Released From Bondage - By Augustine Abdul Jabbar

842019 Released From Bondage - By Augustine Abdul Jabbar

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RELEASEDFROM BONDAGE

Augustine Abdul Jabbar

1 I Was Born 2

2 My Parents 2

3 My Search Intensified 4

4 I Am Condemned as a Sinner4

5 My Father Died 5

6 My Search Changed 5

7 My Work and Marriage6

8 An Uninvited Guest6

9 Nearing the Truth 7

10 The Quran Approves JesusUniqueness8

11 The Light of Life 9

12 Grace of God Defined9

13 The Path of Salvation 11

14 I Am Born Again 11

15 Various Encounters 12

16 Living Among Tombs 13

17 Jesus Christ More than a Prophet 14

18 I Left my Home and Hometown15

19 My Faith Strengthened 16

20 Entry into Church 16

21 Reunion with my Wife andChildren 18

22 In Theological Seminary 18

23 A Miraculous Healing 19

24 The Public Ministry20

25 Conclusion20

26 Giving me a New Life - How JesusChrist Changed my Life21

27 Quiz 24

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1 I Was Born

I was born in Solapur a town in thesouthern part of the state of MaharashtraIndia in a fundamentalist Muslim familyof the Sunni branch of Islam When I wasthree years old my father sent me to amadrasa (Islamic school) to learn theQuran I was skilful in reciting the Quraneven at the age of eight

My familys profession was trading inbakery items and running a hotel businessMy father had a big family to take care ofWe were six brothers and four sisters Iwas the only son who was well versed in

reciting the Quran and in the fundamentalteachings of Islam

My mother was a very devout woman Shepaid attention to me especially andencouraged me to study the Quran WhenI was twelve years old many questionscame up in my mind on the teachings of the Quran This was in deep contrast tomy brothers They were fanatics without

understanding any of the Quranic

teachings My father was a strict Muslimdeeply attached to Islamic law (Sharia)Now I understand that my father took Islamic law (Sharia) into his hands to hisadvantage Though my father projectedhimself as a pious Muslim he was adictator at home

My mother was very submissive to myfather When she served food for my fatherat the table my mother used to place acane next to the dishes If the food was notto my fathers liking even if there wasonly too little salt the cane could be usedon her I witnessed my father beating mymother with a cane many times

Men are the maintainers of women withwhat Allah has made some of them toexcel others and with what they spend outof their wealth So the good women areobedient guarding the unseen as Allah hasguarded And as to those on whose part

you fear desertion admonish them desertthem in their beds and beat them If theyobey you seek not a way against themSurely Allah is ever Exalted Great(SuratunNisa 434)

2 My Parents

One day an incident happened in our housethat shocked me My father brought ayoung lady of 25 years old and said to usthat she was his wife I was 18 years old atthe time My fathers new wife was youngenough to be his daughter My mother wasobviously not disturbed She knew that aMuslim man can take another wife at anytime because the religion allows a man tomarry and live with up to four wives at atime

After about two years the relationship

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between my father and mother soured My

father made secret plans to give talak (divorce) to my mother But because of our large family he did not dare divorcemy mother instead he continued to tortureher Whenever my father beat my mother Iused to intervene on her behalf

My brothers did not bother to standbetween my father and mother during suchbeatings One day a horrible incidenthappened in the house My father took aknife and wanted to kill my mother Ithrew myself over her and covered mymother and pleaded with my father Icould not allow him to kill my mother Myfather was shaking with rage In a fit of anger he stabbed me in three places oncein my right elbow once in my left hip andonce in my right shoulder Even today thescars on my body testify to this incidentWhen I was stabbed my mother came tomy rescue and with tears told my fatherthat she could not allow this any longer

She submitted herself like a lamb to bekilled Meanwhile I had becomeunconscious We were taken to thehospital On the way I regainedconsciousness and I heard my motherpraying for me I heard her praying toAllah to take care of me for I hadaccomplished my duties as her son Shecried to Allah to protect me for I had paidher back for the milk she had fed me fromher breasts

After getting admitted to the hospital mymother died Soon after my mothers deathmy father surrendered himself to thepolice not because he had murdered mymother but because he stabbed me He hadto atone for inflicting wounds and pain ona Quran reciter and a good Muslim likeme Nobody in the family felt sorry for mymothers death

Everything went on as normal I continued

to study the Quran but this time veryseriously as a seeker of Allah and histruths My earlier learning had beensuperficial Now I probed deeply intoQuranic teachings

Allah in the Quran centres his attention onmen but he doesnt care about women atall I understood that women are notfavoured like men in the Quran Islamdenies women many rights For instance ahusband can give his wife talak (divorce)SuratunNisa 4 in the Quran commands awoman to obey her husband She is eveninstructed to worship her husband as Godwhereas a man can mistreat his wife Whythis onesidedness

This raised many questions in my mind Iasked some Muslim scholars but in replythey gave me excuses One such excuse isin alHadith (the Muslim tradition) It isnarrated by Abdullah Ibn Umar that the

Messenger of Allah statedA woman was subjected to divinepunishment because she had kept a catcaptive and finally the cat died in thatcondition So the woman had to go to hellNeither she herself gave the cat anythingto eat nor did she free it to enable it to eatworms etc(Bukhari page 74)

Women in Islam are nothing butchildmaking factories Not only that a

divorced woman has no right to herchildren The offspring are the property of the father

Moreover in Islam only men can go to jannat (paradise) where they can havewine women and dance The Quran talksabout the many virtues of a chaste womanBut there is no reward for such a woman inheaven Can a woman not get a handsome






man in heaven ( jannat ) if a man can get a

voluptuous woman in heaven Why doesIslam show such partiality against women

3 My Search Intensified

In spite of some unanswered questions myintense study of the Quran continued Imeditated on SuratulFatiha which is thequintessence of the whole Quran

In the name of Allah the Compassionatethe Merciful Praise be to Allah the Lord

of the world the Compassionate theMerciful the Ruler of the Day of Judgement Thee do we worship andThine aid we seek Lead us the straightway the way of those on whom Thou hastbestowed Thy Grace those whose(portion) is not wrath and who go notastray

I was confused when Allah in this sura isaddressed as merciful compassionate andthe ruler of the day of judgement CallingAllah merciful was not very convincing Itshows the human element in God Mancan also be merciful to a fellow being Sohow is Gods mercy different from mansmercy The same thought came to mymind about the second part of SuratulFatiha the compassionate Thethird pillar of SuratulFatiha the ruler of the day of judgement aroused a sense of danger I am a sinner and I will be judgedon the day of judgement What is the prize

I am going to receive on that day Of course the judgement will be awful for asinner How can the God of Islam bemerciful and compassionate when he isgoing to judge sinners Thus alFatiha anessential part of Muslim prayers failed toquench my thirst for knowledge

4 I Am Condemned as a Sinner

Another important thought came to my

mind which I would like to add hereSuratulBaqara 227 states This is theBook in it is guidance sure withoutdoubt to those who fear God God hathset a seal on their hearts and on theirhearing and on their eyes is a veil theirswill be great torturing

This verse of the Quran says that Allah isgoing to reward only the righteous But Iam a sinner and unrighteous If Allah isgoing to award only the righteous whathope have I after my death Islam is areligion that insists on good works If thatis so how can a sinner atone for his pastmisdeeds These questions tormented myenquiring mind

Coming back to SuratulFatiha 1 it readsfurther as follows Lead us the straightway the way of those on whom Thou hastbestowed Thy Grace

What path is the Quran talking about andtrying to show Where is the path and howdo I identify it To the best of myunderstanding no such path can be foundin the Quran At this juncture I focusedmy studies on finding the path of righteousness There is a prayer in theQuran that is recited during namaz(Muslim prayer time) which is inSuratulFath 482

May Allah forgive thee thy guilt of the

past and that to follow may He fulfil Hisfavour to thee and may He guide thee onthe Straight Way

Does this recitation convey thatMuhammad the prophet of Islam was alsoa sinner The Quran narrates thatMuhammad was once a sinner who waslater purified by an angel So it is clear thatnobody is free from sin Even Muhammad






the prophet was not pure He had to be

purified

My search for truth in the Qurancontinued Every good Muslim is expectedto recite the following verse of the QuranSo I dutifully used to repeat this verseduring my prayers

Suratu Hud 11118119 If thy Lord hadso willed He could have made the peopleone nation but they are still indisagreement Except those on whom thy

Lord hath bestowed His Mercy and forthis did He create them and the Word of thy Lord shall be fulfilled I will fill Hellwith jinns and people all together

Even if my works are according to thedictates of the Quran to be precise evenif I fulfil the five pillars of Islam I stillhave to pray to Allah to save me frometernal fire What lies ahead of me aftermy death despite my good works I stillhave to plead to redeem myself fromdamnation

5 My Father Died

After a fouryear prison sentence my fatherwas released He came back home a totallydifferent man His old aggressive naturewas gone He was very penitent of hismisdeeds Sometimes he wept duringnamaz (prayer) He prayed to Allah toforgive and save him from eternal fire

Despite praying respectfully my fatherhad no assurance that his sins would beforgiven When he prayed I often saw myfather weeping and pleading and utteringthese words God your grace be uponme Despite following all the laws andpillars of Islam my father had no hope thathis prayers would be heard and his sinswould be pardoned Once after witnessing

such a namaz I asked him why he looked

dissatisfied as if his prayers were notheard He answered that without the graceof God all prayers are in vain Out of curiosity I asked my father how one canreceive the grace of God He solemnlyreplied that after death on qiyamat (day of

judgement) one can receive the grace of God After a few months my father passedaway He was a poor man His lifevanished into nothing without any hope of receiving forgiveness from Allah He leftme with some vital questions unansweredWhat is the grace of God Where can Ifind it How can I attain it

6 My Search Changed

After my fathers death my search fortruth in the Quran took a turn His deathwas a signpost for me As my study of theQuran intensified my feeling of emptinessalso grew My study showed me thatnowhere did the Quran mention the grace

of God

Allah is given 99 different names in theQuran But there is not even one namethat means God of grace or at least God of love Allah in the Quran is anunapproachable distant God quick topunish the unrighteous This is clear proof that the Quran has one great truth missingin it for which every yearning soul longsThe grace of God for sinners like my

father and me is not to be found in myreligion How can a sinner receiveforgiveness from the God of his religion if the grace of God is not found in it

Thus my search for the grace of God inIslam was in vain That led me to anotherdisillusionment I diverted my studies toother religions in order to find thatessential aspect of God that is missing in






Islam

I avidly read the Bhagavat Gita the sacredwritings of Hinduism and the bookswritten by Ramkrishna Paramahamsa themodern sage I also read the book The Lifeof Buddha written by Dr Kusmbi I didnot even leave out the books that dealtwith secular humanism I read the worksof great philosophers like Socrates PlatoAristotle Maxim Gorky Dr Ann BesantBertrand Russel and others All thosenoted authors works were good for headknowledge but they failed to fill theemptiness I felt in my spirit

7 My Work and Marriage

The work my brothers gave me to do wasto sit at the cash counter of our hotel Mycollection of religious and philosophicalbooks were arranged in a bookcase behindmy seat at the cash counter Whenever Ihad free time I used to refer to these

books The more I read the more Icontinued to ask my relatives and Muslimfriends questions about the relevance of Islam in finding deep meaning in apersons spiritual wellbeing They took myquestions as defiance Some even said thatI was out of my mind My brothers wereunhappy about my research and concludedthat something bad was happening to meThey planned with my relatives to get memarried so that my rebellious behaviour

would be put to an end They showed me afair girl as was customary from anorthodox Muslim family that lived nearbyin my hometown Solapur and married meto her My brothers plan did not bear fruitMy search for the grace of God in sourcesother than Islam gathered momentum

A few years passed and there was nochange in my attitude towards my religion

at least in the view of my family members

Marriage could not stop my desire to learnabout other faiths It was of course as Imentioned earlier contrary to my brothersand my familys expectation My wife wasobedient and pious like most Muslimwomen This kind of behaviour in Muslimwomen is very common because the threatof talak (divorce) always hangs over awife Readers will be interested to notehere as I mentioned earlier that Islamallows a husband to divorce his wife

whereas the wife is forbidden to divorceher husband We had two new additions toour family My first daughter Nafisa anda few years later my son Imtiyaz wereborn

8 An Uninvited Guest

One day something surprising happened inthe hotel A man with whom I was alreadyacquainted came to the cash counter andtalked to me with piercing words It was anunusual encounter He frequently visitedour hotel to buy food items That man wasa Christian and spoke flawless Urduwhich is my mother tongue Hecomplimented my Urdu too Once henoted the collection of books behind myseat at the cash counter and made up hismind that I was an avid reader and a seekerof knowledge That evening he lookedstraight into my eyes and quietly butfirmly told me that I appeared to be a man

without peace He added that there was afeeling of emptiness and I appeared to be aman without hope Next he opened thebook he was carrying the Holy Bible andrecited the following passage For allhave sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 323)

Then he closed the Bible and said with






emphasis again looking straight into my

eyes that because of being a sinner I hadlost my peace I was stunned when I heardthese words from him He had read mymind I feared that this man knew mytransgressions and my inner secrets Hehad caught me redhanded I felt as thoughmy past misdeeds and sins passed beforemy eyes one after the other I wonderedhow this man had come to know my innerconflicts The verse he read from theBible For all have sinned and come short

of the glory of God (Romans 323)pierced my mind I put my head down Iwas ashamed to look at him When I liftedmy head he had gone

The verse that he quoted from the Biblepointed at me It proved that I was a sinnerwho was searching in vain It was a fact Ihated to face I began to examine myselfAt first I realised what a bad man I wasMy next thought was to unburden myself of my sins How can I get rid of the sins I

had accumulated from the beginning Therituals I had been taught as a Muslim onlycleanse my outer being How can I shedmy sinful inner man Can the five pillarsof Islam that every good Muslim isexpected to uphold purify the inner manCan the washing of face and limbs beforesalat (Muslim prayer) clean the mind andheart All these rituals try to make a manappear holy before God But no matterhow one makes oneself clean one never

appears pure before the Creator God Mancan only get rid of the dirt that is on thesurface of the body What about thepoisons wastes urine and faeces insideones body If such is the physical state of a man what about his sins that areembedded deep in his heart How can theybe got rid of

That Christian continued to visit and

patronise our hotel I had many more

encounters with him He talked all the timeabout the sinful nature of man quotingfrom the Bible I never liked his talk fromthe book of his religion I often used harshwords to silence him Had I used the samelanguage to a fellow Muslim that personwould have retaliated But this Christianwas humble and patient I replied that theQuran is the last testament of God and itshows the way to the ultimate truth But hewas steadfast in his stand in pointing out

the sinful nature of men In due course Iwas attracted to his humility and hisgenuine concern for me As usual one dayHe visited our hotel and came to see me atthe cash counter This time he was dresseddifferently He wore a formal suit He saidto me that he was leaving India shortly andpresented me with a copy of the HolyBible

9 Nearing the Truth

But I said that I cannot accept that book because it had a black cover To a Muslimanything in black is unlucky Black is thesign of mourning Readers would beinterested to note here that the Quran isalways bound in a green cover Topersuade me to read the Bible he tactfullysaid to me that the black cover of the Biblerepresents judgement while its white pagesmean clean life He added that if oneaccepts the teachings of the Bible and

follows them he will escape the direconsequences of Gods judgement Withthese words he bade farewell and left theplace After this incident I never met thatChristian again

It was 9 oclock at night when the man leftI took the Bible and went to a room in ourhotel reserved for families to dine and






opened the book The first chapter of

Psalms in the Old Testament caught myattention I read the passage carefully

Blessed is the man who walks not in thecounsel of the ungodly nor stands in thepath of sinners nor sits in the seat of thescornful but his delight is in the law of theLORD and in His law he meditates dayand night He shall be like a tree plantedby the rivers of water that brings forth itsfruit in its season whose leaf also shall notwither and whatever he does shallprosper The ungodly are not so but arelike the chaff which the wind drives awayTherefore the ungodly shall not stand inthe judgement nor sinners in thecongregation of the righteous For theLORD knows the way of the righteous butthe way of the ungodly shall perish(Psalm 116)

As I was coming to the end of this chapterI suddenly felt something strange

happening There was smoke all aroundme in that room I went to the kitchen tofind the source of the smoke The oven firewas out and the kitchen staff had left Icame back to the room to continue readingthe Bible The breeze from the overheadfan ruffled the pages of the Bible When Istopped the turning pages my attention fellon St Johns Gospel chapter 1 In thebeginning was the Word and the Wordwas with God and the Word was God Hewas in the beginning with God All thingswere made through Him and without Himnothing was made that was made In Himwas life and the life was the light of menAnd the light shines in the darkness andthe darkness did not comprehend it (John115)

Here Jesus is depicted as the Word In theQuran too Jesus the Messiah is said to be

the Word of God (kalimat ullah)

Indeed Christ Jesus the son of Mary wasthe messenger of God and His Word anda spirit from Him (SuratunNisa 4171)

John 115 explicitly states that all thingsare made by Jesus Christ The Quran alsoacknowledges that Bible statement byaffirming that Jesus has the power tocreate What a similarity in the Bible andin the Quran regarding the divinity and thesupremacy of Jesus the Messiah

And (He will be) a messenger to theChildren of Israel (with this message) Ihave come to you with a Sign from yourLord in that I create for you out of claythe figure of a bird and breathe into it andit becomes a bird by Allahs leave And Iheal the blind and the lepers and Iquicken the dead by Allahs leave and Ideclare to you what ye eat and what yestore in your houses Surely therein is aSign for you if ye did believe So fearAllah and obey me (Suratu Al Imran34950)

10 The Quran Approves JesusUniqueness

After reading John chapter 1 I realised theuniqueness of Jesus Christ over allprophets who had come and gone But theQuran though approving indirectly Hisunique nature teaches in most places that

Jesus is a prophet There is an apparentcontradiction in the Quranic statementregarding the uniqueness of Jesus Christand denying Him as Son of God But theHoly Bible explicitly claims that Jesus isthe only begotten Son of God not in oneplace but numerous times I read further inJohn chapter 1 up to verse 16 and kepton meditating on this Bible passage I






recognised that Jesus Christ lived on this

earth and combined humanity withdivinity In other words He was theincarnation of God He is superior to anyperson including prophets found not onlyin the Quran but also in the Bible

While I was reading this chapter I feltsomething strange The printed letters of John chapter 1 in the Holy Bible that Iwas reading appeared bolder and biggerthan the usual size What an unusual sightI was getting a new revelation throughthese verses God talked to me through HisWord

11 The Light of Life

John 15 says The light shines in thedarkness As I meditated on this verse Irealised that I had been brought to the trueLight

Darkness cannot show sin but the Light

made my sins visible Jesus Christ is sorighteous that the Holy Bible comparesHim with light

The Quran acknowledges the righteouscharacter of Jesus Christ

Nay I am only the messenger of thyLord (to announce) to thee the gift of arighteous lad She said How shall I havea lad seeing that no human being hastouched me and I am not unchaste He

said So (it will be) (Suratu Maryam191921)

Further study of John chapter 1 showedme that John the Baptist who was a greatprophet living at the same time of Jesusaddressed Him as the true Light that giveslight to all people John the great prophetof God recognised Jesus the Messiah as asuperior being to all the prophets

Thus the Quran the book of my faith and

the Holy Bible my newfound light werein unison as far as the uniquenesssupremacy and righteousness of JesusChrist are concerned And of His fullnesswe have all received and grace for graceFor the law was given through Moses butgrace and truth came through Jesus Christ(John 11617)

My further reading on the same nightpointed out to me that through Moses wereceived the law but through Jesus Christwe received grace for grace What adiscovery I made that night My fathersearched for this same grace in hislifetime He died without finding it At lastmy search led me to the original source of grace I discovered that the Quran alsostates that Muhammad brought the Shariaand does not mention the grace of God

Only through Jesus Christ do we attain thegrace of God All the religions I

investigated talk about their laws statutesand rituals but the Holy Bible revealedthat only through Jesus Christ can wereceive grace This grace leads us tobecome the children of God not in abiological sense but in a spiritual senseThis led me to the understanding of thefullness of grace I felt triumphant thatnight My long search was fruitful I wasvery much excited about my discovery thatnight and shed tears of joy

12 Grace of God Defined

It is Allah Who has created you furtherHe has provided for your sustenance thenHe will make you to die and again He willmake you to live Are there any of yourPartners who can do any single one of these things (SuraturRum 3040)Muhammad could not do any of these






The Gospel of John was precious to me

This led me to study every chapter of thatgospel carefully My attention fell on John316 which reads For God so loved theworld that He gave His only begotten Sonthat whoever believes in Him should notperish but have everlasting life

Grace is a free gift of God though JesusChrist eternal life is in Christ Jesus andChrist promised to give us heaven if webelieve in Him

For by grace you have been savedthrough faith and that not of yourselves itis the gift of God not of works lestanyone should boast (Ephesians 289)

Muhammad does not know the futureSay I was not a heretic among themessengers nor do I know what will bedone with me or with you I follow but thatwhich is revealed to me by inspiration Iam but a Warner open and clear(SuratulAhqaf 469)

The meaning (and application) of the graceof God became clear as I read thesepassages Grace is the free gift of God forall mankind who are under the curse of sinA mans good work cannot offer him thisgrace This grace stems from the love of God which He revealed through JesusChrist His only begotten Son

But as for the forgiveness and mercy in theQuran we read just the opposite

Giving alms and forgiveness by givingalms to the poor one gets forgiveness of his sins (SuratutTawba 9103104SuratutTaghabun 641617 Suratu AlImran 31517 SuratulAhzab 3335)

By fighting for Allahs cause one receivesforgiveness (SuratulAnfal 874SuratasSaff 611112)

Reciting the Muslim creed brings reward

(SuratulHadid 5719)

Good works secure an entrance to paradise(SuraturRad 132123)

Forgiveness through fastingSuratulAhzab 3335 for men andwomen who fast for them has Godprepared forgiveness

The pilgrimage Allah is thankful if youvisit holy places (Suratu Al Imran 3129

SuratulBaqara 2158)And last but not least the will of Allahand forgiveness even if you practice allMuslim obligations your sins will beforgiven only if Allah wishes to forgiveyou In short whether you are good or notto whomsoever Allah wills He forgivesotherwise not

Whereas in the Bible we read and it is veryclear that For God so loved the world

and He gave and forgave If only youbelieve in Him and in His atoning sacrificeon the cross of Calvary you are saved andyour sins are forgiven Ah What awonderful privilege one has in Christ Jesusas a Christian

As a Muslim at first I was not able toaccept the sonship of Jesus But aftergiving much thought to the Gospel of JohnI understood that Jesus is the Son of Godin the spiritual sense and not biologically

Because He is the Word of God (kalimat ullah) and Spirit of God (ruh ullah) theHoly Bible also says that Jesus had closecompanionship with the Almighty beforeHis incarnation This proves thepreexistence of Jesus Christ

One day as I was studying the Gospel of John my eyes fell on chapter 14 verse 6Jesus said to him I am the way the truth






and the life No one comes to the Father

except through Me Here Jesus Christunequivocally claims that He is the wayand the truth to mans salvation But theQuran in SuratulFatiha 1 In the name of God the Compassionate the MercifulPraise be to God the Cherisher andSustainer of the world Most GraciousMost Merciful Master of the Day of Judgement Thee do we worship andThine aid we seek Show us the straightway

13 The Path of Salvation

It is very clear that while the Quransearches for the path of salvation the HolyBible is good enough to point out thatJesus Christ is the way and the truth thatleads to eternal life The truth mentionedin John 146 (that Jesus claimed) is not areligion or a way of life but a person Jesusis the truth and anybody who follows Himwill walk the way that leads to salvation

The next aspect of the Holy Bible thatmoved my heart was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary It isso unfortunate that Islam denies thishistorical fact Surat Maryam 1933 Sopeace is on me the day I was born the daythat I die and the day that I am raised upto life

Jesus Christ as all four Gospels relatehung on the cross between two thievesOne thief mocked Jesus and the otherconfessed his sins I identified myself withthe latter who repented of his sins I prayedfor forgiveness for my misdeeds Whilehanging on the cross the sinless Jesus took the sins of all of mankind and died apainful death Just before His last breathas the Gospel of Luke relates He evenpleaded with the Almighty Father to

forgive the sins of those who were

responsible for putting Him to deathJesus who preached and practised lovefulfilled all that He taught on the cross

14 I Am Born Again

Thus my long search lead me to JesusChrist of the Holy Bible I knelt down andprayed to God the Father and thanked Himfor showing me the path of salvation Thatsame day I confessed all my sins and

accepted Jesus Christ the Son of God asmy personal saviour A great burden wasloosened from my heart This incident wasthe turning point in my life After thisincident I could not afford to keep quiet Iwanted to proclaim my new found faith tothe world My Lord wanted me to tellothers about the salvation He offered methrough Jesus Christ First I told myacceptance of Jesus as my personal saviourto my brothers with the intention of sharing the joy I felt in my heart But theresponse from them was gruesome Theywarned me that if I did not give up mynew found fantasy the consequenceswould be dire Meanwhile the newsspread like wild fire in my family andamong the Muslims in the town that AbdulJabbar had become a Christian Within afew days my family members particularlymy brothers became intolerant Theytortured me mentally and physically andthrew me out of my house They not only

took unsympathetic and drastic action butalso took away all my rights to inherit ashare of my family property

Soon my wifes family came to knowabout my conversion and they alsoresponded with contempt They decidedthat I could never be allowed to enter theirhomes






15 Various EncountersThe news of my conversion reached theMuslim fundamentalists too They saidamong themselves that they should neverever allow a Muslim from afundamentalist background like mine toswitch faiths They approached me withthe intention of taking me back into theirfold They took me to a mosque andprobed to find the reasons that led to myacceptance of Jesus as my Lord and

Saviour What they were able to get back from me was a series of questions thatshook the most basic beliefs of Islam

Out of their questions and according to myunderstanding of the Quran I asked themseveral questions that were raised in mymind and bothered me very much Assome scholars say whenever a newprophet appeared he abrogated or nullifiedthe previous prophecies of the last prophetwith his message And they also say thatthe Muhammad of the Quran is the lastprophet of Allah and Allah has sealed therevealing of prophecy to mankind withMuhammad This also meant according toIslam that Muhammad had nullified theprophecy of Jesus Christ as He was thepreceding prophet of Allah But in theQuran we read that Muhammadrepeatedly praised and mentioned theBook the Torah the Zabur and the Injilall these meaning the Bible

But Jesus said Do not think that I cameto destroy the Law or the Prophets I didnot come to destroy but to fulfil (Matthew517) So Jesus Christ has fulfilled theprophecies Then why do people say thatMuhammad is the last prophet and onlyhis prophecies are to be followed Everyprophet who came into this world and

existed had died and was buried whereas

Jesus Christ lived on the earth died on thecross at Calvary was buried and wasraised from the dead on the third day Histomb is still open until this day Not onlythat He ascended to heaven and is seatedon the right hand of the Father He isgoing to come back to this earth as judgesoon This fact is accepted by Islam alsoIf this is true then should we believe in adead prophet like Muhammad or shouldwe believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who

was raised from the dead and is stillliving

Regarding the supremacy of Christ theQuran is very specific SuratulNisa 4171states this about His birth Christ Jesusthe son of Mary was (no more than) anapostle of God and His Word which Hebestowed on Mary and a spirit proceedingfrom Him

SuratulAnbiya 2191 We breathed into

her of Our spirit and We made her and herson a sign for all peoples

Divine promise of Christ Suratu Al Imran345 O Mary God giveth thee gladtidings of a Word from Him his name willbe Christ Jesus the son of Mary held inhonour in this world and the Hereafter andof (the company of) those nearest to God

The righteousness of Christ

The son of Mary is said to be the most

pure from the moment of His birth Theangels said to Mary Nay I am only amessenger from thy Lord (to announce) tothee the gift of a holy son (SuratuMaryam 1919)

The inspiration of Christ And God willteach him the Book and Wisdom the Lawand the Gospel (Sura Al Imran 348)






These things were said about Christ before

His birth Christ knows the secret of heaven and earth because Allah told himall that had been written in the heavenlybook

The signs and miracles of Christ And Hehath made me blessed wheresoever I be(Sura Maryam 1931)

Suratu Al Imran 349 SuratulMaida5110 He is the true fountain of blessingto all people in all ages

He raised the dead He is the youngCreator He is the kind Provider(SuratulMaida 5112115)

He is the revealer of the secret(SuratulAnam 650)

The death of Christ was much superior tothe death of Muhammad His burial andmost of all His resurrection from the deadon the third day had made Him all the

more superior and affirmed all that he hadsaid or did to be true Not only that thishas proved that we can trust in Him He isthe only one who can save us because heis the lifechanging and lifegiving Saviourof the world

As I quoted all these from the Quran itself and spoke to them the fundamentalists gotconfused and did not know what to say tome further Some of them were evenshaken in their faith in Islam

All the efforts of the fundamentalists toreconvert me were useless Then came myfriends they were curious to know thereasons that led to my conversion When Ideclared that the Bible is the inspiredWord of God that Jesus Christ is the Sonof God that salvation for sinners is onlythrough Jesus Christ that Islam saysnothing about the grace of God and

Muhammad himself was not sure of His

salvation they became furious

Next I approached my wife She tooshunned me with hateful words She evenwent to the extent of warning me withtalak (divorce) Islam allows a woman topronounce talak (divorce) to her husbandif he stops being a Muslim Her parentsordered me not to enter their house to seemy wife She had returned to them withour children after I became a Christian

16 Living Among Tombs

All the persecution I faced did not determy new found faith Instead I becamecloser to my Lord My Saviour JesusChrist gave me strength to withstand thepressure of persecution even from mybeloved wife

I had no place to go neither my house normy wifes house nor my friends and

relatives houses I went to a church toseek fellowship and grow in Christianfaith But the authorities of the churchreacted negatively They did not allow meto enter the church because they fearedreprisal from Muslim fundamentalists Theonly place left was a kabarsthan (Muslimcemetery) where I spent three days andthree nights I felt no fear while I livedamong the tombs I always carried theHoly Bible in my hand and meditated onthe words written in it At night when itwas dark and frightening I was at peaceand joyful because I felt that I had myLord Jesus at my side I spent some hourssitting near the tomb of my mother andfather

Some Muslim scholars and learned mencame to know about my denial of theIslamic faith and approached me with the






intention of winning me back to Islam

They took me to a mosque and startedindoctrinating me with their dogmas Theysaid that Muhammad of the holy Quran isthe last prophet and that Allah has sealedthe prophetic gift to mankind withMuhammad They added that a prophet of God made the law given by hispredecessor null and void which meansthat Abraham abrogated the law given byNoah Ishmael abrogated the law of Abraham Job made the teachings of

Ishmael obsolete David made theteachings of Job obsolete Isaiah cameafter David Isa (the Quranic name of Jesus) offered better teachings and lawsthan all the previous prophets And at lastMuhammad abrogated the laws of all theearlier prophets including Isa Theyproudly claimed that since Muhammadwas the last prophet of God the holyQuran revealed through him was the lastand ultimate testament I listened to these

scholars carefully When their talk wasover I asked them about a doubt in mymind The Quran states that all theprophets are dead including the prophet of Islam Muhammad and adds that Isa is theonly living prophet Should I follow thelaw given by a living man like Jesus or adead man like Muhammad

When they were not able to convince mewith their points they quickly jumped toanother point One group of scholars said

that the Bible in many places speaks aboutthe advent of Muhammad both in the Oldand New Testaments I pointed to verses inthe Holy Bible that clearly talk about thebirth death resurrection and Sonship of Jesus Christ and the salvation offeredthrough Him Those Muslim friendswanted to believe the verses from theBible in favour of Muhammad and reject

the verses that are unequivocal about the

uniqueness of Jesus Christ over all otherprophets

The third point they raised was to allegethat Jesus was not a perfect man He didnot know anything about married life Hedid not raise a family and did not rule anygroup or nation whereas Muhammad wasmarried raised a family and was a rulerHe knew everything and was perfectMuhammad gave a law to the world Irebutted with the biblical truth that JesusChrist was actively involved when Godgave a set of laws to the prophet Moseswhich is recorded in one Old Testamentbook Leviticus I made them readMatthew 517 Do not think that I came todestroy the Law or the Prophets I did notcome to destroy but to fulfil

Through these verses Jesus Christemphatically claims that He came to fulfilall the laws the ten commandments the

marriage laws the food laws theceremonial laws God had given to menand never to change anything Only theceremonial laws were nailed to the crosswhen Jesus Christ himself was offered as asacrificial lamb on Calvary The HolyBible is full of evidence to prove that JesusChrist was a perfect man while He was onearth He practised perfectly all the mattersHe preached His enemies too were notable to accuse Him of any imperfectionEven the Quran says that He was a perfectbeing

17 Jesus Christ More than aProphet

The birth of Jesus was a supernaturalphenomenon and superior to that of allmen and prophets He was perfectly






righteous and no man or prophet who lived

on this planet ever matched His characterHis birth His inspiration His miraclesHis life His death His resurrection Hisuniqueness are all mentioned in Quranpassages that prove that He was superior toall other prophets including Muhammadthe prophet of Islam I concluded at theend of this encounter with those Muslimscholars that they had a shallowunderstanding of Jesus Christ and wereutterly confused about the meaning of the

verses of the Quran that refer to JesusChrist It was painful for me to see thatthey were not ready to accept thesuperiority of Jesus Christ even accordingto the teachings of the Quran

Fanatical Muslims and fundamentalistswho advocate armed struggle againstsecular governments and nonMuslims to

justify their stand quote SuratulAnfal85960 of the Quran

Let not the unbelievers think that they canget the better (of the godly) Againstthem make ready your strength to theutmost of your power including steeds of war to strike terror into (the hearts of) theenemies of God and your enemies

Islamic extremists brand all nonMuslimsas kafir (infidels) As a proof for this theyoften cite the following verse of theQuran in which Muhammad admonishedMuslims to stay away from nonMuslims

O ye who believe take not the Jews andthe Christians for your friends andprotectors They are but friends andprotectors to each other And he amongstyou that turns to them (for friendship) is of them Verily God guideth not a peopleunjust (SuratulMaida 554)

The above verses that appear in the Quran

are given by Muhammad the prophet of

Islam and refer to a particular time ratherthan a general situation says aninternationally distinguished Muslimscholar He goes on further to say that theabove two verses are superseded by manyother verses in which the Quran expresseshigh respect for the members of otherreligions mainly Judaism and Christianitysuch as this one

God is our Lord and your Lord for us (isthe responsibility for) our deeds and foryou for your deeds and to Him is (our)Final Goal (SuratushShura 4215)

In another place the Quran statesexplicitly that the Muslims may share foodwith the People of the Book (ahl alkitab)Christians and Jews and that Muslim menmay join with their women in marriageMoreover SuraturRum 3022 of theQuran states And among His Signs is thecreation of the heavens and the earth and

the variations in your languages and yourcolours verily in that are Signs for thosewho know This proclamation of theQuran is in stark contrast to how thefanatics and the fundamentalists view theother faiths

All the attempts the Islamic scholars andthe fundamentalists made to convince meand take me back to their religion failedmiserably in the light of the knowledge of the Holy Bible I had gained

18 I Left my Home andHometown

Rejected by my family members desertedby my wife abandoned by my friends Ihad no place in Solapur How long could Ilive among the tombs How could I feedmyself






I decided to leave Solapur once and for all

I travelled to Pune a city about 4 hoursnorthwest of Solapur In Pune I sought a

job in a bakery owned by a Muslim LaterI understood that he too was afundamentalist I was well versed withbakery work because it was my familystraditional business I did my job so wellthat the owner soon recognised myefficiency As days passed by he noticedthat I behaved in an unusual manner Heknew me only as a young Muslim man I

never divulged to him that I was no longerpractising Islam and had become aChristian He never saw me performingnamaz (Muslim prayer) When the monthof Ramadan came he never saw mefasting One day I approached him withthe gospel and talked to him about JesusChrist He became furious and abused mewith harsh words He not only sacked mebut told other Muslim bakery owners inPune not to employ me Once again I was

homeless I had no money to buy foodAfter a few days I became weak because Ihad not eaten A Hindu who had a bakeryemployed me as a labourer The very first

job I was asked to do was to carry a sack of flour weighing 90 kgs Since I had noteaten for a few days I did not have thestrength to lift that bag on my back Inspite of my weakness I tried to lift theflour bag Suddenly I felt that someonewas lending a helping hand from behindContrary to expectation I was able to

transfer the flour to the kneading tablewithout much difficulty

19 My Faith Strengthened

I continued to work in that bakery Sixmonths rolled by The thought of mybeloved wife and children continued tohaunt my mind I yearned to see them I

wrote a few letters to my wife about my

whereabouts and my work In those lettersI mentioned Jesus Christ and what iswritten in the Quran and the Holy Bible Ialso wrote about the state of women as it isin the Muslim religion and the respect forwomen found in the Holy Bible My wifedid not reply a word to my letters Fromthe worldly point of view I was a lonelyman but the constant fellowship with myLord Jesus kept my heart joyous OftenBible verses came to my rescue when my

spirit was low

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or distress orpersecution or famine or nakedness orperil or sword As it is written For Yoursake we are killed all day long We areaccounted as sheep for the slaughter Yetin all these things we are more thanconquerors through Him who loved usFor I am persuaded that neither death norlife nor angels nor principalities nor

powers nor things present nor things tocome nor height nor depth nor any othercreated thing shall be able to separate usfrom the love of God which is in ChristJesus our Lord (Romans 83539) Theseverses promised me that the Lord is at myside during adversity

20 Entry into Church

I looked forward with eagerness to have

fellowship with Christians in a church Imet some Christians and started aconversation intending to share myconversion story Very few showedinterest in listening The reason mighthave been that I wore untidy clothes andwas unshaven On one Easter Sunday Isaw an old lady carrying a Holy Bible Shewas on her way to a Protestant church I






went to her and asked her to take me to

church On the way I told her myconversion story She listened to my storyand pitied me Perhaps my shabby faceand dirty dress made her do so When wereached the church she asked me to standamong the beggars thronged in front of thechurch I approached another man at thechurch and asked him whether I can joinhim in the church during the worship Heshowed me the back row

The message the preacher delivered thatday from the pulpit was the first Christiansermon that I had ever heard The basis of the sermon was the resurrection of JesusChrist My heart was filled when I realisedthat my Jesus is the risen Lord Thisreinforced my faith in the living GodSongs and other aspects of the churchservice touched my heart The preacherinvited two or three people from thecongregation to offer prayers First a ladyprayed and then a man I was the third

person who prayed That was my firstpublic prayer I never felt shy I was boldenough and filled with the Spirit on thatoccasion It was a spontaneous prayer Myheart broke and I shed tears while I prayedI cried aloud and said Lord I have lefteverything to you the living God insearch of grace and I found that grace inyou because you are the source of thatgrace Then the congregation stood upand sang the offertory song in Urdu The

words of the song were I gave everythingto the Lord I asked myself what I couldoffer to the Lord because I had no moneyto offer When the offering bag was shownto me I heard the spirit of God saying tome to put my life in that bag which meansI should dedicate my life to Him and forHis work I obeyed to the voice of theLord When the worship was over people

turned toward to the back row and looked

at me with surprise

Before the congregation dispersed thepreacher made an announcement callingthe man who prayed from the back row tocome forward I went forward and shook hands with him He was very glad to seeme and commended my prayer Thechurch members joined the preacher inappreciating my effort in praying publiclyThen he asked me who I was I told himmy conversion story A missionary ladyfrom Sweden who was in the church cameto me shook my hand and invited me forlunch at her residence She spoke goodUrdu We drove to her house in her carDuring lunch I shared with her all theprevious happenings in my life what ledme to the conversion and my presentpathetic condition She took me to a clothshop got me two sets of clothes and mademe wear them She asked me a fewquestions to test my understanding of the

Holy Bible My answers impressed herShe said that her organisation wassearching for a man who could read andwrite Urdu to write in the Biblecorrespondence school Within a few daysshe made the committee of herorganisation employ me I was givenshelter in the library My job was to check the answer papers of the Biblecorrespondence course I really enjoyedmy work and since I was staying in the

library I had access to a wide variety of Christian literature I spent a lot of timereading meditating and in solitary prayerI had good fellowship with the workersthere In this way three months passedThen the correspondence schoolcommittee enrolled me for a refreshercourse During interactions in the class Iasked questions on salvation by






justification revelation of the Bible the

mystery of the Trinity and other queriesfrom the Muslim point of view I receivedconvincing answers that refreshed my faithin Jesus Christ

The refresher course motivated me tostudy the Bible deeply and to dedicate mylife to the Lords work by obeying theSpirit of Gods calling and becoming anevangelist I asked the Swedish lady tosend me to a theological seminary forBiblical studies By this time I had beenbaptised by immersion in a church thusfulfilling one of the most cardinalobligations to show outwardly the inwardchange that took place in me Byundergoing this ritual my old self died Iemerged as a new man I became a fullChristian Therefore if anyone is inChrist he is a new creation old thingshave passed away behold all things havebecome new (2 Corinthians 517) As aprerequisite to enter the theological

seminary I had to write an entrance exam

21 Reunion with my Wife andChildren

Meanwhile I received a letter from mywife At last she had replied to my manyletters In that letter she described herpathetic condition All her relatives weretreating her harshly because they saw herand my children as a burden and a

nuisance She asked me some heartmovingquestions in that letter Why did you dothis to me and our children What haveyou found in your new faith Did yourfaith bring honour and joy to our familyShe mentioned in that letter that she wasashamed to come out of her parents housebecause people around asked embarrassingquestions about her Christian husband

Even her parents were treating her badly

Being a submissive Muslim woman shewas not in a position to take a bold step todo what she wanted to do She evenwanted to commit suicide When shelooked at the four little children shethought If I am gone who will take careof these little ones The childrenspresence prevented her from taking such ahorrible step

After receiving such a heartmoving

poignant letter I wanted to write her back immediately But I was sure that herparents would stop my letter reaching herI knew a Christian lady who lived in PuneShe was from my home town Solapur Iasked her to go to Solapur meet my wifeand tell her that if she wanted to come withthe children to Pune and stay with me shecould do so

After a few days I heard a tap on my doorWhen I opened the door a great surprisewas waiting for me There stood my dearwife and four beautiful children My Lordonce again answered my prayers Iwelcomed them with kisses My joy knewno bounds to have my family back withme It was a joyous family reunion afterfour long years

22 In Theological Seminary

The result of the entrance exam was out

and I was eligible to join theologicalstudies The Swedish lady sponsored myentire studies at Bareilly TheologicalSeminary Uttar Pradesh That was in1975

My family stayed with me when I pursuedmy studies in Bareilly Seminary I wasoffered a meager monthly stipend for my






familys subsistence We were in abject

poverty All my children grew weak because there was not enough food Myoldest daughter Nafisa became so weak that she caught tuberculosis (TB) Almostat the same time my wife developed alump in one of her breasts which wasdiagnosed as cancerous I did not haveenough money to offer the right treatmentto my wife and my daughter The seminaryauthorities declined to extend financialhelp to my ailing wife and daughter The

doctor who treated my wife advised me totake her to Bombay for special treatmentOnce again I was in a dilemma I prayed tomy Lord for help for I had unshakeablefaith in him But my wife faltered in herfaith She felt a curse had befallen herfamily as a result of leaving her originalreligion Islam

23 A Miraculous Healing

I got her admitted in the hospital But thehospitals in Bareilly UP those days werenot equipped or ready to treat cancerpatients Even then when seeing thecondition of my wife the doctors admittedher in the intensive care unit After acareful observation these doctors almostsaid that there was no hope and gave upThey asked me to take her to Bombayimmediately where she would havespecial care and the right treatment forcancer But where would I a person like

me get money to treat her in a city likeBombay And who would have helped meat this juncture for this highly expensivetreatment

I had my classes going on and studies tobe done I could spare very little time formy wife in the hospital Even then afterhearing what the doctors said I was on my

knees in my hostel room at the seminary

praying and pleading with God to delivermy wife from this serious sickness Shewas literally in agony She often fellunconscious due to the acute pain Ibegged God for the healing of my wife ora transfer of the sickness from my wifewhose faith was still shaky to me Thepeace of God comforted me even in mywrestling with him in prayer I believedthat God would be able to heal hercompletely

That very same night in a dream or avision my wife felt that I sat next to herlaid my hand on her and prayed for herAfter the vision she woke up and she feltinstantaneously released from her acutepain Next morning as I visited her to mysurprise she said to me After youtouched me and prayed over me my painis gone and now I am feeling much betterBut I told her that I had only just come Sowho is this who prayed for her Then the

Spirit of God revealed to me that God haddone a miracle here to strengthen mywifes faith And that is exactly whathappened

During the regular rounds the doctor alsocame to examine her wound on her breastThe doctor asked her how she felt Herresponse was I am much better nowdoctor He checked her again carefullyand he saw that his patient was ready to bedischarged from the hospital Then all thedoctors came to know about the miraclehealing that my wife had They all startedasking what had actually happened andhow this had happened All I had to saywas God is great in whom I believe andpray to It is certainly the touch of Godand nothing else They were all happy andsaid that I could take my wife home






Thanking God and praising his good

name we both my wife and I went back to our living quarters The whole seminarycame to know about the miracle that took place They all came to see us and praisedGod for healing her This was the first andforemost incident that strengthened mywifes faith in the Lord Jesus Christ Nowfor the last seventeen or eighteen yearssince this incident my wife is still aliveand serving Gods people who come to ourhouse and work in the field

24 The Public Ministry

After completing my B Th I left theseminary with my wife and our fourchildren We came to Bombay by faithThe Word of God and His promise hadstrengthened me The just shall live byfaith (Romans 117) We started theliterature ministry among Muslims inBhiwandi at Bombay Bhiwandi is the areawhere many Muslims lived Here we livedand worked among them those days ourliving conditions were poor with nosupport from anywhere Yet trusting fullyin God and His precious promises I wenton sharing and preaching to those wholistened

The strong opposition from the Muslimpeople the ill treatment and even threats tomy life had made me a little scared Onceit happened that some Muslim fanatics and

fundamentalists came to finish us but inthe end they pulled us out of the house andthrew away all our belongings becausethey failed in all their attempts to changemy faith from Christ my Lord back toIslam

Nothing can move or shake my faith inJesus and I was determined not to turnback We went to a place called Dombivli

in Thane District This place also was like

going from the frying pan into the fire Inthe last place we had the fanatic Muslimsaround us and now here we had the Hinduextremists with us Even then we had abetter time in our new place and had widercontact with more people But as the timepassed by the HinduMuslim Riots brokeout all over Bombay and in thesurrounding areas In this riot our housegot ransacked and our things were burnedThe testing was not over here once again

we were as good as on the road

Without losing heart we again looked tothe Lord to give us the courage to take allthis We moved from this place to a citynearby called Kalyan Certain goodChristian friends helped us move fromDombivli to Kalyan After reachingKalyan we also had quite goodcooperation with some believingChristians

25 Conclusion

I and my family thank God the livingLord for giving us the courage andboldness to face all these sufferings for theLord and for keeping us in the faith in theLord Jesus Christ Not only that now I cansay with pride that God is using ourchildren all four of them for thefurtherance of his kingdom

In these many years of living and workingfor the Lord we saw many receive Christas their personal Saviour and joinChristian fellowship Out of them largenumbers are our Muslim friends and theyare afraid of coming out of their ownsituation They do not want to publiclyconfess that they are Christians and standfirm in their faith They think that theywill be killed by their own people or






disowned

Here my dear friends I would like tochallenge you it cost me a lot to take abold and strong step for my Lord when Icame out of my home leaving my wifeand children But God in whom I believeis not a dead God who does not care forthose who fear Him He cares for all of those who come to him It is said by JesusCome to Me all you who labour and areheavy laden and I will give you rest(Matthew 1128) He Jesus alone can giveyou the rest you require the peace that youare searching for the life eternal Sobelieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and youand your household will be saved MayGod give you that bountiful grace to stepout and stand for the Lord in coming daysMay the good Lord bless you all

26 Giving me a New Life - HowJesus Christ Changed my Life

I thank the Lord for giving me thiswonderful and sought for opportunity tobring before you how in the mostmiraculous way God called me to Himand granted me salvation by his grace

My name is Mrs Zaibunisa Augustine andI am the wife of Pastor Augustine Jabbar Iam the mother of four children and agrandmother also I was born in the year1947 in a very orthodox and staunch

Muslim family My father Mr Abdul Latif used to work in a cotton mill in my hometown Solapur and my mother MrsMunawar Begum was a dutiful and lovinghousewife We were in all eight childrento our parents namely six sisters and twobrothers By the grace of God all membersof my family including my elderlyparents are alive until today And now all

my brothers and sisters are married have

children and are well settled Though allthe members of my family are receptive tothe Gospel they are still adamant infollowing the same teachings of the Quranand keeping the same tradition

At the tender age of eleven under the strictinstructions of my father and grandfatherwe and I in particular were asked to coverour faces with a veil (known as a burkha)and were restricted from meeting any maleperson whether known or stranger Webelonged to the Wahabi sect who believethat there is only one God and he is Allahand Muhammad is his prophet We did notbelieve in idol worship like durga worshipor mazar worship

While attending the secular school Ilearned to speak and read Urdu and studiedup to the third class My grandfather wasvery much against teaching girls to ahigher standard in the secular field and

was of the opinion that they shouldconcentrate more on housekeeping In themadrasa I was taught to recite the Quranin Arabic for four years Thus presently Ican read Arabic and read speak and writeUrdu Hindi and Marathi by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

At the age of 17 I was married to MrAbdul Jabbar Abdul Kadar Shaikhaccording to the Muslim custom Myhusband also hailed from a very orthodox

Muslim family and was himself a strictobserver of Islamic rituals and traditionsThus he was adamant that I should followthem closely and wear a burkha wheneverI went out He also instructed me strictlyto abstain from talking to any unknownperson My husband being wellversed inthe study of Quran and hadith was a goodteacher of the same too I was involved in






the propagation of Islam among the

womenfolk in the neighbourhood of ourhome

After leading a happy and strict home lifefor about eight years I noticed a suddenchange in my husband A person strictlygiven to following the teachings and therituals of the Quran and Islam andrefusing to hear of any other religiousthing now he had started reading the Bibleand trying to teach me the Bible Since webelieved in the militant religion of Islamthis was a great shock to my life and Istarted arguing with him I publicly calledhim a traitor of our pure and holy faith of Islam and shared this with my parents andothers with much fear in my heart I wasafraid that he could even be killed by ourown people What would I do then withmy four children

Not heeding us at all my husband went onreading the Bible and he believed in what

he was reading I neither liked what myhusband was doing nor could I agree withhis new faith of Christianity I refused tostay with him and left him taking my fourchildren with me I stayed with my parentsfor almost three years during which timehe was thrown out of his house as wellHis brothers and relatives hated him forwhat he had done and did not want to keephim in their house anymore But myhusband walked out of his home quietlyWithout even taking anything from hisshare he left the house and walked away

He went and worked elsewhere and earnedhis living but he never forsook me Healways remembered to write me letters Ineach of his letters he used to preach aboutGod Jesus love and so on which I neverpaid attention to But he never gave up andkept writing to me from the Bible

especially about sin separation from God

and how God loves me and wants to giveme eternal life Most of the Biblequotations were contradictory to what theQuran taught us Especially he wrote tome this verse And Jesus said For thisreason a man shall leave his father andmother and be joined to his wife and thetwo shall become one flesh So then theyare no longer two but one flesh Thereforewhat God has joined together let not manseparate And I say to you whoever

divorces his wife except for sexualimmorality and marries another commitsadultery and whoever marries her who isdivorced commits adultery (Matthew19569) Whereas in Islam a man has allthe freedom to leave his wife and the rightto marry any other woman up to four orseven wives It seemed strange that myhusband was still waiting for me to goback to him

Another verse that struck me was this

Come to Me all you who labour and areheavy laden and I will give you rest(Matthew 1128) By reading this verse Ifelt so much release in my tense mind Atthe time I was greatly stressed andmentally troubled by the thought that I wasalone with my four children eventormented by the wounding words of myfamily members themselves But withoutmy knowledge these words of Jesusconsoled me very much

The thought that was foremost in my mindwas why not take a chance of meeting myhusband once He might even change hismind and come back to normal byreturning to our faith in Islam after seeingme and our children At last I did exactlyas I thought I went to meet him where hewas As I reached there to my surprise Ifound him so happy and rejoicing to see us






back with him He could have refused to

receive me according to Islam Not onlythat he could even have killed me forwalking away from him But now I cansay that it was the love of Christ that madehim so simple and humble and loving thathe had received me back

This made me think a lot about hischanged attitudes towards me Once heused to be so rough and rude and dominantover me And now he was just theopposite His new way of life and histestimony had spoken to me without hehimself speaking to me much Here I cameto change him back into our old religiousfaith instead his life and the word of Godhad changed my own mind and life Istarted to reevaluate the whole thing andconcentrate on the word of God in theBible Christ had changed my life nodoubt but it took a long time for me totrust in Jesus fully because of the Islamicbelief that I had earlier

While fellowshipping with Christians atPune and studying the word of God myhusband got an opportunity to go to aBible college for further studies It was inthe year 1975 We praised God for thechance taking and accepting it as from theLord to have more contact with God andto have more understanding through thefellowship with other Christians

The seminary experience was quite

enriching Many a time in my little faith inChrist I almost quit the seminary and wasgone from there We had almost nothing tolive with we both and the four childrenhad to live with Rs 250 per month Thishurt me very much But the faith that myhusband had was so great that we went onwith the Lord in the seminary MeanwhileI was suffering from breast cancer and I

got admitted to the hospital The doctors

almost gave up the case and kept me in theICU ward My husband had not much timeto spend with me for he had to attendclasses Whenever he came to me he usedto lay hands and pray over me In severepain I went into a deep sleep and I had adream that someone laid a hand over meand prayed for me Later as I woke up myhusband was sitting next to me and Ishared this with him saying After youhad prayed over me just now I am feeling

much better and almost healed To mysurprise my husband said that he had justarrived and did not have time to prayThen we both realised that it was noneother than the Lords healing hand thattouched me and I was healed from thesevere sickness

It was shocking news for the wholehospital and all the staffs including thedoctors Just the day before they said thatthere is no hope for me and now I was

healed All that remained was a small spotThus I was healed miraculously For thelast 17 years I have been living movingaround serving the servants of God as theycome into our house Not only this hadenormously encouraged and strengthenedmy faith Now I do not have to bedependant on my husbands faith anymoreand I can believe in Jesus I preach thismessage to all and it will be my testimonythat my Lord can do wonders not only in

this life but also in eternal life

Once after the Bible training in Pune wehappened to have an encounter with someMuslim friends of ours After seeing thededicated life of my husband PastorAugustine Jabbar a few people came tolisten to my husbands talk on the BibleOut of these one person accepted Jesus ashis personal Saviour and continued in our






fellowship This incident made the other

Muslims furious and they came over to ourhouse threatening to beat us to deathPastor Augustine Jabbar normally wouldnot go for any fights or quarrels and hekept talking quietly to the hotmindedcrowd I do not know from where I got theboldness and courage but I can say thatthe Lord was with me and protecting usAmazingly the people who came withsticks and rods drew back and leftapologetically

I now believe and say that the Lord whohas led us through all the difficulties in thepast and brought us this far can lead us allthe way through without any doubt Nowwe can boldly say that I and my householdwill worship the living Lord and we aredoing it too Praise the Lord that he is stillalive Pray for us that we may testify thisliving testimony to as many people aspossible in this world Thanks

27 Quiz

Dear reader

if you read this book carefully you willanswer the questions easily Please send usyour answers using our feedback-form

1 What questions motivated Augustineto search the Quran closely

2 What questions was the Quran notable to answer

3 What did Augustine not findmentioned in the Quran

4 Which books did he read after theQuran in his search for the grace of God

5 What did the visitor to the family hotelsay was the reason for Augustineshopelessness

6 Which verse did the man read to him

from the Bible7 Which questions did this verse raise in

Augustine

8 How did he respond to the visitor

9 What did the visitor give him when hecame to say farewell to him

10 What was the first Bible passage thatAugustine read

11 What did Augustine read in the Bibleabout Jesus

12 How did Muhammad compare to Jesusfor Augustine

13 Compare what the Quran and theBible teach about forgiveness

14 What did Augustine do as a result of studying the Bible

15 How did his family react

16 What questions did Augustine ask themen who tried to convince him toreturn to Islam

17 How did his wife react

18 In what ways is Jesus superior to whatis said about him in the Quran

19 What did Augustine do when he lefthis home town

20 Name three things that the Lord did totake care of Augustine

21 How did Augustine receive anopportunity to learn more about theBible

22 How was Augustine reunited with hisfamily

23 How did Augustines wife come tobelieve in Jesus as her Saviour

24 What did Augustine and his family doafter they left the Bible school

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1 I Was Born

I was born in Solapur a town in thesouthern part of the state of MaharashtraIndia in a fundamentalist Muslim familyof the Sunni branch of Islam When I wasthree years old my father sent me to amadrasa (Islamic school) to learn theQuran I was skilful in reciting the Quraneven at the age of eight

My familys profession was trading inbakery items and running a hotel businessMy father had a big family to take care ofWe were six brothers and four sisters Iwas the only son who was well versed in

reciting the Quran and in the fundamentalteachings of Islam

My mother was a very devout woman Shepaid attention to me especially andencouraged me to study the Quran WhenI was twelve years old many questionscame up in my mind on the teachings of the Quran This was in deep contrast tomy brothers They were fanatics without

understanding any of the Quranic

teachings My father was a strict Muslimdeeply attached to Islamic law (Sharia)Now I understand that my father took Islamic law (Sharia) into his hands to hisadvantage Though my father projectedhimself as a pious Muslim he was adictator at home

My mother was very submissive to myfather When she served food for my fatherat the table my mother used to place acane next to the dishes If the food was notto my fathers liking even if there wasonly too little salt the cane could be usedon her I witnessed my father beating mymother with a cane many times

Men are the maintainers of women withwhat Allah has made some of them toexcel others and with what they spend outof their wealth So the good women areobedient guarding the unseen as Allah hasguarded And as to those on whose part

you fear desertion admonish them desertthem in their beds and beat them If theyobey you seek not a way against themSurely Allah is ever Exalted Great(SuratunNisa 434)

2 My Parents

One day an incident happened in our housethat shocked me My father brought ayoung lady of 25 years old and said to usthat she was his wife I was 18 years old atthe time My fathers new wife was youngenough to be his daughter My mother wasobviously not disturbed She knew that aMuslim man can take another wife at anytime because the religion allows a man tomarry and live with up to four wives at atime

After about two years the relationship















































purified





5 My Father Died






6 My Search Changed


of God









Islam





























9 Nearing the Truth




























































(SuratulHadid 5719)























14 I Am Born Again








































































































spirit was low

















at me with surprise


























































25 Conclusion








disowned
























































27 Quiz

Dear reader









Augustine
























or write to

The Good Way

PO BOX 66

CH-8486 Rikon

Switzerland
















































purified





5 My Father Died






6 My Search Changed


of God









Islam





























9 Nearing the Truth




























































(SuratulHadid 5719)























14 I Am Born Again








































































































spirit was low

















at me with surprise


























































25 Conclusion








disowned
























































27 Quiz

Dear reader









Augustine
























or write to

The Good Way

PO BOX 66

CH-8486 Rikon

Switzerland







Islam





























9 Nearing the Truth




























































(SuratulHadid 5719)























14 I Am Born Again








































































































spirit was low

















at me with surprise


























































25 Conclusion








disowned
























































27 Quiz

Dear reader









Augustine
























or write to

The Good Way

PO BOX 66

CH-8486 Rikon

Switzerland

















9 Nearing the Truth




























































(SuratulHadid 5719)























14 I Am Born Again








































































































spirit was low

















at me with surprise


























































25 Conclusion








disowned
























































27 Quiz

Dear reader









Augustine
























or write to

The Good Way

PO BOX 66

CH-8486 Rikon

Switzerland


























































(SuratulHadid 5719)























14 I Am Born Again








































































































spirit was low

















at me with surprise


























































25 Conclusion








disowned
























































27 Quiz

Dear reader









Augustine
























or write to

The Good Way

PO BOX 66

CH-8486 Rikon

Switzerland















14 I Am Born Again








































































































spirit was low

















at me with surprise


























































25 Conclusion








disowned
























































27 Quiz

Dear reader









Augustine
























or write to

The Good Way

PO BOX 66

CH-8486 Rikon

Switzerland





































































































spirit was low

















at me with surprise


























































25 Conclusion








disowned
























































27 Quiz

Dear reader









Augustine
























or write to

The Good Way

PO BOX 66

CH-8486 Rikon

Switzerland













at me with surprise


























































25 Conclusion








disowned
























































27 Quiz

Dear reader









Augustine
























or write to

The Good Way

PO BOX 66

CH-8486 Rikon

Switzerland
























































25 Conclusion








disowned
























































27 Quiz

Dear reader









Augustine
























or write to

The Good Way

PO BOX 66

CH-8486 Rikon

Switzerland







disowned
























































27 Quiz

Dear reader









Augustine
























or write to

The Good Way

PO BOX 66

CH-8486 Rikon

Switzerland













































27 Quiz

Dear reader









Augustine
























or write to

The Good Way

PO BOX 66

CH-8486 Rikon

Switzerland







or write to

The Good Way

PO BOX 66

CH-8486 Rikon

Switzerland





Released From Bondage - By Augustine Abdul Jabbar

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Transcript of Released From Bondage - By Augustine Abdul Jabbar