstairs to die, but God preserved her. A
Pastor found her and brought her to the centre.
Some come with their ears cut off, others are
stripped naked etc. I pray for people to join me in
this crusade. Thank God. He is raising men among
the coverts in the centre and in my family.
My immediate elder brother who is a soldier has
become a Christian. My mother became a
Christian since 2002. My elder brothers who
wanted me dead or back to Islam are now
Christians. One of them, a Senior Lecturer at the
University of Maiduguri had to relocate to Imo
State because of persecution.
I testify that Jesus is Lord. Some people came to
attack us. The first time they came, they saw a
pool of blood: the house became a pool of blood.
The second time they came, the house became
plain land. The third time, they saw ocean. The
last time, the house became a pillar of fire.
Sometime later, something happened that led to
their arrest and the Commissioner of Police sent
for me. On getting there, the police brought the
criminals who said that I didn’t know them but
they knew me. They were all Moslems, some of
them from Republic of Niger. They then narrated
how they had to attack me, but I was delivered by
the Lord. That day, the Commissioner of Police
lined up his men in the office and asked me to
pray for them.
Instead of leaving me alone, my former husband
began to persecute me. While leading some
assassins to my place to kill me, the vehicle in
which they were travelling was involved in an
accident. He, alone died in the hospital after
confessing that he wanted me dead for I was
bringing shame to his name. It pains me because
both of us were in the same room the day I heard
the voice. After that I prevented him from
destroying a copy of the Bible, something I used
to enjoy doing. He knew how violent I was,
destroying Christendom. He should have learnt a
lesson from my conversion and repented. That is
how many others die without repentance even
though they are exposed to the gospel. The good
Lord who is always my Shield and Protector will
always save and hide me in His shadow. My life is
in God’s hand." THE END.
Binta Faruk Jalingo was a staff of the Nigerian
Television Authority (NTA) Yola. She runs Tabitha
Evangelistic Ministry, a home for the persecuted
(Converted Muslims) in Miango, Jos Plateau State,
Nigeria.

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At the mention of the name of JESUS ,every knee must bow. It is a matter of time

All things are possible!

the saul of our time.

Great thanks to God whom hold all things. I have read this story before now. it's inspiring

Bless the name of the Lord.

I actually heard about her story as far back as 2007... God is great

Pls also post brother shuiabu's story. God bless