Amina's Testimony (Islam)

From Islam To Jesus Christ

Listen to Amina's testimony in English.

Sister Amina would you please come over here? That's a fair Friday for everybody. I got you now. Okay. I introduced Sister Amina to you, and I would like her to introduce herself. How long you've been with the Lord? Two years. Two years. How did you come to know him? You want me to give my testimony? Okay. I hope you're a very patient group of people because it's a long story, but I try to make it brief.

I come from a mixed background. My mother is Puerto Rican and my father is Syrian. And neither of them is very religious. So I had very let's say worldly background. I had a dress rehearsal in the car. Thank God. The Lord is good. So when I reached. They didn't encourage me to follow any religion at all, as a matter of fact. But when I was in college, I accepted Islam as my own free will. Because I had contacted some Muslim students and they made an impression on me. They were different from the other kids in the school, my own age. So I became Muslim, and I was searching for peace in my heart. That's what attracted me. And as I practiced Islam, all due respect, some very nice people, very good people, but it was all on the outside, and I didn't find any peace. And I got engaged to a Muslim brother and things were okay. And then I knew I couldn't go through with it. I knew that this really wasn't the answer for me.

So after a couple of years, I went back. Not to just being. Not any particular religious persuasion, but I believed very much that there was a God. I knew there was a God, and I knew that he was holy and that there was the right and wrong and that he did have a plan for my life. So for 10 years, I knew there was a holy God. I knew I was wrong. I knew I was a sinner. I knew we all fall short of what we should be. But I was searching. And sometimes I would search. And then I'd say, let me just leave this alone because I can't deal with God. I don't deserve God. God is too good for me. I never had any assurance in my life. And to make a long story short I started a new job in 1984. And I met one woman there who was different from everybody. And she invited me to a Bible class.

So there was a married guy who was chasing after me at this job, inviting me to lunch every day. And it was just so convenient that the Bible class was during lunch hour. So I used the class to get away from him. God really works in mysterious way. So I started to. When the sister who was leading the class, she asked me, well, we have a new person here today. She asked me, are you a believer? To me? Believer? Of course I'm a believer. You know, Mumin, like we say in Arabic, I believe in God, sure, you know, but she didn't try to convert me or anything. I just read the Bible with the rest of the class and they were reading the gospel. And I'm saying, oh, this is really good, this is really good. But I don't know about this. I don't know about this.

So a few months after that, I got really, really sick. I was in my bed for almost a month. And I knew then and there, I knew that I wasn't right with God. I knew I needed to know God. I knew I needed a touch from the Lord. And I was listening. All I could do was lay in the bed, watch tv, listen to the radio. So I started to listen to the radio one night and I got this radio station, wwdj, which is a Christian station. And I was listening to the music and it was so soothing and it was so peaceful. And I kept on listening to the station. And one night there was a preacher, a pastor. I don't remember what his message was. They broadcast the religious service or a Christian service. I don't know what he was preaching about. It didn't matter. I had that radio on my chest. It was the middle of the night. And he gave the sinners prayer at the end of the service. He said, if you want Jesus Christ to come into your heart, pray with me. So I prayed with him. And at the end of the prayer I said, lord, I don't know if I did a bad thing or a good thing, but I don't know what else to do. I said, please give me a sign, let me know if I do the right thing real quick.

Okay? Two days after that, I had a severe bronchitis. My diagnosis was bronchitis and asthma, which I had never had before. And I was taking all this new medication. I had never been sick before in my life and they had given me medicine for the asthma. And I had a reaction to it very conveniently. At 3 o'clock in the morning, I started to go into cardiac arrest. And I was in an ambulance at 3am and like I was, I went like this, you know, my feelings were like this, you know, you wake up in the middle of the night and you're having chest pains, and I call the ambulance. And all of this, I was like this. And then all of a sudden, this peace just came over me. And I just let all the fear, all the fear was washed out of me. And it was like I heard a voice saying, you did the right thing, Amina. And I am with you always. And, you know, it was just so wonderful. I sat down, I was in the back of the ambulance, and I got this vision of Jesus Christ dying for me. And I heard a voice say, today you will be with me in paradise. And I was like, my whole life went in front of me and I felt myself repent for my sins. I confess to God. You know, I have been so bad. I have been so not bad, but I've been so small. I've done everything so small. I haven't really reached out in faith to you. And I'm sorry that I lived so cheap. I could have done so much more with my life. And I thought of. I was. It felt like I was going somewhere and I wasn't scared. And then I thought of my son.

My son was 3 years old at the time. And I said, lord, you know, I'm not afraid to meet you now. I know that you're waiting for me and everything's going to be okay. But please, if you grant me just to come back to take care of my son. I can't leave him now. And the next thing I know, I woke up in the hospital and they told me, take two Tylenols, you're fine to go home in 20 minutes. That was two years ago. And I am okay. My whole history, I have been the most down to earth materialistic, cynical person that you could imagine.

For something like this to happen to me, God really does answer prayer. And if we ask, we go out on the limb to him in faith. He will answer us and show us, you know, give us. Like they say that you ask for a sign. I asked for a sign. I got a sign. And just as a footnote, just this last week, a week ago, I by accident met my fiance from 16 years ago. He's still a Muslim. He's been a Muslim for 20 years. And I couldn't mention the name of Jesus to him when I talked to him. But I told him how I felt and that I have found peace. And he said, you're at a place that I have not been yet able. I am not yet able to reach. But I hope I will reach it. And he's been a Muslim for 20 years, and I've been a Christian for two years. So, you know, God sees the heart, and it's only through Jesus Christ that he gives us a new heart. And we can try all we want through our works and through following law and following religion. I'm not saying it's bad to want to do the right thing, but we fall so short of who God is. And we're nothing, and he is everything. And I'm going to be baptized in three weeks, and I'm not going back. This is it. God bless.