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After I left the daycare, I did not open the Bible for many years. However, I was thoroughly versed in the sayings of the Quran, (the Muslim holy book). For a time, my mother and father took me to mosque every Friday. We were expected to go to mosque every day, but we did not. Life was too busy. I had my friends, sports and school. Frankly, I wasn't interested in religion or God.
It wasn't until I got my driver's licence that I became a seeker of God. The car enabled me to go to mosque every day, faithfully fulfilling my obligations. I became absolutely enthralled with meditation and prayer. I recited a set prayer three times a day and went through the necessary ceremonies to have my sins forgiven by the Almighty God. But even though I was doing everything that I was supposed to (and in the process earning praise from my mother), I was still living an ungodly, impure life. I was a compulsive thief, and I could not break this horrible habit. I was also a terrible blasphemer outside the mosque. My actions inside the mosque exemplified that of a true Muslim, but the law weighed me down, and I was constantly sinning outside the mosque. I also did not know for sure if the Most High God (whom I then called Allah) would take me into His heaven.
I was 17 and absolutely convinced I needed to earnestly seek for Allah and his mercy; I knew that I definitely could not earn it. I remember kneeling in the mosque begging for God's mercy. I truly believe that the Mighty God showed compassion on me that day and answered my prayer by introducing me to a person who would change my life forever. That person was Jesus Christ.
Up to that time, I had been totally convinced by the Islamic leaders that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God and that He was just a great prophet, second only to the prophet of Islam, Mohammed. I'm grateful I found out otherwise.
During an English course in my senior year of high school, my teacher suggested that I use the Bible to back up my argument for a debate on capital punishment. I agreed to do so, thinking it would earn me some extra marks. I proceeded to the library with a friend I hung around with and partied with. Although he was not and is still not a believer, he was familiar with the Bible because he had earlier attended church. What I read in the Bible caused me to ask him many questions, partly because I had never opened a Bible before and partly because I was using the King James Version, translated in 1611. Mike felt that he was neither equipped for nor interested in answering my questions, so he offered to take me to his old church to meet the youth pastor. I agreed to go, after accepting his condition that I not stand up in the middle of the sermon and begin to disagree with the teacher.
The next Sunday morning, I sneaked out of the house and went to church with my friend. The pastor's sermon really hit home that morning. He spoke about how God wants us to make a decision to believe in Christ. He said he would not be surprised if someone became a Christian that morning. Well, I didn't make any decision then, but I began meeting with the youth pastor every Monday after school to discuss our different points of view on God.
Even though I was moved by who the Christians believed Jesus to be, I still had some Muslim pride. I asked the youth pastor some tough questions, and he continually pointed out answers from the Bible. Sometimes the questions were so deep and probing he had to delay answering for a week in order to study.
One particular Monday, I explained to the youth pastor that I believed that Christianity was just another religion, just another path to the Almighty God. He at once turned to John 14:6 which reads, "Jesus answered, `I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.' " Then the youth pastor did something very strange from a Muslim point of view. He took his pencil and circled the word "the" preceding "way", "truth" and "life". He proceeded to explain that the Lord Jesus made a claim to be the way to God, not a way to God. That truth pierced my soul, and at that moment I believed what Jesus said, in spite of what my Muslim teachers had taught me about Jesus.
I went home that afternoon and stared at a small Four Spiritual Laws booklet for at least an hour. I found that I believed everything that it said about me, that I was a sinner, separated from God. It also said that Jesus Christ died to pay for my sins and my alienation from God. I prayed that afternoon, acknowledging my need of Jesus in my life, and I prayed the same thing many more times that week. However, it wasn't until I prayed later that week with a good friend who was a Christian that I truly found peace. From that time on, I had absolute faith that I was going to heaven, even though I deserved hell, all because God gave His Son Jesus for me.
Jesus is so good and so awesome. Over the past three years, He has shown me His amazing love and mercy.
My family did not like my conversion to Christianity. For the first few months, I was persecuted in my own home, always getting yelled at and threatened. Because of Jesus coming into my life, my family was in danger of becoming divided.
At the age of 20, I decided to be baptized to show my obedience to Jesus Christ. My mother gave me the option of converting back to Islam or leaving the house. I chose Jesus, knowing that He had everything under control. Within only a month, my father asked me to come home, with the understanding that my faith would be respected by them. Jesus even enabled my mother and aunt to come to church to hear testimonies of Jesus and to watch me get baptized. Jesus is truly amazing.
When I was a Muslim, I had known of Jesus as a great prophet and a great teacher of the ways of God. Now I know Him as the Only Way, the Only Truth and the Only Life. He is my Rock, who comforts me when family and friends persecute me. He is my Advocate with God the Father when I sin. I am living proof that the Lord is kind and patient. He patiently brought me to the point of believing in Him. I hope that many other Muslims will have a similar desire to know the Lord Jesus.
Aly Bardai is a member of Willingdon Church in Burnaby, B.C.
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