Mohammed
I was born in Pakistan into a Muslim family. Most members of my family are devout Muslims, so that I was brought up in the traditional way of studying the Qur'an and prayers etc. I would have happily stuck with being a Muslim had I known it was the true way to salvation, to reaching the kingdom of God.
What then brought about the change in my life?
Firstly you recite the Qur'an like a Parrot and don't understand anything that is written in it, most Muslim critics will tell you that it is good to do this purely on the basis of reading it to please God which is wrong and has no basis whatsoever.
The fact of the matter is that their thinking is seriously flawed as you should read the Qur'an in your language of upbringing and understand what you read, obviously if you did then you would find the things that they don't want you to know like what the prophet Muhammad is up to in his life time namely marrying his adopted son's wife after Zaid divorces her for the prophet's pleasure, marrying a 9yr old Aisha amongst a few things.
Obviously these things would raise serious questions about the so called greatest prophet of God.
It was the inner self-consciousness looking and searching for something missing in my life.
I had everything, education, success, car, house, anything a person could ask for but there was an inner emptiness that longed to be filled.
I knew that my life was not meant to be just this but I was meant to be something like a leader and in the last two years this urge even became more stronger, but what or who was I suppose to lead, I certainly didn't envision politics although the opportunities arose and I rejected to stand for this type of trash, lying and keeping people in the dark to promote your party for the sake of money and power.
I used to pray, fast, give charity, but these did not give me the peace I needed. I was reciting the Qur'an and reading some suras that an uncle of mine had given me to read on a regular basis to strengthen my soul and be in close companionship with God but no it was all in vain.
I wasn't looking at Christianity as a religion to follow and I had never in my life read the Bible although our elders believed in all the past scriptures but we did not have a Bible namely old Testament (Torah) and New Testament (Injil). To us Christianity was akin to the Western life style of self abuse which I understood to be following Christianity.
It is perceived in Islamic society that if you pray five times a day and stick to the pillars of Islam then you are a good Muslim and anything you do or say is true. We have a lot of hypocrites who have been following this path and yet their real lives reflect a total disregard to humanity as such.
Look at Pakistan's elite, look at their background. They are so called good Muslims but they commit the worst offences known. Does anybody question them? Of course not! If you did then you might disappear mysteriously. People's rights are suppressed, freedom is just a word without meaning. There is no real freedom because you can't speak your mind.
When I looked around myself and my Muslim background I realised that most of the Muslims' preached to do good but did they practice it themselves? Absolutely not! When it came to money matters, money was more a priority to them then humanity or reasoning. On the one hand they would tell you to pray five times a day and on the other there is so much hypocrisy around.
Is it really opposite to religious teaching or was I wrong in what I had been told by elders?
If we look at Islam, Jihad is part of Islam, forced conversion to Islam in Muslim dominated countries, persecution of Christians, Muslims believe in visiting shrines of Pirs giving money and food, it's like giving bribe to God!
So was I wrong about the religious teaching of Islam and how wrong I was beginning to find out more and more.
They believe corruption in Pakistan was taught by the British Raj in India but the reality is that people are greedy by nature and this is been going on since centuries even before the British set foot on Indian soil.
If we are following a true religion and a pure religion then it should put love into our hearts, humility and care for fellow persons not hate and contempt?
If we are not born like this then something is not quite right here, either the religion or the person but not every person can be wrong or can they?
People in Islam who have gone and done the Hajj, think about themselves as being very pious. They think their sins are forgiven, they are better than any other person who hasn't been to Hajj and that they are like a new born child, but when I look at these people's morals they are so bad, they cannot speak for justice, they show a completely different person from the inside. This is not true for every Hajji but majority are like this.
Now most Muslims will make the excuse that the religion is good but it is Muslims who are bad and not Islam and that they don't practice their religion properly but when you look at Islamic history then you find out the real truth that it is Arab imperialism and it comes from the heart of the religious teachings.
Jesus Christ said Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits and here we see it in Muhammad's followers.
Look at what they are doing around the world, Afghanistan banning all women from going outside, human abuse calling for Islamic values and all that.
Killing and persecuting Christians by Muslims, killing and persecuting Christians in Egypt, Pakistan, India and Indonesia to name a few places seems common today.
The only peace can come from Jesus Christ and nobody else, not Muhammad prophet, not Buddha, not Ram.
Jesus Christ is the prince of Peace, look at his life and look at Muhammad prophets life and do a comparison!
We have two different worlds, here is God himself in the flesh showing how we should lead our life and there is Muhammad prophet manipulating people for his benefit, telling his followers that if you fight and die then you will go to heaven, that if you loot and pillage then you are forgiven and appeasing Allah the most merciful one.
Jesus Christ said to love your fellow humans not kill them, he never asked to lift the sword or fight for religion but on the other hand Muhammad prophet asked to kill anyone who doesn't convert to Islam or else take Jizzya tax from them.
Yes most will tell you look at Christians, aren't they hypocrites?
Well of course they are but do they follow Jesus Christ and his teachings, a big NO!
Jesus Christ said to love your enemies, pray for them who persecute you but these people do the opposite, they are not followers of Christ at all.
The church has become Apostate, bishops tell you that it is ok for men to lie with men and that we do not believe in the divinity of Jesus or resurrection.
God says very clearly that he does not allow this and he intervened in the past to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of this.
Are we now to rest our faith on these Bishops and Popes?
Of course not, we should follow our Lord Jesus Christ and his teachings as he lay them down.
You read the Qur'an, Hadith and the Islamic history and see what crimes Muhammad prophet committed against humanity and how he forced his brutal customs on people and subject them to death if they did not follow his religion.
How he had the people against him Murdered one by one like a gangster, look at the story of Asma bint Marwan:
In Yathrib (Medina), Muhammad had a number of people killed. One of them was `Asma' bint Marwan. Her crime was that she spoke out against Muhammad for having another man murdered named Abu Afak who was 120yrs old.
This clearly shows you the outright disregard his followers had for humanity that they killed a mother who had five children, Muhammad prophet couldn't care less for instigating the crime.
Read the full story here.
I decided to learn more about Islam and it was when I was browsing a Muslim news group that I came across this testimony.
At this point I only wanted to learn about Islam and still no thought had ever occurred to me about becoming a Christian.
I was enlightened by what I read and it confirmed my fears regarding Islam, of what I used to think. What will happen if what I follow is not the truth?
Would I then go to hell?
I didn't consider myself to be a saint anyway but surely we have to ask for forgiveness of our mistakes and pray to God for salvation?
Muhammad prophet preached to do good and avoid bad but how much good is enough for God as he is holy, if he based his forgiveness on good deeds alone then the Hindus also preach Good and so do the Buddhists, that means they are eligible for heaven as much as Muslims or Jews.
Not all of these can be the correct from the same God or we are all following the wrong God who doesn't care which road you take to reach him.
I found the answer in the Bible (Torah):
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Basically the prophet Isaiah was saying that doing good deeds is not good enough and it is like filthy rags in front of the sight of God as he is a holy God and we cannot appease him just by doing good deeds, we still cannot enter Heaven.
This was further clarified of how to go to heaven as God had decided to descend on earth in the form of Jesus Christ to sacrifice himself in the human form to save us all as only Jesus Christ was sinless and his blood would atone or cover our sins and let us in to heaven guaranteed if we believe in him.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.
I was shocked at first, had I been following a religion that is false and if the Bible is really the truth then what do I do?
I then decided to do some extensive research on both the Bible and the Qur'an and my findings really shocked me.
I checked both Christian and Muslims sources combined with Non Muslim and Non Christian sources.
It proved that the Bible had plenty of non Christian + historical evidence and internal evidence such as the fulfilled prophecies in the past so accurately fulfilled that only God's finger prints could do this.
We have to acknowledge our sins and call upon Jesus Christ as our saviour and redeemer to atone us for our sins and let us enter the Gate.
This is why prophet Isaiah prophesied this fact 700yrs before his birth:
Isaiah 9:6-7 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Prophet Isaiah clearly tells us who Jesus Christ is, that he is God and prince of peace and that his government never ends.
Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
In the above verses prophet Isaiah tells the people how Jesus Christ will be afflicted for our sins and crucified to save our sins.
How in order to save us that Jesus Christ has to do this and there was a lot of prophecy in the above verses which all came true.
Satan thought that he was going to humiliate Jesus on the Cross but little did he realise that Jesus would defeat Satan forever to free us from his stronghold and give us eternal life.
Muslims become ignorant of these facts and say that how can Jesus be God, well I have shown you some of the many verses in the Bible which tell us why Jesus was God and how he was crucified and then resurrected to go back to heaven.
If you would like to know more then please visit my website at:
Muslims don't understand Salvation in the terms Christians do anyway. They think as long as they do good deeds then they will go to heaven. They don't understand the notion of born in sin. Some even believe that Muhammad (prophet) has had his Sunni sect forgiven from God and that after some punishment we will all go to heaven. They have decided this for themselves even though Qur'an does not advocate this. Some commonly believe that if you have one of your children recite the Qur'an and know all of it by memory to become a Hafiz then their seven generations are forgiven and they will go to heaven. This is of course all nonsense as the Qur'an nowhere states this to be the case, it is just Jahalat (illiteracy).
In fact this is what Muhammad prophet had to say on this issue when his disciples asked him about going to heaven in the Qur'an:
Sura 46:9
I don't know what will happen with me or you so how can I tell you if you will go to heaven or not.
I completed my research with an open mind.
I checked if Muhammad prophet was a prophet prophesied by God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and also if Qur'an is the last revelation given to us by God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
They try to justify this by saying that the Bible is corrupt and yet historical and Biblical evidence point to the accuracy of the Bible, in fact there is no historical evidence to point to the Qur'an as the truth as the earliest manuscript of the Qur'an is from the 8th Century although it was collected and brought together in the 6th century around about 640 AD by Caliph Usmaan.
The Qur'an contains material which existed some 600 yrs before it arrived on the scene which were heretical and legendary before the Qur'an was canonized so therefore it cannot be and quote is not divine.
I found that Islam is not the truth and I was very disturbed by my findings.
Even Muhammad prophet did not know the true name of God Yahweh which he gave to Moses as Jews don't speak of this considering it to be very sacred. They refer to God as Elohim so this reason explains why Muhammad did not know the name even though he traded amongst the Jewish people in Arabia.
The struggle had begun inside of me, what should I do?
A belief that I had held all this time had turned out to be a lie and false altogether and the evidence was too strong to convict me that this is the case.
I thought to myself that maybe I should remain as I am and not convert but not practice Islam either as it is false.
I didn't wanted to follow Jesus Christ because I reasoned if I change then what will my family think and what about the community?
I struggled with these thoughts for a couple of weeks. There was an inner battle inside me that said embrace the truth and one which said stick to the family values. I was more concerned with my family's thoughts then the truth.
Eventually the answer came. Embrace the truth whatever the cost and this is when I accepted Jesus Christ as saviour and Lord. It was a hard decision but one which has led me to the right path to the truth and grace of Jesus Christ.
After the conversion, how have I changed?
Well my search has come to an end, I feel an inner peace I never experienced before and no more inner conflict. I feel better as a person towards others.
I was baptized in my fellowship on Dec 13th 1998. Obviously I want others to know the truth but they are not interested in that. They think what they and their forefathers have been following is the truth. I hate to think what will happen to them but they don't listen for according to the Bible these people walk in darkness and will not be allowed to go to heaven.
They will be separated for eternity from the presence of God so it is not a case of the Muslim doctrine that you get punished and then go to heaven, in fact you do not go to heaven period.
The cost will be very high for their mistake, life after the grave spent outside heaven for eternity not just for a short while.
Their rituals and customs will not take them to heaven!
Jesus gives us the answer in the Injil:
John 8:23-24 He said to them, "You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins."
The struggle has just started, not finished, obviously all my immediate family turned against me but that was expected by me so it is nothing new! I have explained my faith to them, had several discussions with various people, had invited couple of my Christian friends in to debates to discuss with them what the Bible teaches. In the end it is up to them but I am sticking to my chosen and truthful path.
I pray for all the Muslims that they come to know the one true God that loves them all so they don't perish in their pride and bloated egos.
Everyday I get more and more knowledgeable about the Bible, I have had several debates on the internet with fellow Muslims, they cannot answer my questions and try to constantly attack the Bible but I can prove time and time again the authenticity of the Bible through historical evidence and Biblical evidence.
Muslims are playing a fool hearty game of first saying that the Bible is corrupt and then trying to find Muhammad prophesied in the Bible, it doesn't work that way as he is not prophesied anywhere in the Bible.
Read about some of Muhammad prophets brutalities here for those that think he was very good!
The Muslims have closed their eyes and ears so don't want to listen and hold to their lifeless faith.
Isaiah 6:9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
The Good news:
One of my brothers has become a believer of Jesus Christ and another is listening closely.
No more attacks from my family, they have accepted me as I am, life goes on as normal.
Who knows, someday they may realize and change.
May God give them guidance and wisdom to discern the truth.
Mohammed
You are welcome to email me.
http://www.abrahamic-faith.com