Unless I See

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” John 20:25

The story of doubting Thomas reminds me of Nabeel Qureshi who asked God for dreams before he became a Christian. He was a devout Muslim, born of devout parents of the peaceful Ahmadi sect of Islam. His mother was a daughter and grand-daughter of Muslim missionaries. He was given three dreams at different intervals in his quest for the truth. 

Nabeel was what you might call a Muslim apologist and knew how to defend his faith. So in August 2001, when he saw his roommate, David Wood, reading the Bible, he challenged David and claimed that the Bible had been corrupted over time and the original gospel message lost. David was able to give him historical evidence of the reliability of biblical documents that Nabeel had to concede. 

Next they argued about whether Jesus claimed to be God. David was also able to show Nabeel that Jesus did claim to be God, and then that Jesus did die on the cross. Eventually, after investigating the evidence for himself, Nabeel also accepted that Jesus did indeed amazingly rise from the dead. Two and a half years later, Nabeel was reading the Bible for himself and asking how could one man die for another man’s sins? And how could the one true God be a Trinity? 

He was also finding that “at the end of my research, the arguments for and against Islam still hung in the balance, but one thing was abundantly clear: they were far from approaching the strength of the case for Christianity.” Muslims believe God speaks in dreams, that’s why Nabeel kept asking for God to give him dreams to make what God wanted him to do clearer.

In Nabeel’s last dream, he was standing before a narrow door. Beyond the door, there was a feast, but he could not go in because his friend David was blocking the door. When he woke up, he called David and told him about his dream. David pointed him to Luke 13. “ Why didn’t you let me in, David?” Nabeel asked. “Because you still have not accepted Christ’s invitation!” David replied.

Nabeel became very sad because he knew that accepting Christ would change his whole world. “But Jesus,” he said, “accepting you would be like dying. I will have to give up everything.” 

The verses in the Bible he was holding spoke to him, saying, “He who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake will find it” (NASB). Nabeel felt that Jesus was being very blunt: For Muslims, following the gospel is more than a call to prayer. It is a call to die. He knelt at the foot of his bed and gave up his life. When he told his parents, they were devastated.

Some time after accepting Christ, Nabeel became an apologist and travelled the world proclaiming God’s truth. I like listening to his sharing and his talks on YouTube. He wrote his story in”Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity”, which became a bestseller. 

In September 16, 2017, Nabeel Qureshi, age 34, passed away, entering through the narrow door to be with Jesus, after enduring a yearlong battle with stomach cancer.