Book Review: "Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus" by Nabeel Qureshi

Today I finished an incredible book that I simply MUST share with like-minded friends. If you can find this book at your local library, RUN, don't walk, to check it out and read it!

This book follows a young man through an almost idyllic childhood founded upon the faith of generations before him, the peaceful Islam found in his particular sect. His parents, both born in Pakistan, have emigrated to the US before his birth, and he is raised as a flag-waving son of a U.S. Navy officer.

As a young college student, the events of 9/11 shock him as much as they shock his classmates. He is appalled to discover that the Islam that created those attacks shares so many founding beliefs with the Islam he has been raised to accept as truth.

God brings a good friend into the life of the author during his time as a med student at Old Dominion University. Over the following years, the author recounts many of their conversations, and gives incredible detail of specific surah (portions of the Qu'ran) that he used to discuss theology with this friend. The notes on these portions are excellent and detailed. Finally, as the title suggests, the author finds incontrovertible proof of Christ's claims and accepts Him as his savior.

I would have liked to see more detail of how the author was accepted as a Christian both in the Muslim community and in that of the protestant community in his hometown. Additionally, I would have liked to see the story come full-circle with the author telling his college friend of his conversion. But these are simply my own preferences to give some living qualities to what is a very deep theological discussion. Several times, I put the book down and walked around the house for a few minutes to let the issues meld in my mind. It is not a book that can be read in a quick sitting!

One more disappointing part of this book relates to textual criticism. In a discussion between the author and his Christian college friend, the author asks about two sections of Scripture, "the end of Mark" and John 7:53-8:11, referring to them as later additions to Scripture, as a result of his google research on the subject. (At this point the author is still a Muslim trying to convert his friend by undermining the Bible and holding up the Qu'ran as the perfect example.) The Christian friend says simply, "Oh, most Christian scholars agree that those are not authentic. But the fact that we know that further proves that the Scripture is accurate, because at least we know and admit where additions have been made." No further discussion is offered, and as a life-long believer and apologist for the whole Word of God, I was concerned about this statement being included. In fact, this ONE statement is the thing that would keep me from being able to recommend this book to my children and others who may be less firm in their faith than they should be. I would never want a book I had recommended to be used by Satan to place doubt in their hearts about the authenticity of every word of Scripture, since our faith puts the Word of God in such an important place.

This book was convicting to my heart as a Christian parent as I saw how clearly these Muslim parents communicated to their very young children the reasons behind their beliefs, and even more importantly their calling (by Allah, of course) to be proselytizing for their faith. Beginning in middle school, the author engages his friends in doctrinal discussions that inevitably leave him even more convinced that Islam is stronger than other faiths, and the Christian students around him flailing under talking points that failed to answer close scrutiny. As a Christian parent, I was reminded once again of my responsibility to teach my children not only the whys and wherefores of our belief system, but even more, the importance of being able to draw others to our Christ as a result of lovingly challenging their thinking.

If you choose to read this book, please let me know. I think it is an incredible piece of writing that will challenge your heart and reinforce your faith that our Christian belief system holds up to the intense scrutiny it was subjected to by this med student who desperately wanted Islam to win the battle in his own heart. I want to hear from you if it impacts you as it did me!

Literary Review:

Postcards from Fred by Brad Whittington

Welcome to 2014! One of the things I feel God calling me to do more of this year has to do with this blog. God has given me a platform, at least with a few people, and I desire to use it to glorify Him in a greater way this year. Feel free to keep me accountable on that! :-) I would also appreciate you sharing any of these posts with your own friends if you find a blessing here.

This morning, I had the privilege of finishing my first book of the new year! Although I had chosen it as a light-hearted Christian fiction read, I soon found it to be anything but frivolous. With all the wit and reality-based humor of numerous situations that clearly mirrored my own daily life as a mom of boys, the author quickly gives his premise. He writes from the perspective of a teen-aged boy who, in retrospect, wonders whether he was foolish to commit, during a revival the previous summer, to ask "What would Jesus do?" in every situation. Having grown up as a preacher's kid, he had irreverently considered himself immune to the common malady of flash-in-the-pan revival decisions. But somehow, God had brought him to this decision, and now he was determined to pay the price, regardless of the misery it brought him personally. Nice, huh?!

As the narrator begins to pursue dating, he is stymied by The Question. It seems that every Christian he asks inserts his or her own philosophy into the answer. Each of them tells him that Jesus would do something relating to one of their own pet peeves. And none of them offers a suitable answer to his newest application, "What would Jesus do... on a date?" So, instead of marching onto the dating scene with confidence, he struggles with stops and starts in his pursuit of a fellow PK from a neighboring town. She has no such compunctions about seeking Jesus in every interaction, and has been raised in a much more separated (i.e. strict) pastor's home.

The story is peppered, both with hilarious interactions with a local deacon, who is too "spiritual" for the Biblical messages preached by the narrator's father, and also with the typical school bully issues. Between his difficulties in flying under the deacon's radar, escaping the romantic pursuits of the bully's sister, and delivering the paper to various idiosyncratic neighbors, the narrator had me in stitches and reading aloud several sections to anyone close enough to enjoy them with me.

Without giving away the entire story, I can tell you that the author's treatment of this question is unique and meaningful. It challenged my thinking as a follower of Christ in a way that it has not been challenged for too long. The book's final chapters left me convicted about things I can change in my daily life to be more like Christ, and challenged me, too, to re-visit the question, "What would Jesus do?" 

I would encourage you to find this book at your local library, or support the author by purchasing it here. Personally, I'm looking forward to finding more from the Fred series, and perhaps some of Mr. Whittington's other novels, and enjoying them soon!

What books have blessed your spiritual life recently? Share in the comments so we can all benefit!