As a devout Muslim, Kareem was excited to give his life for Allah. Raised in a family where he was encouraged to become a leader for Islam, Kareem dedicated his life to studying the Quran and Sunnah. He desperately wanted to achieve martyrdom.
During the conflict in Iraq, he thought he’d finally get his chance to kill Christians and maybe even to die for Islam. But then his operation was canceled. He says it was “the worst news I ever received in my life” because “God didn’t choose me to die.”
Kareem felt rejected by Allah because in Islam, those “called to martyrdom are called by name by God Himself.”
As he was spiraling into deep frustration, a leader suggested he should focus on Islamic evangelizing instead. Kareem worked hard at it, sharing about Islam and even studying Christianity to better debate against it. But soon, he found the arguments from Muslim apologists academically weak and inconsistent. His search for truth eventually led him through a period of atheism.
Exhausted and feeling that God was “too big” to find on his own, Kareem prayed for God to reveal Himself. That night, he had a vivid dream where he was being chased and was rescued by a man whom he recognized as Jesus.
“I saw that I’m running in a very long road. A lot of tree branches full of thorns chasing me, want to kill me. And at the end of the road, there were a man that I do not recognize,” he said. But then this man helped him in the dream. “Once he looked at me, I found out that this is Jesus Christ. And he looked deep in my eyes and he said, ‘It’s your time to follow me’.”
So he told God, “I challenge You. If You can come to me one more time with the same details, otherwise I will not think of you again.”
He had the same dream again, with Jesus telling him it was time to follow Him. In fact, it happened three nights in a row!
As Jesus appeared to him again, Kareem shared, “This time he looked deep in my eyes and he said, ‘Didn’t I tell you? Didn’t I tell you it’s your time to follow me?'”
The experience changed his life eternally.
After seeking further guidance and eventually being baptized, Kareem discovered the ability to love others unconditionally.
“I cannot believe that God is so loving…” Kareem said. “He didn’t care that I’m challenging Him. He was not feeling attacked. He was not feeling insulted. He was feeling that ‘I love this guy and I want him.'”
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