Ciniraj Mohamed - Indian muslim meets Jesus Christ

Bro. CINIRAJ MOHAMED of SALEM VOICE

I was born on 25th May, 1954 as the fourth child of Janab Kassim Pillai Labba, a retired headmaster and Fathima Beevi. My house is known as "Kochera". It is an ancient, prominent and orthodox Muslim family at Kalloor, a rural area in Trivandrum, South India.

More than 4000 muslim families inhabiting in our area and some hindus at suburbs. No Christians at all. There was not even a single christian in the schools where I was studied.

Our mosque is around thousand years old. My ancestors spread the religion of Islam in that place and built the mosque. My ancestoral home is very close to the mosque. The land revenue and the axillary records of the mosque were kept in my father's name well into my boyhood. My ancestors were entitled to muslim priesthood by heredity. They had the designation as "Labba" with their names to indicate the priesthood.

In these circumstances, I was brought up with great regard and love for Islamic teachings and its practices and of my family. I did my religious education before I started regular schooling. No bad habits existed in the way of our family life. I even wrote a book about the Qur'an.

My college education was held at a Christian institution called Mar Ivanios College, which is in Trivandrum city. The vast majority of my college classmates were christians. I was only muslim in the class. I had difficulty to mingle with my classmates in the beginning. But gradually I became close and intimate with them. Actually it led me to evil associations and wretched habits. I started smoking, began to use drugs and alcohol, done streaking, being known as rowdy in the city. Damaging reports and ugly pictures concerning me began to appear in the news papers. As a result my parents, brothers, sisters and dear ones were greatly disturbed. It seemed I may have to discontinue my education. If so I wanted to prove I could succeed on my own by going to the Arabian Gulf even as a stow-away.

By this time I became addicted on drugs and alcohol. My body began to shiver and I became very tense if I did not use drugs at the habitual times. I was on the watch-list of the Police. My parents cut off the money which they were giving me regularly. I had lot of friends, ready for any adventure, when I had money in my pocket. As a matter of fact my earlier friends became my sworn enemies in my period of trial. I lost my peace of mind.

It was at this juncture that some missionary students gathered courage to talk to me. They claimed that Jesus is the Son of God, who was crucified for the mankind. He rose from the dead and He is the king of peace. They further claimed that if one believes in Him and confesses all sins he will become a new person. I could not even imagine that Prophet Isa (Jesus) is the son of God or that he was crucified and rose from the dead. In turn exhorted them to reach heaven by believing in Islam which is the true religion. I had heated arguments with them on many occasions. They could only find fault with my wretched life, but could not prevail over my arguments or prove my ideas wrong.

But without losing heart, one day they brought some leaflets. The leaflets were based on the Bible which I considered forbidden, for it is abrogated. Hence I went into a rage. The thought that the advice that I had given them earlier regarding Islam, had made no impact on them increased my rage. I tored the leaflets into pieces. With despicable words I threw the pieces into their faces and I gave warning that I would destroy them if they continue misleading others.

It was a serious matter that the students of priesthood in cassocks were publicly insulted and persecuted, specially in the compound of a christian institution. It looked almost certain that I would be expelled from the college. I could also expect troubles from any direction. The next day I went to the college armed with weapons, intending to cause violent incidents. When I entered the class the missionary students ran to me and embraced with love and joy. They surprised me by expressing regret for having caused mental distress on me. If the college was run by my religion and I was in the place of a missionary, surely I would not have let one, persecutes me, scot free. In fact, I was touched by their love, kindness and gentle nature. The Holy Spirit, which reminds us about sin, righteousness and judgement, began to work upon me.

That night I found a piece of paper in a text book in my room. On it was written, "The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came to the world to save sinners, for whom I am the foremost" (1Tim 1:15). On the reverse side of the paper was written, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 6:23). I did not know those were the verses from the Bible. But I was overcome with thoughts.

All the sins, the excessions and violations that I had committed since childhood began to appear before me as if on a screen. I recognized all my inequities, big and small. Each one of them transformed into a blister o

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