IN QUEST OF
TRUTH
INTRODUCTION
Conversion from one religion to another has become a common phenomenon today. Some open-minded people strive hard for the knowledge of God and for His eternal love and fellowship. Once the truth is revealed to them, they forsake sin and their old ways, and turn to His ways and newness of life with a clear conscience. These are the people who find the true path of salvation and receive eternal life.(Qur'an 2:5).
But there are some people who go astray for the sake of earthly gains, then adopt a new way of life under the guise of another religion, and proceed to announce it through the media. In the past, newspapers seldom carried accounts of conversions. Today their front pages run these accounts in bold letters, at times annoyingly to readers. On some occasions hundreds and thousands of people, even a whole village, change their religion overnight. Destitute and hungry, they temporarily convert to fill up their empty bellies or cover their naked bodies. Sometimes, political or communal motive is behind such mass conversions. It is a delicate issue, causing great anxiety to religious leaders and government alike. Almighty God guided me to abandon my ancestral religion, Islam, to become a Christian. By His grace I have been following His Messiah for the past twenty-eight years. I also praise and thank the Lord for forgiving my sins and granting me eternal life.
So often, a person who adopts a new faith is immediately requested to publish his testimony. There is nothing intrinsically wrong in this: In fact, some of the growing number of testimonies of Christian converts that are published today stir the heart. But every testimony need not be heart-stirring. What is important is the convert's conscience and his motive for writing his account.
When Christian friends first requested me to record my story, I felt no inner urge to do it. Almost every conversion account I had read mentioned some attraction in the new religion to which the convert was drawn, while others had an experience of a different kind which enabled them to know the true God and believe in Him. God showed me the light, in a different manner. Through a long and arduous search for the truth that began with my own ancestral religion, He led me to the right path that ended at the feet of Jesus the Messiah. Was my conversion a miracle of God? I believe it happened solely by His grace. But at that time I saw no reason to record the experience.
Later, I met a gentleman in a religions conference who was deeply concerned about sharing Jesus with Muslim neighbours. I am extremely grateful to that friend who prevailed upon me to write my testimony. Through it, he said, I could answer in some detail those who wondered why I had become a Christian. It might even help them and others to know the joy of God's salvation in Jesus. This, in brief, is the primary reason for my account. Praise be to Him "who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth!" (1 Timothy 2: 4)