Sa’ad
Sa’ad’s extensive studies of Islam brought him to the conclusion that it was a false religion. However, he was convinced that there must be a true religion so he started reading widely in a search for truth. First, Sa’ad considered the other monotheistic religions mentioned in the Qur’an as “People of the Book”—Jews and Christians.
“I didn’t like Jews,” says Sa’ad. “I hated them for political reasons so I ruled them out.”
In Sa’ad’s studies of the Qur’an he had noticed that all the prophets had sinned, including Mohammed, except for one. According to the Qur’an, only Christ had no sin—so Sa’ad began to consider Christianity.
“Christians got my attention,” says Sa’ad. “I began to hear stories about foreigners like Mother Theresa who went to help people and work among the poor. I read in magazines about how they came to Africa from far away places to help cure malaria.”
Sa’ad also started reading novels by the Egyptian author Abdel Quddous, whose tales portrayed Christ in a positive light.
“I noticed that he always referenced Christ in a positive way while other writers sometimes spoke of Christ in a negative way,” says Sa’ad.
Sa’ad considered Christianity, but he wasn’t convinced by what he read in the Bible. He searched for truth in other religions and ideologies, but nothing resonated with him.
Then Sa’ad had a nightmare that made him believe he would die soon. Over the following month, Sa’ad took care of all his earthly affairs as he prepared to die—but he was still afraid to face God without a religion.
For sometime Sa’ad and his cousin Saeed had been listening to Christian programs on a radio station they could pick up in their village. Initially they listened to it for news and politics, but soon they found there were Christian programs with good stories on the same channel. As Sa’ad was preparing to die, they were following an apologetics program that responded to people’s objections to the Gospel.
“It was responding to my own objections to the Gospel,” says Sa’ad, “about the cross and other things that had disturbed me before. Every night I heard the response to something and it made sense to me. I was saying to myself, ‘Yes, that’s right. There’s something here.’”
Finally, one night Sa’ad was relaxing by the radio half-asleep after a hard day’s work in the wadi. It was around 10 pm and he was alone, waiting for Saeed to join him by the radio. The news program he had been listening to ended, and the apologetics program came on. Then Sa’ad heard a hard knock on the door.
“I opened the inner door and then the outer door,” says Sa’ad. “I thought it was Saeed, but there was no one there.”
Sa’ad figured his guest must have been knocking for a while and then given up and left before he got to the door.
As Sa’ad returned to the radio, he was more alert. He listened as the radio host read Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
“Electricity ran through my body,” says Sa’ad. “I felt the words were just for me. Since I believed I was dying, I was desperate to know God. I knew then it wasn’t Saeed knocking on the door. It was Christ and He was saying, ‘Why haven’t you opened the door yet?’”
Christ’s words resonated with Sa’ad’s sense of tribal honor. A guest was knocking on his door and he had left him out in the darkness.
“The next thing I knew, I was prostrate on the floor and I started praying that moment,” says Sa’ad. “I said, ‘Now I’ve found you. You’re the truth and I believe.’”
