Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity

Geschreven bij Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus

A real page-turner autobiographic work, this book tells the story of Nabeel Qureshi, who was born and raised in a devout Muslim family in the USA. His parents are immigrants to the USA from Pakistan and both of his grandfathers were Muslim missionaries. He had read the Qu'ran before the age of six, even before he learned English. As he grew up, his parents taught him to keep Islam tradition and mandatory rites, as well as to be an 'ambassador' for Islam, being fully aware they lived among a non-Muslim culture. Whenever he encountered Christians and the topic of religion was raised, Nabeel gave all the arguments he knew to 'debunk' Christianity in favour of Islam. Because most of the Christians he met during his teenage couldn't answer him, he became all the more convinced of the truh of Islam.

In his first year in college however, he met David, who was to become his best friend. David was a Christian, who was very well informed about all of these issues. Trying to convince each other of the truth of each other's beliefs, they had long discussions, researched the issues, went to academic debates about the subject. According to Nabeel, they could confront each other in a way only real friends can. Although his aim was to prove Islam, Nabeel ended up convinced the Quran had to be wrong, Muhammad was not a real prophet and Christianity has the strongest case intellectually.

But the price was high. To become a Christian might imply losing his family, his reputation, his life so far... But then something happened, which I'll leave to you to discover in the book.

One of the best traits of the book is its honesty. First he is honest towards Islam. The book is not written as propaganda for Christianity, discrediting Islam. On the contrary, Nabeel writes about Islam with great respect. There's a Chinese saying that says "Don't spit into the well from which you've drunk before" and Nabeel certainly doesn't do this. Although Nabeel sees all of his Islamic beliefs crumble as he studies facts about the Bible, the Qu'ran and hadith, he never speaks with disrespect about his now former religion.
Second, he is honest in his line of thought. He shows his doubts and his struggles along the way and he does not deliberately reason away from Islam and towards Christianity.
Third, he is honest in his conclusions. Arguments and counter-arguments are both considered fairly in his final assessment, although sometimes, in the course of the process, he's a bit harder on Christianity than he is on Islam. But this is to be expected for someone who is trying to prove his faith, but who finds himself to be gradually moving away from the very faith he wants to defend towards the faith he aims to attack!

Another good thing to the reader, is that the rendition of his research into both beliefs, provides a lot of information to anyone who wants to learn more about either of these religions. It explains a lot about why Muslims believe what they believe, and why Christians believe what they believe.

My conclusion is, that regardless the beliefs of the reader, this book is to be highly recommended to anyone who wants to get a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences between Islam and Christian beliefs.

Geschreven bij Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus

Niet zomaar een verhaal over iemands bekering tot Jezus. Een verhaal over vragen, over zoeken, over een vaste overtuiging die door feiten ondergraven wordt. Er wordt veel uitgelegd over wat Moslims geloven en ook waarom ze geloven wat ze geloven. Je komt een totaal andere manier van denken tegen die niet alleen haaks staat op zgn westers denken, maar ook haaks op het Christendom. Een eerlijk verhaal. Ik ben er veel wijzer van geworden en ook verontruster over de Islam. Het zou vertaald moeten worden in het Nederlands.

Geschreven bij Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus

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