Chapter 1: Introduction
9/11 is very vivid in my mind. My friends at mosque said that Islam has victory over the Great Satan. Look, we have brought them to their knees. Almost everybody that I know they were dancing and celebrating, and I was so proud of them. I thought, finally we have repaid America in all of the things they have done to us.
Chapter 2: Family of Martyrs
My name is Mohamad Faridi. I was born in the city of Tehran in the country of Iran in 1984. That's four years into this bloody chaotic war between the country of Iran and Iraq. I was born to a Muslim family. I have two older brothers. My mom and my dad. So it was five of us. I remember that my uncle, two of my cousins voluntarily joined the war gave their life for the sake of Islam. They were sacrificed for the sake of Islam.
And our family became the family of martyrs. My uncle's mural was painted on the wall of the biggest mosque in in our neighborhood. And we were really honored. I remember that, when we had family members relatives coming over to our home my grandma, my grandpa would tell them We have sacrificed our son for the sake of Islam. We have shed blood and given up life. Born and raised, I heard about this 13-year-old young teenager that, the tanks the Iraqi tanks were rolling to his city.
He takes the grenades from these dead soldiers and puts them on himself and then jump in front of a tank and kills himself and it stops those invasions. He became the idol of our time. Growing up in middle school we read about him. We wanted to be like him. We wanted to be honored like him as martyrs for Islam, as jihadi Muslims.
Chapter 3: The Dictates of Islam
Most of my growing up was spent in the mosques in the shrines, in the Qu’ran classes. They taught us that if we memorize the Word of Allah Allah cannot burn us in hell. Because if it's in our head and if it's in our heart then that's the word of Allah. We will not be burned in hell. So I would sit hours and hours put my Qu’ran on my hands and read, memorize and recite it. This was just the beginning of what Islam teaches.
Islam teaches you your dress code, your even to the degree how to sleep, where to sleep what direction your head... Everything, every layer every little thing in your life is completely dictated by the Islamic law. When we broke the law of Islam we do pay for our sins by bringing harm to our body. We punish ourselves to pay for our sins. This is the flag we used. With this, we would hit our backs.
Sometimes we would put pieces of glass or sharp items metals on this and hit our back. That's how we try to bring this harm and punishment to our body to earn Allah’s favor. Nine days in a row, I beat myself so much my chest was aching, my heart was hurting. I wanted to go beat myself more, but I couldn't. I couldn't get myself out. And I had such a shame had such a sense of condemnation over myself.
And I said, look at what a weak Muslim you are. I remember, on one of my trips to this shrine you could see a very highly respected scholar in Islamic books and laws. I asked him, I said, Ayatollah how much more do I need to do to have been approved of God? This Muslim scholar looked at me and said, My son there's a whole lot more to do and I haven't done enough. That brought a lot of a sense of hopelessness to me because I thought, how much more?
How much more punishment how much more self-harm how many more prayers how many more pilgrimage I need to do?
Chapter 4: The Spirit of Jihad
I was ready to serve my country for the two years’ mandatory army service. And I was trained by this religious army for two years. Three months of it is in boot camp. We learn how to discharge bombs or guns or weapons and how to become soldiers how to become fit, how to have no identity other than as being Islamic soldiers or jihadists. They were preparing us spiritually for a greater cause to, for for the ultimate sacrifice of our lives for the sake of Islam.
The belief is that martyrs have this specific ladder, this shortcut that they climb to go to the presence of Allah to the, to heaven, to the Paradise of Islam. They had these massive graveyards that, they had empty tombs in them. They would put us in those empty tombs during night to fight to fear of death. And then they said that this is how you reunite your spirit with the spirit of martyrdom, with the spirit of jihad. And I remember when they laid us down into those graves.
It was so dark. It was so scary. You would feel that these narrow walls of this grave was going to collapse on you and you're going to die, buried alive. I looked at war as an opportunity to climb this ladder to become like my uncle to become a shaheed and a martyr for Islam. It was a way out for me, actually from the miserable life and hopeless life that I was living as a Muslim. You have the certainty of salvation as a Muslim, and that comes only through martyrdom.
You have no assurance, you have no certainty. You don't absolutely have no idea what would happen to you as a Muslim if you die outside of jihad and martyrdom. I just wanted to make sure that I'm approved by God and I have an eternal life. I have a purpose in life.
Chapter 5: Rasul
Right after my military service I came back home and, I had this friend of mine. We know one another since we were six years old on and off, we were in school together. But when I went to the military service because he had flat feet he was medically exempt from the military service. His name is Rasul. I called him and he said I want to see you, Mohamad, today. And about 10, 15 minutes into our conversations and getting caught up I realized my friend is tremendously changed.
I remember he was a very violent person when we played soccer or basketball in school. When we when I would start a fight. And then Rasul was much taller and stronger than me. So I would throw him in front and he would fight with people but he was that day very strangely calm very peaceful. He was very mellow. This you could feel this thing coming out of him. Even his face was shining and I was really bothered.
So I pressed to see what what's the matter with him that day. Rasul told me, he became a Christian. When he said that to me that I have become Christian that messed up with my theology. As Muslims, we the one of the articles of faith in Islam is fate. Everything is fate. Everything is predestined. You're born a Muslim, you die a Muslim. You're born a Christian, you die a Christian. You don't change your religion.
I’d never heard of the concept of conversion. When he said that I start arguing with him. And I knew that apostasy and leaving Islamic faith is a sin but I didn't know that you could actually convert from one religion to another. But Rasul calmly shared his experiences with Jesus, the changes that Jesus and Christianity has brought to to his life.
Chapter 6: The Veil is Torn
After about couple of hours of up and down, back and forth, arguing trying to, I was trying to correct him he just told me at the end of this conversation, Mohamad you asked me the reason for this change and I'm telling you, it is Jesus. That's why I'm changed. Everything he was saying it felt like it was just going right over my head. And I have ears but I couldn't hear that day. This is what he said to me that day that changed my life.
He said, Jesus was beaten. He was bruised. He was cut. Jesus was crucified. His blood was shed for my sake. And he gave up his life that I have eternal life. When he said that to me that is the most amazing the best thing I've ever heard in all of my life. When he said that to me, it felt something that went right into my heart and I felt naked before a holy God having nothing to offer him. It seemed to me that moment that every lie, every deception that I was operating under the veil of deception was torn right before my eyes.
I was bruising myself. I was cutting myself. I shed my blood many times and I wanted to give up my life. I wanted to sacrifice it, lay down my life in order to please Allah. He said to me that day that, Mohamad this, all of this has been finished, has been done in the person of Jesus Christ. I realized the debt I was trying to pay was already settled through the work of the cross and what Jesus has done for me.
And the Word of God pierced through my heart. And I heard the gospel for the first time. I fell on my knees, literally fell on my knees. And I begged my friend, Rasul what do I need to do to enter the eternal life? And he led me through this simple prayer repenting of my sins and asking Jesus to become the Savior and the Lord of my life. And as soon as I repeated that prayer and believed that in my heart and confessed it with my mouth I could see the colors for the first time in my life and I just knew something has happened.
Something has changed. This weight that I operated under that was felt like I had 500 pounds on each of my shoulders was burdening me down. That moment when I confess Jesus and I repent of my sins it was just yanked out of me. It was just lifted off of me. And I just knew from the bottom of my heart that I had been set free.
Chapter 7: You're Home
After this encounter with God I had to wrestle if Christianity and Jesus is true so everything that Islam teaches or everything that Islam believes is a is a lie? So all of my family all of my relatives, all of my all of the community in the country and all of the Muslim world they are operating under a lie? I had this crisis that I had to deal with it in my mind in my heart. I went, facing this crisis head-on and went to church for the first time in my life. As soon as I entered the sanctuary of the church I had an encounter with the glory cloud of God.
Something like a cloud. I was just wrapped in it and it was absolutely amazing. I was being showered by the presence of a holy God and two times inside myself, loudly it wasn't an audible voice but it was much greater than an audible voice I heard that your home, your home. And I just knew I was in the right place. My friend out of his pocket bought me a New Testament in Farsi, which is an illegal book in Iran.
And he said, Mohamad this book has been written for you. If you read it it will speak to you and God will change your life. And I start reading the Gospels. I went through the four Gospels five times each. I could not put the book down and I was truly wrestling with the Word of God and everything that was, especially in the book of Matthew chapter five, six and seven, and of course when I came to chapter 11, Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
My yoke is easy, my burden is light and you shall find rest for your soul. All, all of those verses were speaking directly into my life.
Chapter 8: Apostate
One evening I was following the, what Jesus told in the book of Matthew in the sermon of the mount that when you pray, you go inside your room you shut yourself in the room, and then you do your prayers between you and God. The lights were off and I was just having fellowship with God. And then, my dad jumped in the inside my room and he said, Mohamad, what are you doing? And I said, I'm praying. And then he said, who are you praying to?
And then I said, Dad, I'm praying to Jesus. We had the picture of the Imams and the self-acclaimed prophet prophet Muhammad on our in our on the walls of our rooms. He pointed at Muhammad and said, Why not Muhammad? And, I said, Muhammad is dead, Dad. How could a dead person hear my prayer? And he ran toward me, cursing and throwing kicks and punches. And then I just knew I'm in a dangerous situation.
So I pulled away from him and ran away from home. And I called my friend. I told him, Rasul, this is what's going on. I don't think I can go back home. And Rasul told me in the beginning of his conversion the family opposition was just the same. But now everything has changed in their home and the parents and sister and everyone else has come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I realized there's a whole lot of us.
And while my biological family rejected me God had prepared another family to receive me. We had to keep it very quiet, very careful because we lived as apostates in a Muslim country that Christianity is illegal. And if you are an apostate apostasy is punishable by death. So we had to be very, very careful. Well, after three years of being involved in Bible distribution, evangelism and working as a taxi driver trying to provide for myself and then evangelizing a whole lot of people that they were my passengers.
One day, I remember the owner of the taxi agency that I work for, he sat in my car and he told me that the Islamic regime's intelligence has come to their office asking for me and my activities. He told me, Mohamad, if these people get their hands on you not that they’ll only hurt you they will hurt your family. Your family is in trouble. And I decided that week that I have to leave Iran before they get me and then they were going to harm my family. So I went to the United Nations Commissionary for refugees and explained my situation to them described what is going on in my life.
By the grace of God, I was finally I was accepted as a refugee, religious refugee and sent to America. So I came, moved to America in June of 2012.
Chapter 9: Jesus is Knocking
I moved to Los Angeles and a couple a couple blocks from our apartment I went to this new Iranian church plant. It was an Iranian in church plant for ex-Muslim ex-refugees. And that's where I met my wife. And now we've been married 11 years. I tried my best, my hardest to assimilate as fast as I could and as best as I could and then learn the language. And, of course, when I married an American she made everything easier for me.
So it's been it's been great journey. And it's been really, really fun. I believe with all of my heart that Jesus is the best thing that could happen to anybody. What could be better than Jesus? What could be better that you're already approved because of what Jesus has done. Nothing is better than to be approved of God knowing that you've been accepted in the Beloved, knowing now you're part of God's family you're already passed from death to life.
He loves you so much He has given His best thing for you for your sake, to forgive your sins. I tried to approach a holy God but I couldn't with my own effort. But He was so merciful that He reached out and He brought me in and He truly paid my debt. If you're a Muslim or you're a Muslim convert or you're considering to convert from Islam to Christianity and you're thinking about it What's going to happen to me? What's going to happen to my family?
You have to know that we're here for a short amount of time. 80, 90 years, 100 years the most we’ll be around in this life. But the cost of living eternity separated from God that is a cost that you have to consider not the cost of friends and families here. He has made it so simple so practical, so easy that you just need to hear the gospel message that what God has done for you is enough and you have to humble yourself and accept it. You have to open the door take this gift, and open it and receive it.
What could be easier than that? The Bible tells us that Jesus is standing at the door of our heart, knocking on it. And if we open the door if we open the door of our heart He would come in and dine with us. The Bible says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe with your heart that God has raised Him from the dead you shall be saved. I mean, this is so easy and it's the best thing you could ever do.
