Why I Left Islam and Became a Christian || Mohamad Faridi

hello my name is Mohamad Faridi. I'm Iranian. I was born in city of Tehran and into a devout Muslim family. In 1984 when I was born the country of Iran and Iraq was in war. There was an 8 year long war. Days for our countries many of Muslims willingly gave their life up for the for the cause of jihad. for to defend Islam or advance it and my uncle told my cousin they joined the war willingly and gave their lives up for the cause of Islam. my mom was a devout Muslim and she mandate us to to follow Islam and to fulfill the Sharia of Islam. even though we speak Farsi in the country of Iran we had to learn Arabic in order to speak to the God of Islam that is the only language accepted by Allah the God of Islam and I went to mosque into a lot of Madrasas to a lot of Quran classes to learn Arabic and to learn how to recite the Quran and how to memorize the verses the passages sometimes chapters of the Quran in order to pray to Allah. they told us have a good Muslim if he recites and memorized the Quran he would not burn in hell because your brain your body will have the eternal eternal water of Allah in it. so it would not be burned in hell so that's what that's what I did. so I start memorizing a lot of the chapters, one day I was praying to Allah and at the time of my prayer when I was seven and eight years old and I was praying in Arabic and reciting those prayers but I did not understand what I was saying. so I went to my mom and ask her mom does is this God the God of Islam would not speak Farsi does he understand Farsi can I speak to him in Farsi. my mom said you do not you do not want to be tormented by Allah you do not be tortured by Allah a good Muslim only surrenders only submits. so I went on and I and from that moment on I cannot ask any more questions I just put my blinders on and just followed Islam and I washed myself every day prayed five times a day before dawn till after dark I prayed five times a day to allow and recite those prayers that I did not understand what I was saying but out of fear I just prayed and pray during the month of Ramadan. I fasted thirty days you do not eat or drink during the whole day that's again before dawn till after dusk sometimes during the summertime it's about 14 hours long it was hard but we did it because as a Muslim we do not know what is gonna happen to us at the day of judgment. Allah will hold a scale and in that scale - he put good deeds on the right hand the bad deeds on the left hand and I tried with this rituals why try to score good deeds that I have more good deeds but I never knew how much of this would be enough. and as Shia Muslim we mourned ritually in anniversary of the death of our Imams the man get together in a room they dim the light someone recites a eulogy provokes the crowd to beat themselves weep and cry that's how we're gaining points in how we self punish ourself that maybe one of these Imams intercede for us at the day of judgement but we are not sure assured of this but this is not a guarantee so we beat ourselves on our chest we beat so much ourselves in our chest that we bruise and we bled we beat ourselves with chains in our back. when with swords into our head and we shed our own blood in this way of sanctification with this is the way of sacrificing herself and shedding our blood to score points in order that we may be granted granted the jannah the paradise of Islam at the end but there's you don't know. one day I was in a shrine in the city of my shed and I was praying whether my prayers were answered I went to this Muslim scholar and I asked him sir how much more of this do I need why my prayers are not answered and he told me son you're not worthy enough you need to do more and I asked him how much more he said that's up to Allah we do not know. after I finished high school I joined the Revolutionary Army of Iran at age 19 they took the devout Muslim soldiers to join us to a movement that was called path of light during this time they took us to the war zone between the two country of Iran and Iraq and there in the place that tens of thousands of Iranian gave their life up willingly in Jihad to defend Islam to defend their country in advance Islam there we reunited my spirit with the spirit of martyrdom and also to fight the fear of death to fight the fear of dying for Allah they put us in empty tombs and grave during night it was pitch dark and it was very quiet and it put us in those empty tombs for us to fight that fear it was a scary moment but that's how we they prepared us for the ultimate cause and the ultimate sacrifice for Islam when I left the army I had one dream that we I get the opportunity to fight for Islam and die in Jihad and Allah make will for me that our country fight against Israel or America that I can join that war. I remember during the month of Muharram one of those months that we go and beat our-self and self punish our-self 9 days in a row every evening for two to three hours I beat myself so much on my chest and on my back with chains that I under tenth day I was so broken and I was so bruised that I could not get out and go beat myself more and on the tenth day I was ashamed of myself I said this is the least asked of me and I cannot fulfill that. when I finished the revolutionary me with that dream I was in a lot of despair a lot of depression and I was hopeless and how only hope I had to die. I try I contemplated on suicide I thought I'm gonna get rid of myself but I was afraid because if as a Muslims you commit suicide you end up in hell I was living in hell in this world and I thought to myself if I kill myself I will be in hell for eternity and I was desperate I was really desperate and one day I called a friend of mine and we grow up since age 6 ironically his name is Rasul means the Apostle and that day he came to me and we talked about how how is his life doing what is his doing what is he doing and I felt something is really different about him he was so calm so peaceful and I asked him Russell what is going on with you what is happening to do and he told me that he became a Christian and when he told me that I said what is that can you become a Christian that was the first time I was hearing about Christianity without bad-mouthing it or without saying that is corrupted and his alter that his bad thing and he was telling me about the love of God he was telling me about Jesus and the miracles happen in their life and the things that happen into their lives the miracles and the good things and we talked about two hours many of those stuff I didn't he I didn't even hear me what was going over my head and we argued and we discussed and I tried to counter his arguments and the things what he was telling me the God I was talking to him about it it was an unknown God I did not know what I was talking it was just echoing what I learned from my parents from my grandparents and from what I've learned in mosque and I was echoing that but the God he was talking about it was like a friend of him he knew what he was talking about after - about two hours of conversation he was kind of wore out and said hey look you asked I told you and this is the last thing I'm gonna tell you Jesus he was beaten he was bruised he was crucified he he was his blood was shed and he was he died for your sin that you have everlasting life when he told me that sentence he said God so loved you that he has given his only begotten Son for you and for your sin that you have everlasting life that you have eternal life when he told me that every light that Islam till that moment was telling me was exposed in front of my eyes I was beating myself I was bruising myself I was cutting myself I was shedding my own blood and ultimately I would be I was going to become the sacrifice for Islam. he told me it was all done in what Jesus has done for you when he told me that this message pierced my heart and I fell down on my knees and out of desperation I asked him to pray for me I said I want that I want that and he prayed for me and when I opened my eyes everything in the world got a new color everything everything that was a shade of gray everything was black it it it got colors I could see colors I could have smell something within me came alive there was something in me that always bothered me it was always Restless for the first time in my life came to the peace came to a call and I told him what has happened he said Jesus has came to my life I did not understand what I was he what he said and what would what is the meaning of that but I was enjoying the moment because for the first time as a Muslim I felt peace in my life as the conversation ended but in him he told me he has to go as I was as I was walking home I was thinking to myself if Jesus has died for me why nobody has told me if somebody has done a great thing for you why they kept it away why did white are not telling me that probably there's something wrong or this guy's telling me a lie so I went in a journey of finding out finding out about if this actually happened to me. so couple weeks later me and him we went to visit a church and as soon as I walked through the gates to go to the sanctuary I had an encounter with the God of this universe something like a cloud came around me and gave me a hug and within me might within myself two times I heard you're home you're home it was so tangible I looked around myself I said what has happened to me I could not feel my weight I was so weightless I was so peaceful and the church services started and they start clapping hands and celebrating and-and-and rejoicing and play music it was really a strange to me it was really odd for the first time I was in a ceremony that the people did not mourn weep and cry and beat ourselves and cut themselves and bruisers bruised themselves they were actually clapping hands and rejoicing they were they were having the hope that they was missing in Islam and that was the hope that they were they knew after they died what's going to happen to them when we where we Muslims we did not know about that we did not know what is going to happen to that so we mourn and wept and we were afraid of the future but the Christians they knew what is going to happen to them so they were rejoicing there was a hope about resurrection that they had that we didn't have all of our Imams all of our prophets died and they stayed dead but Jesus died but he was resurrected in the third day so they had hope that we were we were missing it in Islam and after the church service my friend out of his pocket bought me a New Testament in Farsi said this is the Living Word of God written for you and for my life I said I don't understand what are you saying but I want to know if Jesus has died for me so I took the book home and I started reading it and the more I read the Gospels or the more I read it the more I got connected to it and I came to this verse in Matthew chapter 11 verse 28 29 and 30 come to me who all labor who are weary and who are who are having heavy laden and I will if you rest take my yoke upon you for I am gentle from humble and I looked at the book I said how did you know I was weary how did you know I was heavy laden how did you know that it's impossible if the book was talking to me to my situation like never before like not never nothing else I thought some I thought to myself a bit this cannot be right somebody has walking around writing this book about me and my situation and I said there is something wrong something is going on and I thought I'm being manipulated I think I've been controlled and when the next time I went to the church I looked at people's book to see if their Bibles is a personal Bible or everybody has a personal Bible and I looked in but it was the same and I asked him is this verse talking to you like this and it did show me the other words that talked to them and when the next time I was in a church this time a gentleman came and shared his testimony of how he was healed of cancer and he had he was a Muslim the doctor rejected him and he was going home to die they said there's no hope for you we cannot do anything for you and this gentleman in the church was sharing his testimony that he was going home he see the cross over this church and he comes in it and there's some Christians in the yard and he asked him God guys can I give your God a try I'm gonna go and go die so they gather around him they lay hand on him and as they pray he sees a hand with a print of nail touch his neck and he goes home he doesn't he's not dying and it's getting it better so he goes to the doctor and there when they run a check-up for him they say that you're totally cancer-free and we have never seen such a thing I like that and as he is sharing this testimony in the church where I was in there I thought I thought to myself I have read that in my Bible you will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover and I said this this is actually happening this God this God what he says he's actually happening today so that day I came to inclusion for my investigation and were the second time I I gave my life to Jesus and I said I'm not looking no more for any other things so I became a Christian and I was excited about it I was going to home to tell my parents and my friends about it but I committed a sin that is unforgivable in Islam and that's the sin of shirk the scene of apostasy I tried to keep it quiet but after a while my parents understood about it my dad got really violent kicked me out of the house beat me and kicked me out of the house and I was out of my house for four months two times my life was threatened once by my cousin's they realized I'm a Christian and they told me you betrayed Islam and you will pay for it and I started working when my dad cut the financial support I started working for a taxi agency I put my new testament in dashboard I drove my taxi in Tehran and different cities and whoever of the passengers I had asked about what is that book what is the same I got the opportunity to share with them about Jesus the owner of the taxi agency once came to me and told me that people already have reported you and if the government gets their hand on you not that they only hurt you they will hurt your family I was afraid for my life but I was much more afraid for my family's life because they haven't they're still Muslim and they haven't do anything it was all on me so I tried to the taxi agency owner tried to protect me so he fired me and I thought to myself I may need to go to a different city from Tehran I may go to Isfahan maybe to Shiraz but this was in 2008 and 9 and the government at that time put the underground church to a national security the government passed a law and said the Christians are stealing the soldier the Muslim soldiers out of the army of Islam and we have to abolish the Christian and underground movement of church in Iran so they put tremendous pressure under the church on and underground Church and many of the friends I had many believers they were arrested they were going to jails and when I called them and I said maybe their parents or somebody answered the phone please don't come around here we have enough problems on our own so at that time I decided to leave the country so I left everything behind my family my friends all I might belong I left him behind took a duffel bag with a little amount of money took I bought a bus ticket from the country of Iran to Turkey and I moved out of I left Iran and I escaped to Iran and I made it to Turkey I was in Istanbul Turkey I was looking for a smuggler to be a smuggle from Turkey to Greece and from Greece I would be making it to the Western Europe but that would cost a lot more than what I had in my pocket and I wanna when I start looking for a job opportunities they told me you cannot work on the visa you have here and I asked them what should I do they told me just go back to Iran and I told the people I cannot go back to my country on my life is in danger and they told me if you're truthful about what you're saying there's an office here that they can help you with this situation you're in. so I filed with the Commission area of refugees of the United Nation and after three years of interrogations they finally accepted my case and send me to America. I landed here in June of 2012. I came to America not better opportunity not for a make a better life just for safety and for freedom and here in America. I founded a ministry called destination ministry and the purpose of our ministry is to help people like me that they are converting or they need to minister to muslims to reach out to Muslims that they come from from the bondage of Islam and cross to the kingdom of light so the purpose of a ministry is to help Americans help the churches help the brothers and sisters to love on Muslims and preach them preach to them the only hope the only good message of the gospel that they can see the light. thank you for watching. this was my life story. my name is mohamad faridi from destination ministries. god bless you you.

Channel: Your Living Manna

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Keywords: Christian, Sermon, Testimony, Pentecostal, Kerala, India, Israel, Jesus, Holy, Spirit, Spiritual, yourlivingmanna, livingmanna, Religion, Christ, Worship, Christianity, Inspirational, Lord, Ministry, Word, Yeshu, മലയാളം, ക്രിസ്തീയ, പാട്ട്, devotional, hymns, IPC, keralam, Malayalam, Songs, Gospel, Music, Devotional, Song, (Religion), (Deity), Bible, ആരാധനാ, പരിശുദ്ധാത്മാവു, ദൈവം, സുവിശേഷം, യേശു, കൃപ, വചനം, christian, faith, helpful, joy, life, love, peace, pray, prayer, praying, scripture

Id: ckDwCuTFUGg

Length: 19min 41sec (1181 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 20 2020