Outstanding Testimony – The effect of
comparative study of the Bible and the Qur’an!
Barket Masih (Christian name) was born into an
extremist Muslim family and grew up with Islamic values, which included hatred
towards Christians and Christianity. His father was a religious leader in a
local mosque. His parents always spoke negatively about Christians and the
Bible. They taught him that the Bible has been changed and Christians will go
to hell because they are bad and unclean people. They also forbade him from
having friendship and fellowship with Christians and this is still a common
practice among Muslim because Allah commands in the Qur’an not to befriend
non-Muslims even they be close relatives (Sura 3:28; 9:23,123).
Barket’s first encounter with the Bible when he at school, secretly he enrolled himself in Correspondence Course (using a different address) without informing his parents.
At the completion of the
course, he was awarded a certificate of distinction. But soon after his
certificate was found in his school bag and he was not only punished but his
certificate was torn up and destroyed. He apologised and promised his family
that he will not read the Bible again or meet with any Christian.
As the time passed, and forgetting about this
incident, during his college life, he joined a fanatical Muslim student
organization and grew in his faith and love for Islam and the Qur’an. He had
zeal to spread Islam in the entire world. He got his engineering diploma, and
got a good job in a government department. And again during his training his
passion for Islam, Qur’an and Jihad grew very strong.
However, in the back of his mind, he remained troubled
and influenced by some of the scriptures that he had read in the Bible. From
time to time, they echoed in his ears. One day in his despair, and with
arrogance, he asked a question about spiritual healing from one of his menial
staff (a Christian). The Christian replied with such a calmness, confidence and
faith, “Even I could pray and the person will get healed in the mighty &
majestic name of Jesus Christ”. Muhammad Ali (an Islamic name) shook in his
boots with such a reply. He became more mentally agitated and felt heavy
hearted. After a while, Barket went to see a pastor to get the answer to his
questions, but the pastor did not want to answer his questions rather he gave
him the Bible, which contains all the answers.
Reluctantly, Barket took the Bible and could not throw it away but had
to hide it in his room. Even unwillingly, he would read the Bible occasionally
& irregularly but then repented to Allah for making the great mistake.
Barket was transferred to another city for his job and
his wife joined him there. She got very sick and he took her a doctor.
Fortunately, the doctor turned out to be a Christian. Later he felt compelled
to seek the doctor’s help to understand The Bible and Christianity. The doctor
connected him to a Pastor. Even though Barket learned few things from this
pastor, he was not satisfied with the answers on “Jesus’ Sonship, the Trinity,
blood of Jesus and His sacrifice”. One Sunday, he heard another pastor who
spoke about Jesus’ Sonship and Barket was able to get answers to 90% of his
questions.
One year later at midnight, suddenly he saw the Glory
of God with open eyes while he was reading from the book of Jeremiah from the
Holy Bible. His entire body was wet with sweat and there was an indescribable
joy and peace in his heart. This was a new amazing experience for him. After
this extra ordinary experience, he started devoting more time in studying the
Holy Bible and compared it with the Qur’an.
Few days later, he went to church again with upset
spirit due to the serious illness of his daughter. He took her to top doctors
but she did not recover from various medicines. At the church, the singing was
about the Holy Blood of Jesus and its power to heal. At that point he
challenged Jesus that if His blood could heal his sick daughter before he
reached home then he would think about believing in Him & His Blood. When
he arrived home after attending the church service, he was amazed to see his
daughter perfectly well and sound asleep. He could not believe it and checked
with his wife if she gave her any other medicine. She said no and told him that
between 10 - 10:30 AM the girl suddenly became normal and went to sleep.
Hearing this, Mohammad Ali’s heart was filled with unspeakable joy & love
for Jesus and tears came into his eyes. He wrote it down in his diary so that
not a single detail could be forgotten. After this experience, he became much
more open to Jesus and studied The Bible & the Qur’an intensely as the time
permitted. Many of his questions were automatically answered and he began to
believe more on the Holy Bible than his holy Qur’an.
After few months, he was filled with the Holy Spirit
while reading the Bible and also received the anointing to preach the Word of
God. A great joy and happiness filled his heart that he could not describe and
he felt like a heavenly man, it was so awesome. Finally he accepted Jesus
Christ as his LORD and SAVIOUR and was baptised.
Following his conversion, problems started in the
family and at work. While facing these problems, he joined a Seminary part-time
to gain a more through knowledge of the Scriptures and Christianity. His wife
threatened to divorce him. Later he wrote and published a book about Jesus
Christ in the Qur’an and the Bible. In this book he proved that they are not
the same. It was the first book of its kind on this topic. He was declared the
enemy of Islam, Mohammad and the Qur’an. He was arrested & Court Martialled
by the Authorities. One night when he could not sleep in the cell due to the
concerns about his family and work, he heard the glorious and mighty voice of
the Lord saying, “Your opponents will not
be successful because I have defeated them”. It was the first time he heard
the voice of the Lord which made him happy and courageous. He rejoiced in the
anointing and comfort of the Holy Spirit.
As the Lord promised, he was released from the prison
without any harm. Four years later the officials again started an inquiry
regarding his conversion. This time again the Lord was with him and also his
wife during this period had accepted Jesus Christ. She proved to be a great
woman of faith and stood with him. He remained victorious in all of his trials.
Same year he also applied to get his name & religion officially changed on
the government record, which further annoyed the authorities. After a lengthy
process, the changes were made but later he was dismissed from the government
service without any benefits or pension after being there for more than ten
years.
He praises God that He has appointed him for His
Ministry amongst non-believers in his own country. He calls it his
Barket’s faith was strengthened by doing the
comparative study between the Bible and the Qur’an. Because of his willingness
to gain more knowledge and to obey the Lord to serve Him, the Lord is bringing
more Muslim into His Kingdom through him and his family.
Note / Appeal: We had the privilege to meet personally and to know how God is using His servant to win many souls for His Kingdom. We have been requested to train Barket and his wife for further effective ministry. We are considering to bring them out here for a month in the middle of 2010. We earnestly seek your help to raise funds for their air-fare and lodging. Please prayerfully consider to contribute toward this wonderful
