Have you ever been involved in a debate? Perhaps you were on your high school or college debate team and participated in a formal debate tournament? Perhaps you have engaged in a more informal debate with a work colleague on a current events topic? Perhaps you have also informally debated a brother, sister, cousin, or close friend on who was the best former athlete? Perhaps you have engaged in a real informal debate with a fellow sports enthusiast on who was the GOAT in your favorite college or pro sports league? Regardless of how formal the debate environment was, have you ever participated in a debate where the issue being debated meant a lot to you personally AND you can also remember the outcome of the debate? In other words, do you even remember if either side won or lost the debate which meant so much to you personally? If you did win, were you able to win the debate by convincing the person you were debating that your arguments made logical sense, that the evidence overwhelmingly supported your position, thereby causing your opponent to change their beliefs and to start advocating for your position? If not, did you lose the debate when they convinced you that their arguments made logical sense and the evidence overwhelmingly pointed in their favor, thereby causing you to change your perspective and to start advocating for their beliefs? If we are honest with ourselves, most of the debates we participate in during our lifetimes end up as a stalemate, meaning the people with the opposing perspectives remain unchanged about what they believe after the debate ends. Some of the more common reasons for debate stalemates occurring are likely the inadequacy of the arguments and evidence utilized to support each side’s viewpoint as well as both sides being reluctant and unwilling to truly listen to the testimony and assertions of the opposition.
Since it is not often that we hear of such a story, I am going to share an amazing story about a religious conversion where one of the debaters intrinsic and foundational beliefs radically changed based on the evidence and arguments presented by his debate opponent. This is a story about Nabeel Qureshi, who engaged in a years-long debate, which started in 2001, with a fellow college student, David Wood, at Old Dominion University in Virginia. Qureshi was an Islamic apologist and Wood was a Christian apologist. After they became friends in college, they engaged in a debate lasting years, deliberating over the defense and proofs of their respective religions. During the years long debate dialogue, Nabeel started to realize that he was unable to deny David’s arguments, so he eventually walked away from his Muslim beliefs and started advocating for David’s Christian beliefs.
When the topic is both personal and important to the debaters, I am sure it is extremely rare for one of them to admit to themselves that they have lost the debate because they are unable to deny the arguments of their opponent. Because it requires a tremendous amount of humbleness and pride swallowing, I am sure it is even rarer for them to publicly acknowledge the legitimacy and truthfulness of their opponent’s beliefs. After publicly acknowledging the authenticity of their opponent’s beliefs, I am sure it is extraordinarily rare for them to start evangelizing these new beliefs. While it is extraordinarily rare for them to start evangelizing these new beliefs, it is unprecedented for them to start evangelizing these new beliefs when there is significant personal retribution and backlash for walking away from their prior beliefs. In other words, I am sure it must be exceptionally difficult to make such a change to your foundational beliefs when some members of your former religion are openly praying for your death and when you know your relationship with your family will never be the same after your conversion to your new beliefs.
After finally acknowledging to himself that he had lost the debate which he began in 2001, Nabeel Qureshi committed his life to Christ on October 24, 2005. When he finally committed his life to Christ, Nabeel likely had no idea how much this decision would change the course of his life FOREVER. He also did not realize that God would eventually utilize him in amazing ways to powerfully testify to the validity of his Christian beliefs during his 13-month stomach cancer trial, which he succumbed to at the age of 34 in 2017.
Since it includes more details about the long debate between Wood and Qureshi, here is what Wikipedia.org has to say about Nabeel Qureshi:
“Nabeel Asif Qureshi (April 13, 1983 – September 16, 2017), was born in San Diego, California to Pakistani Muslim parents who immigrated to the United States. With his father in the U.S. Navy, he moved many times as a youth before settling in Virginia. In 2001 he attended Old Dominion University and served as the president of the Pre-Medical Honor Society. Qureshi also studied Islamic apologetics and engaged Christians in religious discussions. After one such discussion with a Christian at Old Dominion University, David Wood, the two became friends and began a years-long debate on the historical claims of Christianity and Islam. Qureshi's resulting conversion to Christianity was chronicled in his first book, “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus”. In addition to being a New York Times bestseller, “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus” was awarded the Christian Book Award for the categories of both "Best New Author" and "Best Non-Fiction" of 2015, the first time in award history. Christianity Today heralded Qureshi as one of "33 Under 33" in its cover story on emerging religious leaders in July 2014. Qureshi attended medical school at the Eastern Virginia Medical School after graduating from Old Dominion University. After completing his medical degree, Qureshi decided to spend his life studying and preaching the Christian Gospel and became a speaker for the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. He subsequently completed three more master's degrees in theology and religious studies and was pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Oxford at the time of his death. Qureshi lectured to students at more than 100 universities, including Oxford, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Hong Kong”.
Since it provides a short but comprehensive summary of his first book, below are some excerpts from “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity”, published on the website called Apologetics 315 (https://apologetics315.com/2014/05/review-seeking-allah-finding-jesus-by-nabeel-qureshi/):
“Nabeel chose to attend Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, simply because it was close to his home and he could continue to live with his parents. It was here that he met David Wood, a young man who was as passionate for Jesus as Qureshi was for Allah. Qureshi’s maternal grandfather and great-grandfather had been Muslim missionaries and he saw himself in that light – as a missionary with the job of converting others to Islam. The logical place to start was with Wood. He began by asking why his new friend would believe what the New Testament said about Jesus given that it had been altered and re-written so many times. Wood was ready for the debate and explained why Christians could rightly accept the reliability of Scripture. But he did one thing more. He challenged Qureshi to consider the Quran’s dubious history. Taught that it was a perfect book, dictated by God through the Archangel Gabriel to Muhammad and never changed at any point in history, Nabeel discovered that it had been altered time and time again, until finally someone decided to standardize one version of it and have the many other variations destroyed to bring unity to bickering Muslims. Qureshi notes that his parents had always encouraged him to examine his beliefs, but that “examination” consisted only of learning how to defend them because it was an unchallengeable given that they were true. At school, he was taught to do the opposite, using reason to critically assess what he believed. While Islam dictated that he should never question authority, Western culture insisted that he should question everybody and everything to reach the truth. And that’s exactly what Wood was asking of him, too. Thus, the ball was set in motion, and Qureshi’s journey to Jesus began. Initially, Qureshi was certain that, even if he did not have the answers to the challenges that Wood presented to his faith, Muslim scholars/leaders and his own father would. But they did not. A meeting with two of Christianity’s finest apologists, Gary Habermas, and Michael Licona, made him understand that he had to put Christianity and Islam into historically investigable terms to determine which was most likely to be true. A debate between Muslim Shabir Ally and Licona on the topic of the resurrection showed him that Muslims tended to deny or ignore important data to make their case because they simply had no valid way to refute it. Then Wood gave him Josh McDowell’s books – More Than a Carpenter and Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Qureshi had been taught to despise Paul as a hijacker of early Christianity, but now he started to ask himself why a devout Jew would turn Jesus into God. The core doctrine of Islam was the “oneness” of God. To call Jesus God was an unforgivable sin that led to hell. So, this was a major issue. Interestingly, it was his study of science at Old Dominion that made him realize that a Triune God was not out of the question. As he explains it, “One molecule of nitrate is three resonance structures all at the same time and never just one of them. They are three in one”. So why couldn’t one God be three persons at the same time? He was further shaken by his study of the life of Muhammad. Allegiance to the prophet is allegiance to Islam and vice versa. Taught that Muhammad was a flawless man who all Muslims were to emulate, Nabeel discovered that, among other nasty things, Muhammad was a violent, petty leader who murdered without provocation, ordered his soldiers to rape the women they took captive in battle, and consummated marriage with a girl of only nine. What shocked him further was the fact that he got this negative information from Muslim sources, not Christian ones.
Qureshi writes: It was then that I realized the value of apologetics and what arguments had done for me. All my life, barriers had been erected that kept me from humbly approaching God and asking Him to reveal Himself to me. The arguments and apologetics tore down those barriers, positioning me to decide to pursue God or not.
But how could he hurt his parents by becoming a Christian? They had honestly done everything they thought was best for him. They loved him so much and he loved them equally in return. To abandon Islam would be to shame them in a way that they might never forgive. Would it be the end of his relationship with them?
Yes, the preceding article shows us that Nabeel’s decision to become a Christian severely and adversely impacted his relationship with his parents. On the dedication page of his Seeking Allah and Finding Jesus book, Nabeel wrote the following:
Ammi and Abba, your undying love for me even when you feel I have sinned against you is second only to God’s love for His Children. I pray you will one day realize His love is truly unconditional, that He has offered forgiveness to us all. On that day, I pray that you would accept His redemption, so we might be a family once again. I love you with all my heart.
It must have been exceedingly difficult for him to write “so we might be a family once again”. Nabeel wrote as follows in Chapter 53, “Finding Jesus”, of Seeking Allah and Finding Jesus:
“I was a crumpled heap on the ground, trembling before God. Two weeks after accepting my Lord, I tried to plead with Him, while wailing and stammering through quivering lips…… Though Abba (Nabeel’s father) did not say much, what he did say has haunted me ever since. The man who stood tallest in my life, my archetype of strength, my father, spoke these words through palpable pain. “Nabeel, this day, I feel as if my backbone has been ripped out from inside me”. The words tore through me. It felt like patricide. I had not just given up my life to follow Jesus, I was killing my father”.
Since I did not know what one of the words in the preceding quote meant, I had to google the word “patricide” and discovered that dictionary.com defines it as the act of killing one's own father. When considering his preceding comments, I cannot even imagine how difficult it must have been for him to be alienated from his family. Yes, his decision to follow Christ cost him dearly by driving a wedge between him and his closest family members. For all believers, faith in Christ comes with the risk of persecution from those who do not believe, including our own unbelieving family members. Matthew 10:22 tells us:
“and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved”.
Twelve verses later, Matthew 10:34 to 39 goes on to say:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”.
As described in a Gospel Coalition blog post (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/nabeel-qureshi-1983-2017), Nabeel described his conversion to Christ, which occurred on October 24, 2005 at 3am, and the personal impact it had on his Muslim world:
“I began reading fervently, reaching Matthew 10:37, which taught me that I must love God more than my mother and father. “But Jesus,” I said, “accepting you would be like dying. I will have to give up everything”. The next verses spoke to me, saying, “He who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake will find it” (NASB). Jesus was being very blunt: For Muslims, following the gospel is more than a call to prayer. It is a call to die. I knelt at the foot of my bed and gave up my life”.
Pastor Charles Stanley, in his blog post “What it means to follow Jesus”, discusses the costs of following Jesus, as outlined in Matthew 4:18-22. Pastor Stanley concludes this excellent post by saying:
“Being a Christ follower is not merely an identification with Him; it’s a commitment of obedience that demands leaving behind anything that gets in the way of living fully for Him”.
As documented on Nabeel’s own personal website, http://www.nabeelqureshi.com/seeking-allah-finding-jesus, here are five quotes from Nabeel’s "Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus" book:
“I never said, ‘I choose to remain Muslim because it would cost my family if I were to follow Jesus.’ Far from it, I subconsciously found ways and means to go on rejecting the Gospel so I would not be faced with what I would have to pay”.
“These are the costs Muslims must calculate when considering the gospel: losing the relationships they have built in this life, potentially losing this life itself, and if they are wrong, losing their afterlife in paradise. It is no understatement to say that Muslims often risk everything to embrace the cross”.
“There are simply too many barriers for Muslim immigrants to understand Christians and the West by sheer circumstance. Only the exceptional blend of love, humility, hospitality, and persistence can overcome these barriers, and not enough people make the effort”.
“It was not that Jesus was turning me against my parents. It was that, if my family stood against God, I had to choose one or the other. God is obviously best, even if that caused me to turn against my family. But how? How could I bear the pain?”
“All suffering is worth it to follow Jesus. He is that amazing”.
If you analyze what he said in his preceding quotes, Nabeel spent a lot of time talking about the personal costs and the risks associated with his decision to follow Christ. However, even though the costs to him were real and considerable, please pay particular attention his last quote where he states: “All suffering is worth it to follow Jesus. He is that amazing”. Even though many of his comments are directed towards Muslims and those individuals who choose to read his first book, his comments could easily be directed towards cancer patients as well. Why? Because costs and sufferings almost always go together. So, when he is talking about the costs of Muslims actually or metaphorically losing this life if they were to walk away from their Muslim beliefs, it is remarkably similar to believers trusting in God’s sovereign plan for their lives when they are staring a terminal cancer diagnosis in the face.
On October 2, 2016, Nabeel preached at First Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, where he spoke about being diagnosed with stomach cancer on August 24, 2016 and how he was responding to his new terminal diagnosis. The following link is a video recording of his sermon (“Death & Life in Jesus”) that day: https://houstonsfirst.org/message/death-and-life-in-jesus. The following synopsis is my attempt to summarize his cancer related comments from the aforementioned video:
“Nabeel told the story of how he was recently diagnosed with cancer. After he graduated from medical school and pursued his dream by going to work for RZIM Ministries (Ravi Zacharias International Ministries) in order to preach the good news of the Gospel, he said the Lord was turning everything he was doing in his life to Gold. He stated he was not sure why everything he did ministry wise was so successful, but he indicated that he was tremendously favored by God as evidenced by his accomplishments while working at RZIM. For example, he said that he had recently heard a report of over 10,000 Muslims in Pakistan and India coming to faith in Christ because of his faithful service to God at RZIM. In March of 2016, Nabeel said he had some indigestion which eventually became serious enough that he started taking Tums. In April, he went to the doctor and he was prescribed Prilosec. None of these indigestion drugs made him feel better so on August 23, 2016 he went in to have his stomach and esophagus scoped. When Nabeel woke up from the scoping procedure, the doctor told him that his medical team was “very concerned” about him. Nabeel said, keep in mind that a few days earlier, that same doctor had told him not to be concerned as I (doctor) know what all this discomfort is all about. The doctor said it was only an irritation and we (doctor’s team) will be able to fix it. Nabeel stated that he went to medical school and he knew what those “very concerned” words mean. Nabeel had learned that “very concerned” almost always meant cancer. After Nabeel pressed his doctor for more information, the doctor told him he thought Nabeel had cancer and they were just waiting for the biopsy results to confirm the diagnosis. Because of his medical training, Nabeel said he knew that esophageal and stomach cancers are some of the worst type of cancers you can get. The reason why these types of cancer are so deadly is the stomach is tough, so it does not let you know there is anything wrong until it is dreadfully wrong. Nabeel went home and prayed and said he asked God for anything but cancer. He got the call the next day that the biopsy results were in and confirmed he has cancer, so his doctor asked him to come back in the following day for a staging ultrasound. He knew stage 1a had a 70% survival chance, so he prayed for stage 1a. The next day Nabeel came out of the staging ultrasound procedure and was told it is at least stage 3 and possibly stage 4. He knew Stage 3 had a 20% survival chance. He said every day he went in the news he was given was worst case scenario. The following day he went in for a Staging CT scan and was told more worst-case scenario news as it was Stage 4, which came with only a 4% survival chance. Based on the stage 4 news, Nabeel was given 18 to 24 months to live. He said those first few days were the worst days, but he was constantly going back to his Bible to study God’s word during those early days of his cancer trial because death was now knocking on his door. He said it is nice to say death has no sting and I believe in the Bible until death comes and stares you in the face and challenges your beliefs. Then Nabeel said, “do I really believe what the Bible has to say”? I have had the great fortune of having to give up a ton to believe in this (holding a Bible), so all I had to do was go back to those reasons why I came to faith in Christ in the first place. Nabeel said there are excellent historical reasons to believe the Bible is true. He said Jesus claimed to be God and then proved it by rising from the dead. Nabeel also said there are excellent scientific reasons to believe that the world was created by a creator who loves us. Nabeel said his three (3) greatest concerns were playing over and over in his mind as follows:
His first concern was his wife. Nabeel said he had not been good to her because he had dragged her all over the world, moving every year to support his ministry endeavors. Because of those moves, Nabeel said she had no community or support system, which left her without people and a home church to lean on in difficult times.
His second concern was his daughter, Ayah. Nabeel said It is one thing to leave this world because death has no sting, but it is another thing to leave a 14-month-old daughter who will never really know her father. You could tell the prospect of this outcome broke his heart.
Finally, Nabeel said his last concern was all the Muslims who have been praying for his death. He said they will all feel like Allah has vindicated them if he (Nabeel) succumbed to his cancer trial. Additionally, Nabeel said all those Muslims he had been ministering to who have been thinking about accepting Christ as their savior will now think “is that what will happen to me if I accept Christ as my Lord”?
So, in that moment, reality really happened he said. What did he do and how did he respond to this monumental and life changing cancer diagnosis? Nabeel stated he went back to his Bible and asked for the Lord to speak to him through his word. He said he also wondered what God’s will for him was. Yes, the Bible is full of stories of people getting healed, but will God heal me (Nabeel) he asked? He indicated that he then went to Matthew 8:17 which says:
“This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases”.
He also said that there were numerous stories in the Bible where Jesus healed many times and indiscriminately. He also referenced Hebrews 13:8 where it says:
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”.
Even though God is an able healer, Nabeel also said that not everyone who prays for healing is healed. Nabeel stated that should God not heal us, we have more than enough reasons to rejoice because Christ has purchased for us eternity by His blood shed on the cross. He reminded everyone of Jesus’ compassion and desire to heal the sick and diseased individuals mentioned in the Bible. He went on to say when you are sick, we all need to stay focused on our Bibles. He suggested opening and closing our days with the Bible because when you are staring death in the face, it will read like it is your only lifeline. It will read like it is your only connection to the Holy one. He went on to say a terminal cancer diagnosis will cause you to see things in the bible which you never saw before. For example, if you are sick, he suggested reading Psalm 30. In this Psalm, Nabeel recounted how David had been mortally ill, but God healed him and then David is praising God for his healing. Nabeel also suggested reading Psalm 91. He then said, “the Bible is God’s word which means it has the power to speak to you directly”. If you are ill, he also suggested memorizing Romans 12:12 which says:
“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer”.
Nabeel closed his sermon in Houston by saying God loves you more than you do. No matter what is going on in your life he said, there is always so much to be thankful for. For example, Nabeel mentioned he could have been given 18 seconds instead of 18 months to live so there is always so much to be thankful for. He went on to say he could have had no time at all to say goodbye to the people he loved, to put his affairs in order, to seek the Lord and to grow closer to Him. Nabeel said: “What has befallen me, God can use to refine me. God refines us through our sufferings. Trials and suffering are His primary chosen method to make us better people. When we are suffering, God can use our suffering to refine us into better people and He in his sovereignty allows it to happen. What has befallen me, I can use that to glorify God”. He said this cancer has given me what Tim Timmons calls “the gift of perspective”. Everything he was worried about suddenly stopped mattering and the things that really mattered suddenly became important to him. In a way, it (cancer) is a gift he said. He concluded by saying “Jesus went through more than you are going through so it is a reminder to love Him and to be thankful for Him having gone through even more than you are about to go through”.
When I watched the digital video recording of the preceding October 2, 2016 sermon, I observed how Nabeel was extremely open and honest with his emotions and feelings. He realized his doctors had told him there was a 96% chance his condition was terminal, yet he was unabashedly honest in saying he was not ready to die yet. Furthermore, he was most definitely praying for a cure for his stomach cancer since he was young, and since he was not ready to leave his family yet. He also did an excellent job of articulating his faith, why he believed in Christ and, if he did not receive a miraculous cure for his terminal cancer trial, where he was going to focus his efforts and energies in the time he had left.
If I may be totally honest, I find it almost hard to believe that he had been diagnosed with cancer only five weeks earlier as his comments in the aforementioned First Baptist of Houston video reflected the wisdom of a mature believer who had been enduring a lengthy cancer trial. I am humbled by the depth, breadth and richness of his comments as well as the tremendous level of faith he must have had to be able to openly submit to God’s will for his life so early on in a terminal cancer trial. Luke 9:23 tells us:
“And he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me”.
Nabeel was living out this verse when he first decided to put his faith in Christ. He was also living out this verse in how he responded to all the personal attacks and trials which came upon him, a former Muslim, after he decided to put his faith in Christ. Finally, he was also living out this verse in how he responded to his cancer trial circumstances. As the preceding verse indicates, every day will bring all Christians new joys and challenges so we must all deny ourselves and take up our crosses daily to follow Him. Nabeel had given up so much to come to faith in Christ and he also knew was giving up a young family if he ended up succumbing to his stomach cancer. Therefore, he could have used his terminal cancer diagnosis as an excuse to reconcile with his family and Muslim friends and he could have used it as an excuse to focus on those relationships in the time he had left. Yes, he had every reason to walk away from his relationship with Christ when he was given a terminal prognosis. Instead, by openly submitting to God’s sovereign will for his life and by actively seeking to grow closer to God amid his suffering, Nabeel’s faith in Christ continued to blossom even more during his cancer trial.
Even though all his comments in the First Baptist of Houston video resonated directly with me, I (JR) would like to comment on just a few of his remarks below:
Nabeel said “it is nice to say death has no sting and I believe in the Bible until death comes and stares you in the face and challenges your beliefs”.
JR: Our greatest fear in the world is death. Even though he admitted his diagnosis initially challenged his faith in Christ, Nabeel suggested a terminal diagnosis is a chance for believers to grow closer to God, but I have observed how it is also a chance for unbelievers to investigate the promises of Christ. If you think you know how you would respond if you were in a situation similar to Nabeel’s, I am sorry to have to tell you that you may not know how you would respond. If you are ever in a situation which is like Nabeel’s, will you still believe that death has no sting? If not, what will you believe?
In response to his comments about his beliefs being challenged because he was staring death in the face for the first time in his life, Nabeel said “I have had the great fortune of having to give up a ton to believe in this (holding a Bible), so all I had to do was go back to those reasons why I came to faith in Christ in the first place”.
JR: Nabeel taught me so much with his comments here about the reasons why he came to faith in Christ in the first place. When he referenced these reasons in the preceding video, Nabeel’s dedication to his faith and his training in apologetics helped prepare him for this precarious moment in his life. Since he thoroughly understood the reasons why he came to faith in the first place, Nabeel was able to make these remarks confidently to himself and to others. In other words, he did not doubt his beliefs even though he was in the middle of a terminal cancer trial. If we endeavor to learn from Nabeel’s experiences, we should listen to the warnings and challenges he made to the congregation in Houston and respond and/or adjust, as necessary. For example, are you able to remember the real reasons why you believed in Christ in the first place? Throughout his years in ministry, Nabeel always challenged believers to be able to understand, articulate and defend the reasons why he or she believes the Gospel message. If you consider his overall message in the aforementioned video, Nabeel is essentially saying ,“if you are given a terminal diagnosis and if you have any doubts about why you believe, the evil one will leverage your doubts against you, causing you to potentially question what you really believe”. In other words, if you have any doubts about why you believe the Gospel, a major trial in your life might end up causing you to be your own biggest skeptic. Yes, if your faith is challenged in this way, your doubts might cause you to succumb to the temptation to either turn from your faith or turn away from God when you need Him the most. Nabeel challenged those who do not believe to think through the promises of Jesus, to ask questions and to determine if they are willing to believe the truths of the Bible. Via his comments here, he is essentially calling all people to “THINK”. If you have questions about what and why you believe, then you should proactively seek answers to your questions by praying, by studying His word and by seeking the counsel and/or preaching of others who can help you address your questions. Of course, thinking is what the profession of apologetics is all about. Thinking means to employ one's mind rationally and objectively in evaluating or dealing with a given situation. Throughout his years in ministry, Nabeel always asked people to think so this was not just something that occurred when he was diagnosed with cancer. Ravi Zacharias said, “Nabeel presented the answers of Jesus in cogent and intellectually persuasive ways to bridge the head to the heart”. Nabeel obviously had something worthwhile to say or he would not have spoken at over 100 universities, including Oxford, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Hong Kong. If he did not present well-reasoned arguments to these students in justifying and defending his faith, these students were smart enough to expose any potential problems with the evidence and/or assertions he presented. Therefore, I encourage you to listen carefully to what he said to the congregation in Houston 3.5 years ago. It only makes sense that we try and listen to the warnings of a believer who had given up so much to follow Christ and who had dedicated his whole life since that decision to nurturing and developing his relationship with God. If you believe in Christ, can you defend your faith in front of a skeptic, particularly if a terminal diagnosis causes you to start doubting or being skeptical of your own faith? If you can articulate your faith and if you can defend it when questioned by the skeptics, Nabeel demonstrated to all of us that you will be better equipped for facing the trials of this life, including a terminal cancer trial. For someone who has been ministering to people impacted by cancer for over 13 years, I cannot emphasize enough how important Nabeel’s comments about “thinking” are. Unfortunately, I have interacted with more than my fair share of individuals who started to doubt their own faith when enduring a major cancer trial. Please be willing to consider and listen to Nabeel’s warnings here.
Nabeel went on to say that “should God not heal us, we have more than enough reasons to rejoice because Christ has purchased for us eternity by His blood shed on the cross”.
JR: It is hard to believe he was only 33 years old when he said the preceding quote, and he was also only a few weeks into his cancer trial. Since we are all going to die, it is just a matter of “when” for each one of us. Therefore, if God heals us from our cancer trial, He is just putting off our inevitable death for a little while longer. Since death will happen to each one of us, we all need to figure out what our ultimate destiny is after our time on earth is done. For those who trust in Christ as their personal Lord and savior, Nabeel reminded us that we can rejoice because Jesus has purchased for us our eternal destiny by His shed blood on the cross.
Nabeel said “when you are staring death in the face, it (Bible) will read like it is your only lifeline”.
JR: 1 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us: “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work”. Why is this important for us? Because no one can come along and say that their words are the authoritative and inerrant word of God. What else does the bible have to say about God’s word? Deuteronomy 4:2 “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you”. If you believe you are staring death in the face via a terminal cancer diagnosis and if you believe that God is in control of your eternal destiny, I can promise you that you will want to hear directly from God just as Nabeel said. If you want to hear directly from God in the midst of your cancer trial, then listen to Nabeel who said to read the scriptures like you never have read them before, especially since 1 Timothy 3:16 tells us “all scripture is breathed out by God”.
Nabeel said “no matter what is going on in your life, there is always so much to be thankful for”.
JR: Most people consider cancer one of the worst hardships or calamities you could ever encounter in your life. It is a horrible disease and I am not going to suggest that it is not. However, there are so many blessings which can come from a cancer trial. Unfortunately, most terminal cancer patients are so focused on their own personal circumstances and the fact that cancer is interrupting their own plans and expectations for their lives that they fail to open their eyes and see the many blessings which come from such a major medical trial. If you listen to what Nabeel said, in a way it (cancer) is a gift.
Nabeel went on to say “he could have had no time at all to say goodbye to the people he loved, to put his affairs in order, to seek the Lord and to grow closer to Him”.
JR: For so many individuals who die instantaneously and without any warning, there is no chance to say goodbye to the people you love nor is there time to for you ponder your eternal destiny. I often refer to terminal cancer as a trial with a deadline as it normally gives the people who are diagnosed with it time to say goodbye to friends and loved ones and time to ponder their eternal destiny. While no one wants to die, a terminal diagnosis is an opportunity to focus on the most important things in your life and to also trust in God’s sovereign plan for your life.
Nabeel said “What has befallen me, God can use to refine me. God refines us through our sufferings. Trials and suffering are His primary chosen method to make us better people”.
JR: If you were to ask me what is my #1 observation in ministering to people with cancer over the past 13 years, I would tell you it is how God uses trials to draw people closer to Him and into a relationship with Him. As Nabeel said, God refines us through our sufferings. In good times and in times of plenty, we often do not feel we need God, so it is easy to ignore Him. However, it is in times of suffering where God grabs our attention and makes us realize that we need Him. Cancer has a unique way of making people realize that when our time on earth is done all we really need is God. Please listen to what Nabeel said here and ask God to give you the strength, courage, and desire to grow and refine your faith during your trials and sufferings. If you can do this, you will be blessed in so many ways.
Nabeel Qureshi succumbed to his stomach cancer trial at the age of 34 on September 16, 2017. He died approximately 12 years after he committed his life to Christ. In his evangelizing and in his ministry, he accomplished more in those 12 years than most people will accomplish in a lifetime. The day after he passed away from cancer, Ravi Zacharias, the founder of RZIM International, had the following to say about his former employee in this September 17, 2017 article in the Washington Post called “Why this Muslim-turned-Christian speaker resonated with so many before his death at 34”:
“That was Nabeel Qureshi. He hated sitting still. He was a man with a mission, ready to run. Sadly, for us, he died Saturday at a young age of 34 after a year of battling stomach cancer. Nabeel, who was raised in a Muslim-American family and converted to Christianity after a fellow college student sparked his interest in Christianity, worked with me in Christian apologetics. The field of apologetics deals with the hard questions posed to the Christian faith. Each of us has a worldview, whether we recognize it or not. A worldview basically offers answers to four necessary questions: origin, meaning, morality and destiny. Christian apologetics is the discipline of answering people’s specific questions and making the truth claims clear. We aim to engage people in meaningful interactions with gentleness and respect, bearing in mind that behind every question is a questioner. Yes, his conversion stirred many questions, but his gracious and clear responses touched many in the Islamic world. He met numerous people who had read his book and made their own journeys to faith in Jesus. It also hurt him deeply when Muslims were painted with a violent brush, something he believed was false and wrong-headed. He was not just an evangelical; he was passionately evangelistic. He desired to cover the globe with that good news: that God’s forgiveness was available to all. When he spoke, he held audiences captive. I lead a ministry called RZIM, which began in 1984 and has a full-time team of more than 70 speakers from numerous cultural backgrounds in 15 countries and on every continent. We speak to artists, academics, business, and political leaders, addressing the questions of origin, meaning, morality and destiny. Our goal is to present the answers of Jesus in cogent and intellectually persuasive ways to bridge the head to the heart. I invited Qureshi to join our team four and a half years ago. He reached tens of thousands in live audiences, but his books reached even more people. He was a powerful speaker and debater. I tear up as I think of the meal we had a little over a year ago. Nabeel was a man with a daunting appetite. I used to joke in his presence, “Don’t get behind him in a buffet line; there will be nothing left”. He would chuckle. He could make a big meal look like an appetizer. So, I noticed that he was just nibbling away at his food. I said, “Nabeel, are you not going to eat?” He said, “Uncle, I have been having some strange sensations in my stomach”. I asked how long that had been going on, and he said it had been a few weeks. I urged him to have it checked out. He said he was planning on it. The rest is history. A doctor diagnosed stomach cancer — probably stage 4. We were all stunned. Within a few months, the writing was on the wall. In May, he asked me to do one more trip. We went to Malaysia. Even though his body was weak, his passion was undiminished. His answers to people’s questions about God and Jesus were profound and persuasive. It is hard to believe that Nabeel Qureshi has left us all too soon. I am reminded that he died the same age as Jesus was when his mission was accomplished. “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him,” so said the apostle Paul. We believe that Nabeel is now in heaven. He told me how painful it was to leave his wife, Michelle, and his young daughter, Ayah. But his pain is now over. I do not mourn for him. I mourn for our broken world, where so much hate and destruction abounds. We have a cancer called sin. The disease that kills the body is minor, but the disease that kills the soul is eternal. Nabeel would want more than anything else that we carry the message of Jesus to help change the world. Only then can we understand that the sad news of Nabeel’s death is temporary”.
When I think about what Ravi said about Nabeel in his preceding Washington Post article, one of his comments which struck me was the one about their trip to Malaysia roughly four months before Nabeel died. As a reminder of what he said about the trip to Malaysia, Ravi said: “Even though his body was weak, his passion was undiminished. His answers to people’s questions about God and Jesus were profound and persuasive.” Yes, Nabeel’s passion to share the Gospel of Jesus burned in his heart and soul to the very end of his life. He was obedient to God’s will for his life until the very end. Over the past 13 years, I have had the humbling privilege of working with hundreds of people who have cancer and not many of them are making overseas trips four months before they died. At that point in their lives and in their cancer journeys, most people with terminal cancer are more concerned about their own health than they are about sharing the Gospel. Nabeel Qureshi was simply different. Only God knows the reasons why he was so different and so committed, but, if I were to guess why, I would say it was because he gave up so much to come to faith in Christ in the first place.
In Joseph Rossell’s blog post article (https://juicyecumenism.com/2017/01/17/quotes-nabeel-qureshi-faith) called “7 Highly Inspirational Quotes from Nabeel Qureshi about His Faith”, one of Nabeel’s favorite quotes summarizes his apologetics based approach to his ministry:
“After studying the historical origins of the Christian faith, I came to these conclusions: that Jesus died on the cross is as certain as anything historical can be; that he rose from the dead is by far the best explanation of the events surrounding his death; and that Jesus claimed to be God is the best explanation for the immediate Christian proclamation of Jesus’ deity. Putting it all together: Jesus claimed to be God, and he proved it by rising from the dead. The case for Christianity is powerful. Despite my ardent desire to believe in Islam, I had to admit that history was in favor of Christian claims, and even more reluctantly, that it challenged Islamic teachings”.
The preceding quote gives you a brief introduction into how Nabeel challenged his readers and listeners to think so they could think their beliefs through and not have any doubts. If you are struggling with your faith, I would encourage you to read what Nabeel and other Christian apologists have to say about why we should believe in Christ.
The following video link is a recording of when Nabeel was in hospice care and was recorded just a few days before he died. If you watch it, you will see he openly prays for healing. However, he also says, “Lord, if it (healing) is not in your will, your sovereign will at the end of the day, then I trust you and I love you anyway”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MUotqxKSRs
Nabeel, in your 12 years of service to Christ and His kingdom, I am thankful for all that the Lord did through you while you were ministering to people here on earth. You captivated large audiences with your evangelical messages. I am thankful for how you reached out in love to the Muslim community and I am thankful for how you had an amazing passion to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. You encouraged people to use reason to critically assess what they believe. You also encouraged people to question everybody and everything to reach the truth and to be able to defend your faith when talking with a skeptic, especially if a terminal diagnosis causes you to be your own skeptic. I am thankful that you were constantly challenging people to think about their faith and to consider their eternal destiny. I am thankful how you educated people that the real cancer in our lives is sin and that forgiveness for our sins can only be found through faith in Jesus. You encouraged people to think about questions like “why is the resurrection so important to the Christian faith, does Jesus really claim to be God and is the New Testament as accurate today when compared against what it originally said”? Thank you for teaching all of us, including those with terminal cancer, that “Death is nothing to be feared. Jesus has conquered it, and we are in him. His resurrection has been the focus of Christian confidence from the inception of the church”.
Of all the things you ever did, thank you most of all for showing us it is ok to lose a faith-based debate if it enables you to begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. After examining the evidence provided in your years-long debate process and after repeatedly considering the beliefs and truths of the Christian faith, you demonstrated a willingness to swallow your pride and turn from your Muslim faith and culture in order to put your faith and trust in Christ. Yes, your decision came at a great cost to you personally, but God gave you the courage and strength to give up control of your life so that you could start following Christ with all the confidence in the world. Your mentor, Ravi Zacharias said, “no matter how much evidence is presented about Jesus, our biggest problem is that we still want to have it our own way…..and that’s the problem with the world today”. Yes, we all want to be in control, and most of us struggle with the fact that God is in control and we are not. Nabeel, you were different because you were willing to vigorously compare your Muslim beliefs against Christian beliefs. More specifically, you were willing to employ your mind to evaluate the Christian faith rationally and objectively. As chronicled in your book “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus”, you examined the evidence for faith in Christ repeatedly. In fact, the amount of due diligence you performed in considering a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is just simply mind-blowing. When death came knocking on your door in the form of a terminal cancer trial and challenged your faith, God enabled you to utilize your extensive training in Christian apologetics as well as the knowledge you gained from the extensive due-diligence you performed when you first came to faith in Christ to give you the courage and strength to remain steadfast in your beliefs. Over the years, I have encountered so many people with cancer who have spent their entire lives debating if God really exists. Many of them perform little due diligence when considering their ultimate destiny as their pride prevents them from being willing to consider the truths of the Gospel. However, through the circumstances of a terminal cancer trial, God humbles all of them and gives some of them the courage to finally be willing to lose the debate and turn their life over the Him, gaining the eternal life He promises to all who believe in Him.
After he admitted to losing his years-long debate with David Wood and finally committed his life to Christ, Nabeel’s life was full of an exceptional amount of joy, but he also experienced a tremendous amount of suffering. There are so many people with cancer right now who will empathize with how Nabeel responded to suffering in his life and in his cancer trial. During his 13-month cancer trial, Nabeel wanted to live, he wanted to continue to love and provide for his family, and he wanted to continue in his ministry endeavors. However, in the end, he wanted to glorify God above everything else, including his own earthly desires.
Nabeel, as evidenced by how you lived your life as well as how you responded to trials and major decisions in your life after you committed your life to Christ, thank you for demonstrating for us how to submit to God’s will for our lives with humility and grace and thank you for showing us how take up our cross to daily follow Him. Even though you lost the years-long debate with David Wood in 2005, your faith in Christ enabled you to be eternally victorious when you succumbed to your stomach cancer trial in 2017. Yes, the world teaches us that we can only win if we are triumphant in our debates, but you showed us that life or victory is ultimately achieved when you are willing to lose your life for Christ’s sake.
“And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”. (Matthew 10:38-39 ESV)
Jim Risk, a two-time cancer survivor, is the volunteer Ministry Coordinator for the Cancer Support Group (CSG) at a non-denominational church in NE Ohio. Jim and his wife, Kristina, have participated and served in CSG, a Christian ministry, since 2007.