Written by Nabeel Qureshi, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus is the written journey of a zealous and devout Muslim seeking to know the truth.
Raised in a fundamental Muslim home by sincere and loving parents, Nabeel Qureshi learns the Islamic faith thoroughly. As a young man transitioning to tertiary study, he sets out to passionately defend his faith amidst new life challenges, an education system that challenges his faith, and alongside his two best and most faithful friends; a Christian and a Buddhist!
Qureshi's book sets out three purposes which he outlines in the introduction, summarised here:
1. To tear down walls by giving non-Muslim readers an insider's perspective into a Muslim's heart and mind... to help Christians understand Muslim neighbours and love them as Jesus loves them...
2. To equip readers with facts and knowledge, showing the strength of the gospel contrasted with the case for Islam...
3. To portray the immense inner struggle of Muslims grappling with the gospel...
Clearly a highly intelligent man, a Doctor of Medicine, Master of Christian Apologetics and a deep thinker, Qureshi narrows his investigation of Christianity down to three questions:
"If we can determine that Jesus claimed to be God, that He died on the cross, and that He rose from the grave, then that would be a good case for Christianity."
"And now I had found the path of my pursuit: assess the historical case for Jesus' death, His deity, and His resurrection."
Qureshi took an evidence-based approach to researching his Islamic belief system. What he found stunned him:
"I was shocked motionless... I stared at the book in disbelief. Far from a noble call to prophethood, Muhammad was violently accosted by a spiritual force that terrified him, driving him to contemplate suicide on multiple occasions. And this was not just any book, this was Sahih Bukhari, the most trustworthy book of hadith."
"The mental dissonance was too much to bear. I could not process it, could not think, could not even get myself to move, in fact."
"Where was the truth? Why did no one deal with the difficulties in Muhammad's past?"
Qureshi writes in a relaxed but informative style and includes definitions of Muslim words and phrases that help non-familiar readers understand the basis of Islam.
He explains how people from Eastern Islamic cultures generally assess truth through lines of authority, not individual reasoning like in the west, but Qureshi himself had a leaning to reasoning. He did not subscribe to blind faith. He also explains how Muslims believe that being Christian is a cultural identity, not a faith; he was told that there are Christians who simply do not believe in God. He says,
"If they were to intimately know even one Christian who lived differently, their misconceptions might be corrected, and they might see Christianity in a virtuous light."
Nabeel Qureshi's journey is an exciting and intriguing story and I would encourage you to read this book, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus.
Qureshi can have the closing word:
"As I studied Islam carefully, what I learned shook my world: there is no good reason to believe that either Muhammad or the Quran speaks the truth about God"
I bought this e-book on Amazon.com.au. At the time of publishing this blogspot, it was $12.99 sold by HarperCollins Publishing Australia. Qureshi also wrote other books including No God but One and Answering Jihad.