Dear readers, in Islam, if one converts to Christianity,he or she will be killed. This testifier did not disclose his identity because that will be putting his life at risk. Read and see some of the reasons they left Islam.



Testimony of Abdul Saleeb

My name is "Abdul Saleeb". I was born and raised in a Muslim country in the Middle East. Even though I lived in a very conservative Muslim society I grew up in a somewhat of a liberal Muslim family. Furthermore, my Muslim upbringing was unique due to my mother's serious involvement in Islamic sufism. So I can honestly confess, that I have had first hand experience of every aspect of contemporary Islamic movements. I personally did not consider myself very religious. At one point I even turned to Marxist ideologies thinking that they could provide real solutions to my country's social ills. However, throughout all this time I never doubted the fundamentals of my religious faith. I thought of Islam as a faith with such high ideals that I did not consider myself worthy of the name Muslim but I wholeheartedly believed that Islam was God's last and most perfect religion for all mankind, based on God's final revelation, the Qur'an, and the prophet Muhammad, God's seal of prophethood. My view of other religions (especially Judaism and Christianity) was that although they were fundamentally the same since they had all been revealed by one God, they were all inferior to Islam because all of them had to various degrees corrupted the original message of their founding prophets, something that we as Muslims have not done.

My religious views were radically challenged when I left my country because of its civil turmoil and went to Europe for the continuation of my studies. By the providence of God and because of various circumstances, I ended up enrolling in an International Christian School. My first "theological" question to one of my Christian teachers, was extremely childish but looking back at it now , the response of my teacher revolutionized my worldview. I asked my question after sitting in my first class about some of the teachings of the Bible. My question was, "How come Christians can drink wine but Muslims cannot? How come your word of God says one thing and our word of God says something different?" My teacher, not knowing much about Islam at all, gently asked, "How do you know the Qur'an is the word of God?" I was taken aback by that response. I had lived in a world in which everyone simply presupposed that the Qur'an was dictated word for word by God to the Prophet Muhammad and no one ever questioned that assumption. That brief encounter forced me to start on a journey, engage my Christian friends in hours of cordial discussion and debate about the truthfulness of the Christian faith.

Like almost any other Muslim, my original reaction to the claims of Christians about Jesus Christ was that of utter shock. These claims not only seemed like plain blasphemy but also quite nonsensical. How could any rational being believe such things about an honored prophet of God? Despite my fundamental theological differences with my friends, there was something about their life and faith that impressed me a great deal. There was a sincerity in their relationship with God and other people that I had not encountered among my own Muslim people. So I would often tell them that I did not want to deny their faith but I just wanted to find a compromise so that I could hold to the truth of Islam and they could continue to hold to their faith.

However, I was in no doubt that their belief about Jesus was based on statements that the prophet Jesus had never actually claimed for himself. My difficulty in understanding Christian belief was very much along the lines that have historically separated Islam from Christianity.

First, there was the issue of the deity of Christ. How can anybody believe that a human being was actually God incarnate? How can that be logically possible?

The second obstacle was the doctrine of the Trinity, an issue closely related to the first problem. Again, this Christian belief seemed to me was a logical absurdity and grossly compromised the belief in the Oneness of God.

Finally, I did not grant in any way that the Bible, especially the New Testament documents, were reliable when it came to reporting the words of Christ. Anything in the Bible that disagreed with the Qur'an was automatically rejected as being a corrupt teaching in the Bible.

My spiritual journey went on for months. Oftentimes I did find comfort in the Qur'an, but I was encountering more questions in that book than answers. For example, the violent tone of many of the Qur'anic passages (especially against the unbelievers but also against the Jewish and Christian people) began to bother me, when compared with the emphasis on love in the New Testament. One particular passage that troubled me, especially in light of my good friendship with many Christians, was in Sura 5:51.

"O ye who believe! Take not Jews and Christians for your friends and protectors; they are but friends and protectors to eachother. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them. Verily God guideth not a people unjust."

However, the most troubling section of the Qur'an had to do with the character of the prophet Muhammad himself. According to Sura 33:37, God sanctions Muhammad's desire to marry the divorced wife of his own stepson, "in order that (in future) there may be no difficulty to the believers in (the matter of) marriage with the wives of their adopted sons, when the latter have dissolved with the necessary (formality) (their marriage) with them. And God's command must be fulfilled."

I vividly remember the first time that I came across that verse in my study of the Qur'an. I began to sob with great sorrow and shame. All my life I had been told that Muhammad was the most perfect and ideal moral example for mankind and yet the Qur'an had a good number of examples of how the "revelations" could be so selfserving to the prophet himself!

I immediately wrote a letter to my mother back home with some of these troubling questions that I was encountering in the Qur'an. The response that I received to my letter from one of the most prominent religious leaders in my country was that I should just continue my secular studies and not focus too much on religion. On the other hand, as my understanding of the Bible was increasing many of my questions were beginning to get answered. Even as a Muslim I came to believe that the crucifixion of Christ was an undisputable historical fact that no honest person that deals with evidences of history could deny.

The character of Christ himself, as manifested for example in his beautiful Sermon on the Mount, was gradually making a great impression on me. But for me, the most impressive factor about Christ, were the multitudes of Old Testament prophecies about the coming of the Messiah. Some of these prophecies were so specific and they were fulfilled in the life of Jesus to such a detail that it amazed me to see how God had taken hundreds of years of Jewish history to prepare the coming of the Messiah; prophecies ranging from Messiah's ancestery, his manner and place of birth, his life and ministry to the circumstances surrounding his death by crucifixion. I was very attracted to Christ and yet I could not deny my own tradition and past. Becoming Christian seemed a definite betrayal of my own family and Islamic heritage. The tension in my life was so strong that I felt torn asunder between these two faiths.

But I still could not bring myself to accept that Jesus was anything more than a human being. Since he had never explicitly said, "I am God and you must worship me," the Christian claim about Jesus was based on speculation and historically unreliable Gospels. Surely the incredible statements attributed to Jesus were invented by later church and put in the mouth of Jesus.

In the midst of all this anxiety of thought, I woke up one morning and was suddenly struck by the meaning of a verse written by the prophet Isaiah in his ninth chapter. I had read this verse several weeks prior to that morning, but I had never understood its meaning. In Isa.7:14, we read,

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."

Isaiah then goes on to write in chapter 9,

"[, ] in the future he (God) will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan the people walking in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned [, ] For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne [, ] from that time on and forever."

I could not believe it! The fact that the Messiah was not going to be just a prophet but Mighty God himself, was therefore a truth that had been prophesied sevenhundred years before Christ in the Old Testament, and not something that had been made up by Christians many years or centuries after Christ! It was God's own promise that he will come in flesh (Immanuel = God with us) and will establish a kingdom that will last forever.

I came to trust in Christ, the next day on January 20, 1985. I cried uncontrollably as I was praying and turning to Christ in faith. I did not know why, and though I had never felt much burden of guilt, I was feeling a great sense of peace and relief from the burden of my sins. A greater satisfaction was the sense of rest in finally finding the truth about God and His revelation of love to mankind in Jesus Christ. A book that helped me (and several other Muslim friends of mine who became Christians around the same time that I did) tremendously in answering many of my questions about the deity of Christ and the reliability of the New Testament documents was Josh McDowell's "Evidence That Demands A Verdict". I highly recommend it.

Soon after my own conversion, I decided to dedicate my entire life to promoting the Good News of Christ among Muslims and especially the people of my own country. I later came to the United States and received my undergraduate and graduate degrees in Biblical and Theological Studies. I also co-authored a book with Norman Geisler, a prominent Christian philosopher, with the title "Answering Islam: The Crescent in the Light of the Cross".

Abdul Saleeb, Ramadan of 1996

Fatimah's Testimony

I still don’t know why I am writing my story. Maybe I want to be heard because in the real world I still can’t tell many people that I have left Islam.

I was born into a Muslim family and remained a devout practicing Muslim for 30 years. But then something happened nine years ago. It wasn’t an explosion, or a revelation. I was living in a Muslim country, surrounded by Muslims, leading a happy Muslim life. I didn’t need to start reading the history of Islam. But I did. And everything changed. It still took me nine years to realize that Islam can never be from God.

My quest for truth began when I first found out about the legality of raids and slavery in Islam. I started re-reading the Quran – this time in Arabic and English to find out what God really allowed and what He banned. I was disappointed. I read it several times. I read ahadith and commentaries and biographies of Muhammad. The more I read, the farther I grew from Islam. It came to a point where I prayed fervently and cried on my prayer mat beseeching Allah to guide me. At that time, I still believed that the Quran was from God.

I prayed and fasted but salah (Muslim prayer) never calmed me and I never enjoyed Ramadan. I know that salah is extremely calming for many Muslims and they really enjoy Ramadan. I say, good for them. But I also know Muslims who think that Islam is not as easy as people claim. It is highly ritualistic with some very frustrating rituals. You fart and your ablution is void. One has to do it all over again. If you fart while praying, you have to repeat the ablution and the prayer. If you have sex you have to shower as soon as possible so that you are ‘clean’ before next prayer. That cleansing shower has its own ritualistic steps. A woman having her period can’t even touch the Quran and in an orthodox culture like most Islamic cultures she can’t let her brothers and father know that she is on her period so even when she is not fasting she will wake up at four in the morning for suhoor (small breakfast before fasting in Ramadan) so that the men in the family don’t find out she is menstruating.

I still continued to pray and fast and give zakat. But the one thing I didn’t want to do was go for Hajj. I have done Umrah and it wasn’t a wonderful experience. I will not deny that it was an elating experience to finally be able to see and touch the Kaaba because that is every Muslim’s dream, but I found most of the Umrah rituals aimless and odd. Even as a young adult I couldn’t understand why we had to go around a building seven times or push and shove others to kiss a stone that carried everyone’s germs.

Hajj always frightened me. A distant relative was burnt in the 1997 Hajj fire. Two years later he died from complications. In 2003 a friend died in the Hajj stampede. Accidents can and do happen anywhere and everywhere but when you set out to worship God, you go with the expectation that your experience or at least your worship will be blessed, not that you will be either roasted or crushed to death. Over the years one thought disturbed me time and again: why would God kill His worshippers so mercilessly if what they were doing was right? Since the early 1970s until today (2009) there have been seven stampedes (isn’t that an ominous number?), three instances of violence, two instances of fire, and once a hotel collapsed that was housing pilgrims. I thought, aren’t these signs; signs that something is not quite right about Hajj?

When Hindus were crushed to death during their pilgrimage stampede, Muslims were quick to point that it was a curse from God for worshipping idols but when Muslims die almost every other year in Hajj stampedes while stoning the pagan-looking towers they are called martyrs. I still don’t understand that.

Over the years I came to realize slowly that like Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Muhammad truly believed that he was a prophet of God and that he was receiving revelations. In that way he was not completely at fault. In fact there are several similarities between these two men. Ahmad also means Muhammad. Both men claimed they were prophets. Both called people to take oaths of allegiance with them. Both made prophecies. Ahmad like Muhammad claimed God spoke to him through angels and dictated him books that are incomparable in language and style. Ahmad challenged native Arabic speakers to bring a book like his just like Muhammad and like Muhammad he challenged them to even work collectively. Like Muhammad, Ahmad is recorded to have gone into trance while receiving revelations. Once he spoke extempore in Arabic for an hour during which his voice changed and he later collapsed – he was Indian and was not a native Arabic speaker. Thus, he was as illiterate in the Arabic language as Muhammad claimed he was unlettered (See more on Mirza Ghulam Ahmad here).

What is even more interesting is that both Muhammad and Ahmad liked to indulge in Mubahala (a cursing prayer contest) in which both parties pray to God cursing the opponent and the one who is lying dies within a year of the Mubahala or dies before the truthful party. It is believed that Ahmad died because his Mubahala failed him. Muhammad is believed to have brought his daughter, son-in-law and grandsons to engage in a Mubahala with the Christians of Najran in the 10th year after the Hijrah. Muslims claim the Christians refused to enter into Mubahala because they knew they were at fault and Mubahala would have meant they would have died within a year and their future generations would have faced dreadful fates. We know what Muhammad said to the Christians in argument but what the Christians said as counter-argument is not recorded in Islamic books. We do know that they claimed they were not convinced that Muhammad was a prophet. Whether or not the Mubahala really took place, Quran records it as being ordered by God and interestingly Muhammad died the following year, his daughter died less than five months later and his son-in-law and grandsons were all murdered – not by Christians but by Muslims! That is something no Muslim book will point out.

When I read this I began to think: if the vast majority of Muslims think that the followers of Ahmad are kuffar (non-Muslims) and that he was a fake prophet even when his claims were very much like Muhammad’s and he had more powerful miracles (the incidence of the eclipses and the revealed sermons), why do they believe in Muhammad? If Ahmad was defying the message of the Quran by claiming to be a messenger receiving revelations, wasn’t Muhammad defying the message of the Gospel by claiming that Jesus was ‘just a prophet’? Muhammad was a lot more popular than Ahmad because the former brought a new message of monotheism to the polytheistic Arabians while Ahmad was reinventing the wheel. Furthermore, he was against jihad and tried to preach to a people of 20th century India who had far more sense than the 7th Century superstitious Arabs.

I also thought, for the three days that the Christians of Najran stayed in Medina Muhammad claimed to receive constant revelations from God but, when his own wife was accused of adultery he waited for a month for a physical proof to ensure she wasn’t pregnant before bringing a revelation to announce her innocence! Many verses were ‘revealed’ because one of Muhammad’s wives, companions or Omar Ibn Khattab inspired them. Does God really do that? I don’t even want to go into how women are ‘put in their place’ in the Quran. Most of the Quran addresses Muhammad or men. It was only after Umm Salama pointed out how God forgets women when He dictates the Quran that the tone of the Quran changed and began addressing women as well.

I guess the turning point in my religiosity came one summer when I read how Muhammad used to go into a trance when he received revelations. My paternal grandmother had the ability to capture demons / spirits / supernatural-beings (called jinn in Arabic) to learn about the future and lead a comfortable life after her husband suddenly died. Apparently my grandmother had subdued a supernatural force which Muslims call a jinn. This demon/jinn was several hundred years old and belonged to ancient Persia. When my grandmother summoned him, her body would stiffen, she would sweat profusely and go into a trance. Her lips moved very fast but if someone tried hard they would not hear her but hear a faint sound of a man’s voice speaking in a different language. My father recalled that it sounded like “a hefty animal was snoring.” She would then begin to write several sentences without pause. When the supernatural force left her, she would collapse, drained out of all energy. Her writing, though sometimes muddled, was often in faultless Arabic and always provided answers to the questions that she had asked the spirit. The spirit gave insight into past events which were often accurate and told her about the future. It even prophesized when she would die.

Such stories are not uncommon in Arabian lands. There is always someone or the other who has the gift to control supernatural beings and use them for their advantage. When the human capturer dies, the supernatural being is released with him/her. Many times their predictions are accurate and help humans in winning lover’s hearts, bets and battles. But not everyone is powerful enough to be able to possess a complying and friendly demon and these spirits don’t always remain loyal.

This wasn’t uncommon fourteen centuries ago either. Quran refers to it in several places and challenges all jinns and humans to band together and bring a book like the Quran. It may seem like a silly challenge today, but the 7th Century Arab knew exactly what it meant. The text of the Quran was composed by someone so powerful that no ordinary human or jinn ever took up the challenge. Even when Mirza Ghulam Ahmad made a similar challenge, no one took it up. When I learnt about Muhammad’s experiences, I couldn’t help but draw similarities between his physical state when he claimed to receive revelations and the physical state of my grandmother when the spirit spoke through her and even Mirza Ahmad when he claimed he was receiving revelations. In all three cases, something was definitely revealed, but it was not God speaking through angels. I thought to myself: angels spoke to all prophets and sometimes even to their women but they never went into a trance. Even encountering demons didn’t cause them to sweat and collapse. Prophets had power over those beings. Then I read a hadith in which Muhammad said:

“There is no one among you but he has with him a constant companion (qareen) from among the jinn and a constant companion from among the angels.” They said, “You too, O Messenger of Allaah?” He said, “Me too, but Allah has helped me against him (the devil-companion) and he has become Muslim, so he only enjoins me to do that which is good.” (Underlining mine). (This hadith is quoted here and a similar one exists in Sahih Muslim, Book 39, Hadith No. 6759).

It is quite clear that at least Muhammad had a demon/Jinn as a constant companion. Muhammad had power over that Jinn and had controlled it and made him to submit (he had become Muslim) so he joined Muhammad in what the latter thought was good. Muhammad is recorded to have acknowledged it.

The Quran is certainly beautiful in many places. Surah Rahman is extremely beautiful poetry that one can not only appreciate if they understand Arabic but even non-Arabic speakers find it captivating. But my question has always been: is that all the All Mighty God is capable of composing? Didn’t Muhammad limit the power of God by claiming that Quran was His word? When a mere human can’t even imagine the glory of God and what He looks like; when Moses couldn’t even bear to catch a glimpse of God, how can we, the ordinary human beings, be asked to imagine how He speaks? Shouldn’t we all be consumed and scatter as dust when He speaks to us? Wouldn’t a paper that bears His word turn to ashes? Quran is certainly not as glorious as God and it certainly limits His power.

But Muhammad didn’t compose it either. The language actually may have been too sophisticated for him and may have impressed him as well. Quran claims that Jinns listened to the Quran and spread the word (46:29-30). Could it be that Muhammad’s Jinn too heard the Torah and the Gospel and reported it to his master? Muhammad didn’t know the Scriptures or the Biblical history or about Science, but could his Jinn have known all this, albeit through his own faulty understanding since Jinns are a creation of God and not divine or all powerful? God doesn’t err but a Jinn can and hence we find contradictions and bad science in the Quran. Perhaps Aisha secretly knew that it is not God who was eager to fulfill Muhammad’s wishes, but it was the Jinn that was eager to please his master because she wasn’t one to blaspheme like that.

I continued to study Islam more closely. When I questioned various points, others told me that I was inviting Satan to whisper to me; that I should stop reading too much. Most Muslims either don’t know the little details of their religion or don’t care about them for the peace of their mind. Those close to me continued to explain that I wasn’t doing anything wrong: I was worshipping one God – praying more in a day than a person from any other religion; I wasn’t cheating anyone, lying or stealing. Wife beating, polygamy and oppression didn’t affect me. What else did I want? So I began to search for Truth secretly and quietly.

I was worshipping one God five times a day but the associated rituals were wearisome. The call to prayer attested five times a day that Muhammad was a prophet of God. After every call to prayer I was taught to make a supplication blessing Muhammad and asking Allah to give him the best place in Heaven at a rank above everyone else and to allow him to intercede as Allah promised him! Five times a day I sat on my prayer mat in Tashahhud and spent almost half of my prayer in blessing Muhammad and his ummah several times. Which prophet ever taught his people to bless him endlessly every day? I could sense hidden paranoia.

But no Muslim I knew could see this.

My faith in Islam hung by a thin thread and I was just waiting for God to show me the final sign. That sign came in the form of an Islamic talk I was attending. The speaker was talking about the Quran. Someone from the audience very casually asked how many verses are there in the Quran since there is some confusion on the exact number. The speaker explained that no one really knows (adding that it doesn’t matter how many there are): the number is disputed because scholars differ in their opinion over where some verses end or if some verses are actually one or multiple verses depending on how the Quran was compiled. According to the current version there are 6,236 verses without bismillah and 6,349 with bismillah. However, there are scholars who look at oldest compilations of the verses and believe that the correct number with bismillah is 6,666!

He hadn’t even finished his talk when my arms broke out in goosebumps and I walked out of the building. At home I spent a long time searching the internet on information about the AntiChrist. What I found was very significant.

Revelation 20:4 reads:

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his MARK upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Some distinct features characterize the AntiChrist:

1. His number is Six hundred threescore and six = 666 (Revelation 13:18) — There is a strong possibility that the actual number of verses of the Quran as compiled and standardized by Uthman is really 6,666. Certainly many Muslims believe that.

2. There is a mark on the foreheads of the followers of the Anti-Christ (Revelation 13:16) — Devout Muslim men develop a scar on their foreheads called zabiba in Arabic, from rubbing their foreheads on the prayer mats. It is even mentioned in the Quran in 48:29.

3. And there is a mark on their right hands (Revelation 13:16) — To enter the fold of Islam Muhammad took the oath of allegiance from people which is called bayah in Arabic and entailed a man or woman placing their right hand into the right hand of Muhammad. Sufi Muslims still practice bayah. Bayah is also mentioned in the Quran in the same surah in 48:18, and also in 60:12. Also, whatever a Muslim possessed in the way of Allah from lands to women was called "that which their right hand possessed." Islam came to possess everything with its right hand.

4. The Anti-Christ will change the calendar (‘times and laws’) (Daniel 7:25) — The Muslim holy day is not the Sabbath day but Friday and the Muslim Hijri calendar is a lunar calendar which is very different from the relatively fixed solar Julian or Gregorian calendars.

5. He will spread through the lands by his sword (Daniel 11:40) — It is common knowledge that Islam spread through the different lands by wars and occupations.

6. Anti-Christ will preach a different Jesus from what was preached by the Apostles (2 Corinthians 11:3-4) — According to the Muslim faith and particularly the Quran, Jesus was not God; he spoke as a baby in the cradle; gave life to clay birds; and was neither crucified nor resurrected.

I still believe that Muhammad was not an evil man and he was convinced that he was a prophet. But whatever is not from God has every possibility of turning into something that is evil. Because no divine force stopped Muhammad when he waged wars and began giving himself concessions, he must have thought that whatever he was doing had God’s approval and blessing. Quran insists that a Muslims must obey God and Muhammad and must bless Muhammad every day. And while there are many ahadith that teach that Muhammad was only a man, there are also many more that urge Muslims to put their complete faith in Muhammad, give their oath of allegiance to him, bless him, and seek his intercession on the day of judgment because when “all prophets from Adam to Jesus” will fail to intercede, Muhammad will speak up from his ‘Maqam Mahmoud’ (exalted position) to intercede for his followers. Knowing all this and more, I couldn’t go on being a Muslim.

A prophet comes to change the evil status quo and reform the society. Arguing that raids, polygamy, child marriages, slavery and wife beating were the ancient customs of Arabia which Islam allowed to continue but tried to control just shows what Muhammad should have done and didn’t do. If my teacher wants me to write with an ink pen, he shouldn’t use a ballpoint pen in class and should set a positive example by using an ink pen himself instead of claiming that he can do whatever he likes because he is the teacher. By including such acts in his practice and in the Quran, Muhammad may have tried to set boundaries but he also sanctioned them in the process. Did he really think these practices would gradually end as Muslims claim when he also claimed to be the last prophet who is to be followed completely?

This is how I felt about the religion in which I was born. But I didn’t blindly jump into Christianity. I studied other religions and came to the conclusion that while I may not agree with some Christians and their practices, the message of Christ is indeed the best and the most peaceful. One can bring about change through love. Nothing and no one compares to Jesus, the Christ. He doesn’t need my praise because his actions still speak for themselves, and he doesn’t need my blessings because he is the one who blesses, for the Lord is indeed my Shepherd.

I continue to read the Bible every day and study Christianity. I must admit that those who love me have been very supportive. They have not converted to Christianity but they know and appreciate how Christ has brought peace into my life. I do not stay up all night any longer reading and re-reading the Quran in horror and disbelief and I am not bitter about the teachings of Muhammad any longer because I find solace in the words of Christ; words that warn gently and make us humble and kind human beings.

I now firmly believe that if you earnestly seek truth and keep your heart and mind open, Jesus does find you eventually for he promised - “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).

Glory be to God! ALLELUIA!

Amen! Amen!! Amen!!! Very interesting , instructive and illuminating testimonies .

This is beautiful and enlightening. Thanks for sharing!

@ All

Many of the people who gave these testimonies chose to remain anonymous for the safety of thier lifes. The position of Islam is that any Muslim who deserts it should be Killed. you need to thank God wherever you are that you are not in the bondage of Ishmael and pray that the grace of God should strenghten these testifiers.

In the Valley of Tears

I am Ibrahim who, for the sake of my family's security, go also by the nickname Timothy Abraham. I am a simple Egyptian from the Delta region. Farms surrounded me from every side with streams of the luxurious Nile River endowing life with fertility. I had a strong Islamic upbringing in my childhood, studying in the village shop for teaching the Quran (al-Kutaab). They taught me to fear God (Allah in Arabic) who created the Heaven and the earth in six days. There was not a single reason to doubt a religion which emphasized fearing God, doing good work and living a moral life. The recitation of the Quran was meant to produce a sense of tranquillity. I enjoyed the Sufi circle of worship, as they adored the person of Muhammad. This was Abu-al-Azayem's group. I was searching for more closeness with Allah Almighty.

One evening around 7:00 p.m. in al-Mahatta mosque, having finished praying al-Maghrib prayer, I was introduced to Muhammad Imam and Sulleiman Kahwash. They were vitally influential in incorporating me into their group "The Muslim Brotherhood -- i.e., al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin." They encouraged me to be a devout Muslim and fast on Monday and Thursday of every week and break the fast with them in the mosque where we ate bread, cheese, palm dates (tamr), and delicious salad. I diligently imitated every thing the Prophet Muhammad did, even the sitting posture of the Prophet as he was eating. They were so kind to me. They also saw in me the potential of being an eloquent speaker. Therefore, Sulleiman Hashem, the leader at the time, approached me gently, "Ibrahim, you are called by the Quran's teaching to proclaim the message of Islam "da'awah." "My Allah!" I pondered. "I am just 14 years old and I am easily intimidated." Nevertheless, Sulleiman gave me a stack of books to study in preparation for the sermon I was to deliver the next day. From then on, it became customary for me to preach a sermon on the first Monday of every lunar month. I was filled with zeal as my leaders had arranged for me to go across the neighboring towns, preaching from mosque to mosque. I zealously wanted everyone to follow the Tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, and subsequently, my sister had no choice but to obey my Quranic command and wear the veil which indicated modesty. I needed my father's approval. I wondered if he had ever heard his son, the 14 year old Muslim evangelist preach. To my astonishment my father was sharply criticized by people for having a son who was now a "fanatic." The Islamic Brotherhood was regarded as a religious gang by the majority of regular Muslims. My father, therefore, became wrathful over my Islamic radicalism and thoughtlessly punched me in the teeth. Today my front tooth is a fake one. It reminds me of my former perseverance to the point of death to be a zealous Muslim fundamentalist and my willingness to be persecuted for my commitment. My father burnt my Sunni (mostly wahabi and salafi) Islamic library. He knew quite well that Mohammad Mansour, a security police informer, was recording my sermons from the bathroom in the mosque. I was so strict in the fashion of the sunnah of Muhammad that I did not shake hands with women. I simply wanted to be a devout Muslim. Having finished their prayers in the mosque, my father stopped one of the leaders in my group, Sulleiman Hashem and asked him pleadingly to leave me, his son, alone. When my father swore an oath of divorce (hilif alaya bi al-talaaq) that I will not be permitted to enter the mosque where the Islamic Brotherhood is praying, I obeyed my father, but asked for mercy in letting me hear their sermons while sitting outside the mosque.

I was never daunted by any of this and continued to preach Islam everyday in the morning parade (taboor as-sabah) as well as in every mosque where I went to teach. It never occurred to me for a second that Islam could be wrong. In my pursuit to propagate Islam everywhere, a magazine came into my hands which had pen pal addresses from the United States. I chose one at random and wrote, hoping to convert the man into Islam. I wrote to John from Pennsylvania, USA back and forth for two years, each trying to convert the other. I read every book I could get hold of to refute the Bible. To make things worse, I had no respect for the Bible as I put my feet and shoes on it since the Quran taught me it was corrupt.

Then John surprised me by coming to visit me in my village. That was the first time I saw a real Christian. His sincerity, frankness, genuineness, and openness impressed me. John stayed with me for two months. He had an amazing prayer life which served as a model for me in my latter life. I did not know that Christians prayed until I saw a "living epistle" right in the middle of my house, a man from a far off land who became one of us and genuinely incarnated the love of Christ. John had an amazing prayer life, for he prayed more than he talked, speaking the words of the Bible. I became jealous of John's intimacy with God and increased my recitations of the Quran.

Islam is a religion that has to be credited for teaching its followers to be virtuous, chaste, and benevolent. There is no doubt that Muhammad remains a genius in history. One has to also note that a Muslim may do as many good works as possible in this world and on the Day of Judgment God weighs the deeds of every individual in a "balance." The good deeds will be placed in one pan of the balance, and the evil deeds in the other. If the good deeds are heavier, then the believer will go to the paradise described in Quran as a place of sexual pleasure and frolicking with the wide-eyed huris (sura al-Waqia 56:20-23). However, Christ our Lord said "For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven" (Matthew 22:30). My Muslim friend, according to Islam, if your evil deeds are heavier, you will be cast into the fires of hell. It looks like you would need to be only fifty-one percent good to get into paradise. Yet you remain absolutely unsure whether or not you are going to heaven. All you say, my Muslim friend, is, "Only God Knows!" You hope for the mercy of Allah and hope that the angels or the Prophet will intercede for you in the last day, so you will be saved from Hell.

I was like you, my Muslim sister or brother, right in the same boat until I knew that you can be absolutely sure of going to Heaven. Tears well up in my eyes just to recall how lost I was and now that I am found. While trembling in tears, seeing the majesty of God, I rejoice to know that I have eternal life for certain.

God in the Bible is both just and merciful. His justice requires that everyone be punished in Hell, for He is perfect 100 percent. No matter how hard we try to please God, we always fall short of His perfection. Our good works will not bring us closer to God. God saw our insufficiency, and decided to pay the penalty Himself. He sent His Word Isa Al Masih (Jesus Christ), who is absolutely sinless and faultless to carry the punishment of our sins on the cross. What can you say to the Judge when He chooses to pay your penalty for you? The Bible says in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." It is because God loves us that He sent His Word, Jesus Christ, to die for us. Islam never grants us the assurance of going to Heaven, but Christ absolutely does! Praise God! Thank you, my Lord, for sovereignly choosing to pay the price Yourself in the Person of Your incarnate Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the express revelation of the nature of Allah Almighty.

After John left, his influence stayed. I thought I would depress John by saying, "John, your visit made me a stronger Muslim in the faith and do not try to convert Muslims anymore." Yet John prevailed in his supplication and prayers. His intercessory prayer moved the LORD to wake me up in the middle of the night as I had no sleep or rest. Inner conflict reached its zenith. Restless, I reached out to my Bible and opened it at random. I found, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" I remember one day in the heat of a debate between me and John, I made fun of the Bible and said, "John, your Bible is the most absurd thing! How can you believe the story of Saul who became Paul, the servant of the Gospel?" John said, "The story is true, and that is why I am patient with you. You will be another Paul one day!" I replied, "John, you must be out of your mind to think for a second that I could leave the religion of all religions, Islam!" Reflecting on "Saul, Saul , " I said Lord! Me? Me persecute You? I did nothing to You in person , I remember I turned in a female medical student to the police , but I did nothing to You. Is it true that He who touched one of Your people touches the apple of Your eye?"

Islam denies the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ because the Quran intended to deprive the Jew of the victory they claimed was their in Jesus' death. The Quran asserts that God put somebody who looked like Him on the cross in the place of Jesus. Now my Muslim friends, God is not in the business of fraud, for if he had wanted to deliver Jesus from the cross, He could have done it miraculously without having to deceive and put Jesus' likeness on someone else. This Quranic error is too blatant, and proves that the Quran has no divine origin. What is more, the Quran is self-contradicting, for while it claims that the Jews did not really kill Jesus it also affirms very distinctly the reality of Jesus' death in the sura of the family of Imran (3):55 as it states in the first part of that verse:

When God said:
"OH JESUS, I SHALL CAUSE YOU TO DIE,
AND THEN I SHALL RAISE YOU UP TO ME."

My Muslim friend, my goal is not here to proselytize you, but to raise the ultimate questions, Who is Christ? Was he crucified? And how does this affect you? If the whole history of humanity revolves around Christ, then my entire life and existence should revolve around Him too. Denying the cross of Christ is contradicting history itself. Muhammad himself is claimed in the Quran to have been urged, by God, to refer to the People of the Book (the Jews and the Christians) is he in doubt concerning the Quran?:

"And if thou (Muhammad) art in doubt concerning that which we reveal unto thee, then ask those who read the Scripture (that was) before thee." Sura Yunus 10:95

For the first time in my life, I began asking the question "why?" and challenged everything I took for granted. All postulates were critically examined. This got me into trouble in an authoritarian society. Questions, they say, fly in the face of Allah. Obey. That is All. In the Islamic Brotherhood, our motto was "samaana wa ataana" i.e. "we have heard and obeyed." After years of study, I came to two logical conclusions: The Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and Jesus is the Word of God. I began to see it was possible for Jesus to be God. Intellectually, I accepted all the claims of the Christian faith, but in my heart I still feared being struck dead for calling the Almighty God "My Father." I needed a miracle! The Bible teaches us that no one can say, "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). No wonder every Salvation experience is one of a miracle of birth out of death into eternal life!

From the depth of my heart, in the midst of inner conflict, I cried out to Allah, even in the mosque, "Lord, show me the truth! Is it Jesus or Muhammad? Could it be that You are my Father? Show me the truth, and the truth you lead me to I will serve all my life whatever the cost may be!" I burst into tears since I knew the cost could be outrageously too high for a weak, thin person like me. For how could I afford to be cast out of my family and sleep on the streets like a homeless person? And what if my leaders in the Islamic Brotherhood would find out about me? And what if they, in their Islamic righteousness and zeal, rush on to defend Islam and kill me? According to the Islamic religion, an apostate should be given a three day opportunity to recant, and after that the infidel's blood is legitimately shed in the name of Allah! The words of the Prophet Muhammad kept ringing in my ear, "Any person (i.e., Muslim) who has changed his religion, kill him." This tradition has been narrated by AbuBakr, Uthman, Ali, Muadh ibn Jabal, and Khalid ibn Walid. Yet I persisted in asking God to guide me.

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land; I am weak, but Thou art mighty.

One night Christ appeared to me in a dream and said with a tender sweet voice, "I love you!" I saw how obstinately I had resisted Him all these years and said to Him in tears, "I love You, too! I know You! You are eternal for ever and ever." I woke up with tears all over my face filled with abundant joy, believing that Christ Himself touched both my mind and my heart, and I yielded. I was filled with great passion for Christ, jumping up and down, singing praises to His name and talking to Him day and night. I would not even sleep without God's inerrant Word, the Bible, next to my chest.

I experienced what a "spoiled child" of God would: God would give me anything I ask for in prayer. But then the Lord wanted me to love Him and worship Him for His own sake, not for what I get from Him. I tried to keep my faith secret and so was baptized secretly in a pastor's house.

Filled with the joy of salvation I could not hide or deny Christ anymore. Therefore, when my childhood friend asked me if Christ was crucified, I answered, "Yes!" and explained why. He prayed with me to receive Christ. He was shaking and perspiring every time he prayed with me. He could see how mighty the name of our Lord Jesus was. My former leaders in the Islamic fanatical group, desiring to know who the spearhead was, threatened to kill him if he would not tell them everything about my evangelism. Sadly, he betrayed me and I was beaten up in front of the mosque where I had formerly preached Islam zealously. In their sight I was a blasphemous infidel who deserved to be killed unless I would recant. They regarded my conversion as the most horrendous form of desecrating Islam and the Quran.

Since my secret conversion was now made public and Muslims plotted to kill me, I had to flee. I was hunted by Muslims from my village in the Delta, to Ismailia until I arrived in Cairo where my Christian friends lived. Yet Christians were not willing to shelter me and I had to go back to the village, seeking refuge in His protective hands. I came back from Cairo and found an angry mob of Muslims filling up our house. My mother was wearing the garment of mourning, dressed in black as is the custom in Egypt. To them by deserting Islam, I was dead!!! Muslim women yelled at me, "Your mother doesn't deserve all this from you. Why cause her all this grief?" Another woman lamented, "Poor mother! Her son left her for the Christian infidels. If I were her, I would kill my son for running after the infidels like a dog." I received a letter from a friend in Jordan who reported that my father was walking down the streets in Jordan weeping bitterly as Muslim laborers there reproached him severely. He stayed sick in bed for a month because of this until he and I talked on the phone.

It is absolutely unforgettable that outraged Muslims broke into our house barbarically. My mother knelt down at the feet of our neighbor "Sayed" begging him to spare my life and kill her instead. In such indescribable agony, my mother disowned and disinherited me before all people in my village. I love my mother more dearly than any person in this world, but no human power, regardless of how gigantic it is, can separate me from the love of Christ. I will always live for Jesus.

My Bible, all my Christian books, and music tapes were confiscated and burnt. I decided to flee from the Delta region to Cairo. Even though the police were tracking me down, the Lord blinded their eyes and protected me. In Cairo, I was hiding at M.'s, an Egyptian Baptist friend who was comforting me all the time. I broke down when he read,

"So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name" (Acts 5:41)

I am grateful to God for providing this friend, M., who discipled me, teaching me to live a victorious life rich in worship and thanksgiving. He gave me a pocket Arabic New Testament and told me frankly that his parents were afraid. Also I was told that if they continued to hide me they would be in jail forever. I had nowhere to go. So, upon the advice of my secret pastor, I went back to the village, hiding the Arabic New Testament in my socks, praying that it would not fall out. I was eventually arrested and released repeatedly. I learned what it means to have God as my only Hiding Place. In prison, my Savior knows I have come to experience true peace. I was not shaken because I saw Christ in prison, not myself. I sang songs of joy in the midst of tears, anticipating the shining Morning Star to come and deliver me. I decided to hide the Bible in a place where the police could not confiscate it -- in my heart by memorizing it. I have since made it a habit to sleep with my Bible by my side. Five years later, I managed to flee Muslims' attempts to kill me and I was shocked to find out that there are some professing Christians in America who attack the Bible for which I was willing to die. God's word has given me promises of faith which I apply as a little child and pray them through in confidence. The gates of Heaven open as we pray through God's Word. His word speaks life!!!

Once when I went to give my mother a Mother's Day gift, she asked me rhetorically, "Mother's Day gift?" I answered, "Yes" every time she repeated the question. She looked at me with such crushing grief and said, "My son, whom I waited 15 years to have and finally was born is now dead. I disown you till the day of judgment, Ibrahim." I cried but Christ touched my heart and said, "I am your family now! I am your father, brother, mother, sister, friend, and everything to you, Timothy, now." I cannot forget those days when my mother would call the police to arrest me. She even went to a witch to put a curse on me and bring me back to the fold of Islam. The witch said, "Your son is following a path which he will never forsake and he will be victorious all his life as long as he walks in it." These words, from the mouth of a witch, brought my younger brother to know Christ. The testimony of demons about our victorious Lord renders skepticism and unbelief absurd (Please read Romans 8:35-39). You also can be more than a conqueror through Christ, your Victor who loves you! Believe it!

I lost my Bible and all my Christian books were confiscated. All I had was the radio. I went sneakily to get my radio to listen secretly to Voice of Hope, searching for some comfort-songs in the night. (By the way, I speak now publicly over Voice of Hope since I live in a free country, America). Yet my mother caught me and she immediately snatched the radio out of my hand and beat me on the head with her shoes. I was just 20 years old at that time. I prayed for a Bible and the Lord heard me. I went to pick up a Bible package from the post office. The head of the post office, Kamal, slapped me forcefully and punched me in the face. I saw all kinds of terror, I was crying from the intensity of pain. He said to me,"You just go after these Christian infidels, leave Islam and we will wipe you out. We will send you behind the sun!" I felt trapped praying fervently to leave Egypt and practice my faith in Christ. Father of comfort, you never left me. Please remind me of your Son hanging on the cross crying out in the depth of agony," My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" Lord Jesus, they all forsook you, and yet You found rest in Your Father. I need to depend on the Father as you did".

After 3 years, I decided to move to Cairo which was not any safer. The last time the police had arrested me they said, "According to us, you are an infidel who has committed high treason. Next time we arrest you, it will be capital punishment." To make it worse, the "Christian" landlord told me he could not shelter a fugitive criminal anymore. I was not welcome in my own country anymore. Nevertheless, the Lord intervened, and a Palestinian evangelist, Anis Shorrosh, introduced me to Dr. Paige Patterson. He began to help me apply for a visa to the United States. At first, I was denied the visa, but Dr. Patterson did not give up. Finally, I was granted an entry visa, and I was supernaturally able to leave Egypt. Lord, You never deliver your children out of bondage to bring them back into it, Help me to live somewhere to practice my Christian faith without the police harassment. Lord, please do whatever it takes so I don't have to live in an environment where people would force me to go into the mosque. You want your children to worship freely even if this means fleeing for their lives like me so that Christ becomes all in all.

If it had not been for Dr. Patterson, I would have been history today. I was scheduled to be executed, and God saw that He had more work for me to do. So, he used Dr. Patterson in supernaturally rescuing my life. God Almighty is a Father of the fatherless (Psalm 68:5), and when my father and mother forsake me, as David declares, the LORD holds me to Himself. Is God the Almighty, Your Heavenly Father, my friend? (Galatians 4:6) God the Almighty and Majestic One delights in you personally (Proverbs 8:31).

Having fled to the United States, I was still afraid that I would have to face the Egyptian police authorities someday, especially in view of the fact that I came on a student visa, which could expire any day. According to the Egyptian government I am an infidel who has defamed Islam as well as caused national disunity. Allah alone knows how I have no hard feelings towards either Egypt, the motherland, or Islam. Preachers offered to hide me in ranches, if worse came to worse. I just wanted to live and not to be the scapegoat of somebody's religious wrath. One ministry organization sponsored me and sent a petition for my permanent residency. After six long years of waiting, the Lord honored my request by giving me permanent residence a few days before the wedding day, April 18,1998. I did not want anybody to falsely accuse me that I married a woman so that I may get a green card. I have married Angela for her own sake, and not for the sake of getting a green card. I give Angela all of me, for the source of our love is divine. It is never a fleeting emotion, but a covenant in which the LORD is the Witness between me and the wife of my youth, my partner and my best friend. (Malachi 2:14)

Here it is the time for me to praise God for the gift of marriage. It is when I abandoned myself to God and the godly desire of marriage that he brought along Angela. Angela is the angel of God to my heart. She is beautiful both internally and externally. We both share the same vision in manifesting the love of Christ to our Muslim brothers and sisters. I did not compromise for less than what I knew Allah wanted me to have: Angela is a woman of prayer, caring affectionate, hospitable, giving and gregarious. She is perfect for me. I revel in the fact that she loves my parents and gives sacrificially to them. Lord, what did I do to be treated with such extravagant kindness of yours that you give me a wife who loves me and my family? The Lord honored me for putting Him above my desire to have a wife, and now we are a praying couple. Indeed, our Creator and Redeemer is our ultimate Matchmaker.

Lord, may I never be secure or seek easiness in life at the expense of union with You. Didn't you tell us Lord, "And you will be hated by all on account of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved" (Mark 13:13)? Please don't let me rush your salvation, Lord, in the midst of trouble, but please give me patience so I can endure hardships as a soldier of the cross of Christ! Lord, may Your love consume me to such an extent that the doing of your will would be the real bread of my life. In Christ's name, amen!

Son of Hamas leader turns back on Islam and embraces Christianity! Read

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,402483,00.html

seyibrown: Glory be to God!

the 666 part? Its very awakening.. nniiiice compilation!!!