I just finished reading this remarkable book by Nabeel Qureshi, a first-generation Pakistani raised as a devout Muslim who converted to Christianity in his early twenties after years of seeking to know Allah deeply. It is an incredibly sympathetic book, showing deep and heartfelt respect and love for his Muslim people as well as for the Christians who loved him enough to engage him in reasonable discourse over a period of many years. I felt shamed and challenged by his commitment to knowing the truth and following its lead wherever it led, even to the point of deeply disappointing and offending his loving family.
This is a deep look into the heart of a young Muslim who loves Allah as creator and sovereign God, who trusts Allah to do good and to show mercy and answer prayer, and who loves and is loved by his devout family and community. He does not leave Islam because he is unhappy or disappointed, rather, he is very content and proud to be a Muslim, and seeks to convert others to the beauty of Islam. It is in the process of engaging with a serious Christian roommate and friend, in an attempt to show him the flaws and pitfalls of Christianity, that Nabeel begins to seriously explore the doctrines of the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, and his real death and resurrection, all of which are ridiculous and blasphemous to him…at first. But as he critically evaluates these doctrines one by one, he discovers their plausibility. This leads him to apply the same critical criteria to the core documents and teachings of Islam, and to his dismay and sadness he finds that his love of Islam has been based upon ignorance and glossing of much of the content of the Koran and the Hadith (sayings attributed to Muhammad.) Using the same standards of truth by which he evaluated Jesus’s claims, he finds Islam very wanting. Then, having resolved the issues of the intellect, he discovers that he still must do the very hard work of the heart before he can accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and bear the very high cost of discipleship. The emotional depth of this book is one of its chief beauties.
In this book you will see devout Muslims in a truly sympathetic light, yet without glossing over the very real intellectual and moral flaws of Islam itself. One likes not only Nabeel but also his devout father and mother who remain Muslim.
You will also consider the most challenging and fundamental doctrines of Christianity: the reliability of ancient scriptures, the deity of Jesus, the historicity of his death and resurrection, and the Trinity. His meditation on the Trinity provided me with a model for explanation to scientists that I had never considered. Following his very methodical and careful inquiries was a bracing reminder to me of the reasonableness and credibility of my own faith. This may sound tedious and pedantic but it definitively is not. The short book reads like the very personal autobiography it is, while being also an engaging intellectual journey. I highly recommend it.
Little Gidding 