The inspiring story of former Muslim Nabeel Qureshi you will never forget. If you have Muslim friends with whom you have been sharing the Gospel; I pray that many of them would be open to watching Nabeel’s incredible story.
nabeelqureshi.com <Click to website
I followed the ministry of Nabeel Qureshi for years. He was a Muslim who sought truth and found Jesus Christ, to be his Lord and Savior. Our Lord came to him in a dream and then another dream. His friend in college shared the Gospel in the spirit of love with Nabeel. He searched for truth and found it in the One who IS Truth.
If you never saw Nabeel speak of his conversion, and of his love and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ – you missed such a blessing. But Nabeel leaves a rich legacy and you need only to go to youtube.com and type in his name. His brilliance, charisma and his gift of teaching will grab you. I guarantee that you will have to watch each video in its entirety.
After his diagnosis of stage 4 stomach cancer, he began doing vlogs to communicate with others his thoughts and his progress of his treatment for the cancer.
WND.com did a beautiful piece on the life of Nabeel:
Ex-Muslim, author, evangelist Nabeel Qureshi dead at 34
As a former Muslim who boldly, with a passion rooted in intellectual rigor, declared through speeches, campus talks, debates, New York Times best-selling books and digital media that Jesus Christ – not Allah, or Buddha or any other name – is the only way to salvation, Nabeel Qureshi wanted to make sure before he left this life at the age of just 34 that his listeners understood he was motivated by love.
Qureshi, who died Friday in Houston, Texas, loved even the Muslims who wrote to tell him the stomach cancer that began to take his life one year ago was punishment from Allah.
And in the last of the video blogs he posted from his hospital bed at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to supporters chronicling his battle with the disease, he urged Christians not to use the truths he taught about Christianity and Islam as weapons.
His ultimate aim was not to condemn, but to see Muslims come to faith in his savior, Jesus.
“When we talk to people about our beliefs, we should do it through a lens of love,” said Qureshi, who until his cancer diagnosis had been an itinerant speaker with RZIM, the organization founded by renowned Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias.
Qureshi was a protégé of Zacharias, who wrote Monday that his heart is “broken at the loss of one who ran with spectacular passion to do what filled his soul.”
“As I write this, it’s hard to hold back the tears. It’s hard to believe that Nabeel Qureshi has left us all too soon,” Zacharias, who regarded Qureshi as “one of the finest preachers I have ever heard,” wrote in a column published by Christianity Today. “I reminded him that he was the same age as our Lord whose mission was accomplished.
“In like manner, Nabeel came like a streak of lightning, brightened the night sky, and has returned to the One who gave the power to do what he did.”
A celebration of Qureshi’s life will be held Thursday at 10 a.m. Central Time at Houston’s First Baptist Church. The service will be livestreamed at the church’s website and its Facebook page, as well as on the website and Facebook page of RZIM.
He leaves behind his wife, Michelle, and his daughter, Ayah.
‘Larger than life’
Qureshi said in an interview one year ago, just a few weeks after the cancer diagnosis, that he had “known for a long time that people were praying to Allah to curse me.”
The cancer diagnosis, he said, was “something a lot of Muslims are going to see and say, ‘This is the one who’s been making a big deal about having left Islam for Christ and, look, Allah is cursing him.’”
“So my prayer, really, is that through all this, the testimony of what Christ has done in my life won’t be dishonored,” he said.
Stuart McAllister, RZIM’s global support specialist, told WND the whole staff is “grieving but rejoicing in who he was.”
“Nabeel was larger than life and loved life,” McAllister said. “… He was bold as a lion and yet very compassionate.
“Everywhere I have traveled this year, from New York to Chennai, in Europe or Asia, I was asked how [Qureshi] is doing and told stories of how lives had been touched and changed by him,” he said.
On Monday, McAllister said, an Indian friend told of how her Muslim friend came to faith in Jesus Christ after reading one of Nabeel’s books.
“He had an all-too-short life but an impact far beyond what most would have in their lifetime,” McAllister said. “I was proud to know him and serve with him. He is missed.”
Qureshi’s first book, which has sold more than a quarter of a million copies, “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity,” became a New York Times best-seller and was awarded the Christian Book Award for both “Best New Author” and “Best Non-Fiction Book” of 2015.
In March 2016, “Answering Jihad: A Better Way Forward” was published followed five months later by “No God But One: Allah or Jesus? A Former Muslim Investigates the Evidence for Islam and Christianity.”
Qureshi lectured to students at more than 100 universities – including Oxford, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, Johns Hopkins and the University of Hong Kong – and took part in 18 moderated debates worldwide. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Old Dominion University, an M.D. from Eastern Virginia Medical School, an M.A. in Christian apologetics from Biola University, an M.A. in religion from Duke University, and an M.Phil. in Judaism and Christianity from the University of Oxford. His work on a D.Phil. in New Testament studies at the University of Oxford was cut short when he began cancer treatment.
“This is an announcement that I never expected to make, but God in His infinite and sovereign wisdom has chosen me for this refining, and I pray He will be glorified through my body and my spirit,” he wrote, noting he and his family were going to “pursue healing aggressively, both medical and miraculous, relying on God and the fact that He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.”
He said that although his spirits had “soared and sank” in the previous days, “never once have I doubted this: that Jesus is Lord, His blood has paid my ransom, and by His wounds I am healed.”
“I have firm faith that my soul is saved by the grace and mercy of the Triune God, and not by any accomplishment or merit of my own. I am so thankful that I am a child of the Father, redeemed by the Son, and sealed in the Spirit. No, in the midst of the storm, I do not have to worry about my salvation, and for that I praise you, God.”
In December, the cancer diagnosis still fresh, he gave the fall commencement address at Biola University in Southern California, where he earned an M.A. in 2008.
When Biola’s president, Barry H. Corey, introduced Qureshi, Corey mentioned the battle with cancer.
Qureshi said he wasn’t going to bring up the cancer, for which he already was being treated, but decided that since it was brought up, he told the graduates he would go “a different direction” with his address and “let you know what’s on my heart.” – source
God gave the world Nabeel Qureshi for a time; knowing full well that He would bring His child, Nabeel, home at the age of 34. It brings me such peace and comfort to know that Nabeel is in the arms of His Savior Jesus at this very moment: No more pain or suffering. No more tears.
I’m sure there are some readers thinking back to Ravi Zacharias and his scandals which were revealed after his death. It was mentioned in this article that Nabeel was mentored by Zacharias. THIS post is about Nabeel Qureshi. Please try to focus on him and him alone.
I believe that it will not be long until we meet this precious brother in heaven!
