Was Muhammad really a prophet? Nabeel Qureshi used to believe so, but his world changed after a college roommate and apologist David Wood engaged him on the differences.
Wood, who speaks globally, was instrumental in the conversion of Qureshi from Islam to Christianity. There was evidence he never took note of before he met Wood, Qureshi said in an interview with the Christian Post. More importantly, it was Wood's persistence that deposited the seed of faith as others usually gave up on witnessing to him. "It is real easy to do once you try, but no one else had. Because of that, I was ultimately opened to a lot of evidence I probably never would have considered."
The two became friends over the years, and they both had numerous discussions and debates regarding Islam and Christianity. After making the comparisons, Qureshi, who was born into an Ahmadi Muslim family, discovered there were historical issues with Islam. Being open to the mounting evidence which supported Christianity, Qureshi became a Christian. Today Qureshi speaks worldwide about the two religions, and why Christ is the true Messiah. He shared this journey in his book, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. He released a follow up to the New York Times bestseller with No God but One: Allah or Jesus?
During his journey, Qureshi discovered that when it came to Muhammad, something also was amiss. The foundation of Islam, he shared with the Christian Post, is based on Muhammad and how he lived his life. They are called hadiths, the words spoken by the prophet, they are a moral code. It comes from the Arabic word "narrative" or "report" and is second to the authority of the Quran. Qureshi questioned that there is no evidence that Muhammad actually is like what the hadiths said he is. "It is believed that the Muhammad was born in Mecca around 570 CE," Qureshi explained. Muhammad was dead before the hadiths were recorded.
The lack of evidence continued to mount against Islam, he continued. "There is no archaeological evidence that Mecca even existed before the beginning of the eighth century." Also, there were no trade routes that talked about Mecca. Growing up in the U.S. as a devout Muslim, Qureshi, studied Islamic apologetics. After comparing the Bible and the Quran--it was like night and day. So he studied Christianity for another three years and Islam for another year.
Qureshi has been invited to speak at over 100 universities that include Cornell, Duke, Oxford and John Hopkins. He continues to moderate debates all over the world making a case for Christianity. However, he is not the only person to convert from Islam to Christianity. Others have found Jesus, and are taking to the media. Iman Mario Joseph, was a Muslim cleric in India. He became a believer after someone asked who Jesus was. He went to the Quaran, and began to compare Christ to Muhammad. During his research, his passion for Jesus and the Bible became unquenchable, and he became a Christian. His family ordered his death. He speaks globally to share his story. Mosab Hassan Yousef was a Hamas leader, and converted to Christianity after a British missionary shared the Gospel in 1999. He has helped with the arrest and capture of key terrorists within Hamas, including his father. He has political asylum in the U.S. He said that Islam is like a ladder with prayer and praising. "The higher rungs represent helping the poor and needy, establishing schools, and supporting charities. The highest rung is jihad," he said. During a conference in New York he shared that Islam as an entire entity should be compared to Nazism.
Pastor Hamid Pourmand was a former Iranian army colonel, and became a Christian over two decades ago. He was under assault from the government and arrested many times, and faced death, but was released with pressure from the international community. Miss USA pageant winner in 2010, Rima Fakih, converted to Christianity after being a devout Muslim. She connected with her Muslim roots in college. "When I went to the University of Michigan, because there's more of a Muslim community, my dad wanted me to learn more about Islam. I didn't know much about Ramadan and other holidays, and my dad wanted me to take that opportunity and learn." She moved to Christianity in 2016 before her marriage to music producer, Wassim Salibi.
Six million Muslims have converted to Christ last year, but there are those we don't know about, who are afraid to speak up. Those who are Muslim are nauseated that their religion is associated with ISIS. Brother Rachid, who hosts a Christian program translated into Arabic, spoke to CBN.com regarding the change of landscape for many Muslims. He explained that many Muslims told him, "'If ISIS is Islam, I'm leaving.' Some are becoming atheists," he told the outlet in 2015. Islam is facing a crises and people are with moving towards Christ or are leaving religion altogether.
There are 3.3 million Muslims living in the U.S. in 2015, making up 1 percent of the population, according to the Pew Research Center. And over the last two decades there has been an increase in the number of Muslim immigrants coming into the U.S. There are an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims in the world as of 2010. There were American Muslims who did not identify with a faith. "About one-in-five American Muslim adults were raised in a different faith or none at all," Pew found. Researchers also uncovered that those who were brought up in the Muslim faith, decided to leave the religion when they became older.
Qureshi and others continue to pave the way for others to follow Christ. We should not fear Islam. We should be praying to see more people accept Christ and hope that He will deliver those who are persecuted for being Christians. Additionally, this is not one-sided as we need to reach out to our Muslim neighbors in love, not hate. Yes, there is a legitimate threat against believers and our country, but not all Muslims want war, they want peace.
