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“Muslim Extremist to a Follower of Jesus”

That’s how it is with my words. They don’t return to me without doing everything I send them to do. When you are set free, you will celebrate and travel home in peace. Mountains and hills will sing as you pass by, and trees will clap. Cypress and myrtle trees will grow in fields once covered by thorns. And then those trees will stand as a lasting witness to the glory of the LORD.

[Isaiah 55:11-13]

But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you.

[Matthew 5:44]

Hisham writes:

I was only thirteen when an extremist Muslim group recruited me.

My brother (15 yrs old) and I were first attracted to that Muslim faction by a group of teenagers studying the Qur’an in the mosque in our neighborhood. In 1973, I was invited, together with my brother, to military training camps. We were told: “If you want to shoot straight, imagine that there is a Christian in your sights.”

In 1975, as soon as the civil war in Lebanon broke out, I participated in shelling Christian neighborhoods, to laying in ambush for Christian militias. In the late 1970s, I was given a long-range rifle with a powerful telescope and sniped at people in the Christian part of Beirut. It was a moment of truth when, through my telescope, I saw three people running for cover: An old woman and two boys.

One of them looked like a cousin of mine. The old woman reminded me of my grandmother. I did not shoot. My conscience told me that they were people like us. I refused to follow orders and decided to quit. “No causes are worth the bloodshed,” I thought.

I decided to focus on Muslim religious studies, and took a course in order to become a Muslim preacher. A few days before I was supposed to give my first Friday sermon, I had a car accident and broke my legs. I was bed-ridden for a year so I started reading comics and novels in Arabic and English. I went back to high school and kept reading novels. I got better in English and passed the American University of Beirut English Entrance Exam.

During my first semester in college, my brother, by this time a militia captain, was killed by a Christian militia while he was trying to negotiate a truce. Two of my brother’s comrades and I vowed to kill all our enemies. I started stalking my enemies in the streets at night. Some of them were my classmates; I would befriend them so I could learn their movements simply in order to kill them.

Meanwhile, as a student at the American University, I had to take a course in cultural studies, for which I had to read selections from the Bible. I read the Sermon on the Mount at the climax of my hate and thirst for vengeance. Christ’s exhortation: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:44-45a) struck me with full force.

Christ’s words “Love God from all your heart, and love your neighbor” sounded authentically divine. Even through the loss of my brother, I thought: “There is another way, a way of forgiveness.” I was touched by Jesus’ parables, especially that of the Good Samaritan.

I stopped my night activities, and decided to reconsider things and see if it were possible to follow this Jesus. I told myself then if I was really seeking truth, I should follow up on my readings of the Bible, irrespective of “my bad neighbors,” and walk in the shoes of Christians. So I started to sneak into churches in order to listen to what believers say about Jesus.

By 1990, when the international community and the Syrians imposed a cease-fire on Lebanon, I vowed to work for peace and reconciliation. As a result, I was asked to speak at many conferences and gatherings across the world.

In August 2000, I gave a speech on my work in Lebanon and how I was transformed from a sniper (or a terrorist) to a peacemaker. I was given a standing ovation and I went back that night to my room thinking of the glorious moments of the day, and the big promising future in representing Lebanese Muslims in international conferences. As a result, I decided that I do not want any part of Jesus or the Bible anymore, and that I was satisfied in the way I was. I had the full respect towards the teachings of Jesus the peacemaker, not the Savior.

I went to bed that night with this determination in mind, and saw Jesus Christ in a vision. He pointed his finger at me and told me to keep on praying. I awoke, looked at my roommate, and found out that he was awake too. I told him about the vision. He pulled out a pocket Bible from his luggage and we read and prayed until sunrise. I decided that morning to give my life to Him.

Presently, I am excited about going to seminary to study the Bible and becoming an ordained pastor. God works in mysterious ways. I still do not understand all those developments in my life. But I can say that He has carried me from glory to glory, in my walk with Him. He is the Father who has never let me down.