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I was born to Muslim parents, and I'm a descendent of 'ALI IBN ABU TALIB the cousin
of Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, and the fourth Caliph (i.e., "ruler").

At an early age, I was one of the Muslims believers who performed all of the
religious duties, from praying to fasting and everything in between. I was
planning to be an Imam of a mosque, like my grandfather. I started to study
the Fiqh and the Quran (Islamic sacred scripture), but after some time, I felt
bored reading similar books and essays. I recognised that there are a lot
of differences in Islam. For instance, in Iraq (my country), there are a
lot of Shia, and it was strange for a Sunni like me to know that there
was someone different from his faith but claiming to be Muslim, so I
decided to study the various Islamic schools of thought.

After a lot of reading in this field, I become more familiar with Mu'tazilah
than any other school of thought. Mu'tazilah is more reasonable than the
rest of the schools, in the sense that it involves argumentation and philosophy.

I began to be open-minded for the first time in my life. Gradually, I
decided to study other religions. I tried to preach the Quran, starting in
Da'wa (i.e, evangelizm) with some young Christians, using my good knowledge of the
argumentative tools, and I created many faith problems for them. Because of this,
their families appealed to the priest of their church and asked him to invite me
to visit him.

Arguing with him was very difficult for me because he always answered all my
doubting questions. After I had known him a year, he died, but he had changed
a lot of my thoughts about Christianity. However, I still didn't believe in it.

After this, I started to see Islam with new eyes, seeing the contradictions in
it, studying it in comparison to Christianity.

One night in a dream, I saw a vision of a man with a beard talking to me:

"Son", he asked me, "why do you attack my sheep?"
I replied, "Who are you sir?"
He answered, "Jesus Christ"
So, I answered his question, "I'm not attacking your sheep, sir, I'm trying
to bring your lost sheep back to the straight path."
He said, "You are the one who is lost; I'm the straight path."

I woke up asking myself a number of questions: Did I really see Jesus? He
said that I'm lost. What did he mean? Does that mean that the Christian is
right and that I'm on the wrong path? But it was only a dream. Still,
Mohammed said in one of his Hadith that if you see a prophet in a dream, you
see him truly because Satan could not act like a prophet in a vision. Obey him,
and follow what he says. That is what Mohammed said.

After some time being a little confused, I left the two religions and became
a non-believer.

Around that time, my father (a high-ranking officer) died in a car
accident, which we assumed was a natural accident. So, I kept carrying on
with my life, and because I had inherited from my father a good fortune, I
was able to do a lot of wicked things-wasting money on sex, alcohol, drugs,
whatever I could find for pleasure.

After a period of time, I heard again a voice (which I knew was
Jesus's voice), saying, "Run away from your country NOW!"

This voice was firm with me, so I woke up, I bagged my things, and in a few
hours, I was outside Iraq and heading for my mother's home in another
Arabic country.

When I was in the airplane (that was 1990, and Iraq was not under the
siege), I began to doubt my actions and started to blame myself for the
stupid thing I was doing. But then, I told myself, "Well, let's have an
early vacation. I can at least thank Jesus for that". And I smiled at the
evil thoughts about what I was going to do for pleasure on my trip.

When I landed in the Arabic country that I was travelling to, I went to my
grandfather's house. There, I called my mother back in Iraq saying, "Mom,
don't worry-I'm visiting here for a while, and then, I'll return home".

She replied, "Don't ever think about coming back-there was a police unit
seeking you!"

Knowing that I had never broken the law or even been involved in any
political opposition, I answered in shock, "What??!! What you are talking
about?!"

She said, "They were seeking some military documents that they think that your
father hid, and for this (they had told her), he was assassinated. Thank
God that you left-they thought that you had the documents. They took your
brothers (from another mother), too, to investigate them".

[Note: My mother was protected during all of this because she was an Arabic
journalist working with her country's embassy, so nobody could hurt her or
arrest her for investigation without permission from the ministry of
foreign affairs.]

I was shocked. I felt dizzy. I could not imagine what would happen! But if
I were there in Iraq, they would torture me to confess what I had not done,
and maybe they would kill me. What an unexpected danger I had escaped from!
I had never imagined that I would have to flee for my life. I had never had
a thought that I could ever be in such danger.

Who could have known such a future for me?! God alone could have known it!
So, was Jesus God?!! I really became confused, shocked, dizzy, and-in this
condition-passed out. After a few hours, I woke up from my comatose state,
and I start to pray to God, sincerely asking Him to show me the way, the
truth.

After that, I dreamed again of Jesus, and he said to me, "I love you. Why
you don't love me likewise? Come to me because I have a plan for you". I
woke up crying. He was looking for me, and I was trying to escape from him.
He wanted me to be with him, and I was not. He had saved me from the hands
of the Iraqi torture machine, so I told him, "I'm coming to you, Jesus,
even if this costs me my life".

At that moment, He entered my life, and become my Lord and Saviour. I really
was washed in His pure blood, becoming another person, one reborn in His grace.

Local Christian churches refused to help me at first, and for a period of
time, I felt that I was very alone and that only God was with me.

The only real worry that I had, however, was about my means of living, for
I had left my wealth behind me, and unfortunately for me, the Iraqi
authorities had confiscated all my property.

But the Lord showed me that I couldn't rely upon material wealth anyway,
for a few months later, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and the Iraqi Dinar, which was
officially 3 dollars and in the black market merely 30 cents, fell
enormously in value. Most of the wealth that I had inherited from my father
had been in Iraqi currency, and I had it in the bank while I was living
in Iraq. If I had still been living in Iraq during the Gulf crisis, then
instead of having $800,000, I would have had only $800!! Thanks be to Jesus
for showing me that I can only depend upon him, not upon worldly things.
From this, I derive comfort.

After a long period of time in my mother's country, where I was witnessing
for Jesus, extremist Islamic groups there discovered my apostasy from
Islam. They held a faith court about me, and commanded me to repent and
renew my faith in Islam, or they would kill me for being a Murttad (i.e.,
"apostate"). They gave me 2 days to make my decision.

I tried to go to the police for protection, but the police arrested me for
inciting activities against Islam and disturbing community security. They
put me in jail and started to investigate me, asking about other converts
and about missionaries. I was lucky that I had not been baptized yet
because they emphasised the following questions: "Have you ever been
baptized?!" "Who baptized you?!" "Which church do you attend?!" "Who
evangelized you?!".

My being a foreigner helped me, for they eventually released me and
commanded me to leave the county, giving me only a very short period in
which to do so. God provided me a visa to an Eastern European country, and
I left my mother's country within the time they had demanded.

Now I live in the USA.

Source: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/...timony.htm

Dear Jack.
Praised be the Lord. What a fantastic testimony. You are truly blessed. What I thought, while reading your testimony was that it seems to me that the God Lord is rewarding the man who seeks the Truth and with humility bows down to Him.
I once visited a mosque.. and I had a strong desire to bow down with these brothers and show submission to the Lord together with them. At the same time I have a great need for them to know Christ and I do not like it when people, out of silly tolerance, say we all worship the same God. After having read passages from the Quran which is said to contain the direct words of God, I cannot see this as anything than a selfcontradiction since the ones who hold that Jesus is God is condemned therein plainly. Is this not true?
On the other hand I hear about sufism that they are rather close to God in a Christlike kind of relationship and some have even written about Christ: "the Almighty one appearing really infront of His creatures as someone eating and drinking, revealing His humanity" - al-Hallaj wrote something like this in wonderful poetry and made me gasp for air while reading it. It seems then, that someone seeking the Lord with all his strength can find Him agaist all outer odds, such as in you own case, Jack. But please tell me what you think about my considerations ??? I really long to hear it... espeasially about sufism and your thoughts on the people of other religions.. The salvation question which many have different oppionions on. But since you are truly close to our muslim brothers and sisters, both by kin and heritance I expect you wont be harsh and say something on this matter which is not reasonable.
I want to be open to the Holy Spirit and you must have much knowlege of His Work also in the muslim world.
I am afraid of relativism.. but also dislike the ones who are far more strict with their brothers than God Him selv would be.
However this still does not change the fact that Christ seem willing to show Himself to people who practice other faiths.. Like Sadhu Sindar Singh and Bilquis Sheikh (another muslim) or Benjamin Berger.. not to mention one Buddhist Monk who was meditating in his monastery in China some fifteen years ago when suddenly a word came flying into his head: "Medjugorje". He had no idea what that meant..but he followed the voice and later he became a Christian.
Thanks again for your generous sharing,
Yours in Christ.
Katarina<><

That's not my testimony! See the source at the bottom of the original testimony.  

Jack, this is really unbelievably contrived, this latest post of yours.  You cannot be serious.  Again, I say you are here only to promote yourself in any way possible and are just joking, as your picture clearly illustrates.

Jesus Christ does not appear to people in dreams to launch them on a career of apostasy.   You do lie, Jack, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.  Instead, you draw attention to yourself with one sensational claim after another.  And this is the latest.

First, you deny you owe "any man" an explanation of your origins, then you turn around and splay this very detailed information exhibition-style.  The problem is, this is not your story.

< ------- That's a picture of me!

If you people would take the time to read what people posted before replying you would had seen that this isn't my testimony! I clearly posted a link at the bottom of the original message to its source.

Anyway, I’ve had it with this forum.
I don’t need the hassle.

Chow!!!

Dear Jack...
Im sorry I misunderstood you and thought this was your own testimony.
(I did not see any other name underneath so I just assumed..
Anyway. I would like to say that firstly I don't find the testimony of the former muslim at all surprising... I have heard that many people in the arab world have similar experiences and there is no telling what the Lord might do - He is creative and full of good ideas. Praised be His Name.
Secondly, you shouldnt listen to this other fellow so much. I think your picture is okay and I think it is not fair to say that you are not serious in your contributions to this forum.
Peace be with you.
Katarina <><

Well, I got it half-right, didn't I?

This was your third testimony posted in this section (what happened to the second one I'm not sure; that's the one where you told of having a dream where you seemed to be instructing the Lord), so I just took it as another personal testimony of yours.  What's funny is, I really did read it to the end, but did not notice the link.  And I think it was because I was already on the warpath against you, and we simply cannot do that on a forum.  We must approach each post with a peaceable mind, or we will miss a point attempted by the poster, or misplace an otherwise accurate assessment of somebody.  So, egg on my face is what the Lord rightly allowed here in my case.

Katarina and I were a study in contrasts:  she responded with acceptance and I responded with rejection, but we both did not see the link.

And since I have to keep correcting you, l have to say the word is "ciao."  I think ...

At any rate, if you do choose to stay, you can count on occasionally having to confess to your own shortcomings, failures, humanity, idiocy, et al. and actually admit you could be wrong.

:     It is so wonderful to read your testimony. I know that God will use this to help others see the truth. This is such an inspiration to me.  I think that being born in the USA, and always having had freedom, I have not realized how precious that it is. Now I would like to get more involved in helping others, and spreading the word about the love of JESUS.

I'm glad you got something out of it but as I told others, it's not my testimony.

See the link in the original post if you would like to get in touch with the person who wrote this. He may be happy to hear that you found what he shared inspirational.

Kind Regards
- Jack

Jack,
Not that I would believe your testimony, anyway. You're a Unitarian!