The first time I met a Christian who was ready for my arguments was in college.

By then, I had already dismantled the faith of many Christians. I arrived on campus confident, armed with arguments I had refined for years. Christianity, in my mind, was intellectually weak and historically unreliable. I expected more of the same.

Then I met David.

We were traveling together for a public speaking and debate tournament, sharing a hotel room. One night, I noticed him sitting quietly, reading a Bible. I smiled to myself. This will be fun, I thought. Another Christian to take down.

I looked at him and said, “David, do you realize that book you’re reading isn’t trustworthy? It’s been corrupted over time.”

He closed the Bible, looked at me calmly, and said, “Go on.”

That should have warned me.

I launched into my well-rehearsed argument. Jesus spoke Aramaic. The early church was in Palestine, likely speaking Hebrew. Yet the New Testament was written in Greek—a translation before it was ever written down. Then it was translated into Latin for over a thousand years, then into German, then into English. Translation after translation after translation. That’s why there are so many versions of the Bible—the KJV, NIV, ESV, NASB. How could anyone know which one is the Word of God?

This argument had worked countless times. I expected David to fold.

Instead, he asked me a question.

“Nabil, I heard you talking to your mom on the phone earlier. Was that conversation in English?”

“No.”

“But when you told me what she said, you told me in English. Was that a corrupted translation?”

“No.”

“When you’re multilingual,” he said, “you can accurately translate a message from one language to another without losing the meaning. That’s what the disciples did.”

Then he explained something I had never heard before.

We possess over 6,000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. Beyond that, more than 10,000 Latin, Coptic, and Syriac translations. And if all of those disappeared, we still have over 30,000 quotations from early church fathers—enough to reconstruct virtually the entire New Testament many times over.

“Nabil,” he said, “we know with certainty the message of the original New Testament.”

I stared at him and said, “You’re making this up.”

He smiled. “Then check it.”

So I did.

And that began a friendship defined by relentless pursuit of truth. We argued so much that we signed up for classes together just to sit in the back and debate. We studied at each other’s homes. Over time, that intellectual rivalry turned into deep trust. I stood beside him at his wedding. I was there when his first child was born.

I knew David would take a bullet for me.

And when someone you trust shares the gospel with you, it changes everything. If a stranger tells you to lay down your life, why would you listen? But when someone who loves you challenges your worldview, you engage.

After a year of investigation, I reached a conclusion: the New Testament manuscripts were historically reliable. I didn’t believe Christianity yet—but I could no longer dismiss its textual foundation. There was simply no way the New Testament could have been uniformly altered without detection.

That’s when I raised my next objection.

“Fine,” I said. “The New Testament is reliable. But Jesus never claims to be God.”

For Muslims, this is the ultimate stumbling block. Islam reveres Jesus as the Messiah, a miracle worker, even a sinless prophet—but to say Jesus is God is the greatest blasphemy imaginable. The Qur’an explicitly condemns it.

So I began studying more deeply.

David handed me the Gospel of John.

John 1:1 hit me immediately: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Verse 14 identifies the Word as Jesus.

I tried to deflect. That’s John talking, not Jesus.

Then I read John 8:58. When challenged about Abraham, Jesus replied, “Before Abraham was born, I am.”

I didn’t understand the weight of those words until someone pointed me to Exodus 3:14—where God reveals His name to Moses: I AM.

Jesus wasn’t merely claiming preexistence. He was claiming divinity.

Still, I resisted. “John’s Gospel was written too late,” I argued. “Let’s go to the earliest Gospel.”

Mark 14:62 shattered my defenses.

In a single verse, Jesus identified Himself as the divine figure from Daniel, the Lord of David, and the God of Moses. The high priest immediately tore his robes and cried, “Blasphemy!” That’s why Jesus was crucified—not for being misunderstood, but for making Himself equal with God.

Now my world was unraveling.

I had concluded the New Testament was reliable—and it plainly portrayed Jesus as God. That directly contradicted everything I had been taught.

So I asked the ultimate question: What would make Christianity true?

Romans 10:9 gave me the answer: Jesus must be Lord, He must die, and He must rise from the dead.

The resurrection became the turning point.

Anyone can claim to be God. That’s delusion. But if someone predicts their death and resurrection—and then rises from the dead—that is divine vindication.

As a medical student working in psychiatry, I knew what false claims to divinity looked like. Jesus was different.

I investigated the evidence surrounding His death and resurrection. Not Christian scholars—skeptics, atheists, agnostics. And they all agreed on one thing: if we can know anything about Jesus historically, it’s that He was crucified under Pontius Pilate.

That alone challenged the Qur’an, which denies Jesus’ crucifixion.

Then came the resurrection evidence—and it was overwhelming.

After three years of investigation, David asked me a simple question: “From zero to one hundred, how true do you think Christianity is?”

I answered honestly: “Eighty to eighty-five percent.”

He nearly spilled his smoothie.

“Then why don’t you accept the gospel?”

“Because I’m one hundred percent sure Islam is true.”

He looked at me and said, “You’ve never tested Islam the way you tested Christianity.”

So I did.

And it collapsed.

The earliest biographies of Muhammad appeared over 150 years after his death, and even those were considered unreliable by their own editors. The historical Muhammad looked nothing like the idealized figure I had been taught to revere.

I turned to the Qur’an itself—its preservation, miracles, prophecies. Under the same scrutiny I had applied to Christianity, every claim unraveled.

When compared honestly, Christianity stood far above every alternative.

That realization brought not joy—but terror.

Because becoming a Christian meant destroying my family’s honor, risking social exile, and possibly my life. Apostasy in Islam carries severe consequences. And if I was wrong, the Qur’an promised hell.

So I fell to my knees and begged God to reveal Himself.

Muslims believe God guides through dreams, so I asked for them.

God answered.

One dream stood out above the rest. I found myself standing before a narrow doorway leading to a wedding feast—heaven. David stood inside, blocking the entrance. When I said, “I thought we were going to eat together,” he replied, “You haven’t responded.”

When I told David the dream, he directed me to Luke 13.

The heading read: “The Narrow Door.”

I knew God had placed me inside the parable.

Still, I hesitated.

One morning, overwhelmed with grief, I opened the Qur’an seeking comfort—and found none. I turned to the Bible and read: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

It felt alive.

Matthew 10 confronted me with the cost: family, reputation, everything.

And finally, I surrendered.

I prayed—not eloquently, not perfectly—but sincerely. I submitted my life to Jesus.

Days later, I watched my father cry for the first time. I watched the light leave my mother’s eyes.

I begged God, “Why didn’t you kill me before this?”

And I heard the words: “This is not about you.”

That changed everything.

I realized the gospel isn’t just something you believe—it’s something that transforms you. God didn’t stay distant. He entered our broken world. He lived among sinners. He died for them.

And if He loved us enough to die, then following Him means loving others the same way.

That is the gospel.

That is my story.