Imam to Christian Mario Joseph
Mario Joseph was an imam at age 18 Then he became a Christian and his father tried to kill him Today he is a Catholic preacher in India
Imam to Christian Mario Joseph
i'd like to introduce a former Muslim Imam, Mario Joseph who became a Christian after studying Quran. It started one person asked about who Jesus was.
He tried to find Jesus in the Quran and compared Jesus to Muhammad. Soon he found out that Jesus was superior than Muhammad. After he became a Christian, his family tried to kill him but God allowed him to escape that situation.
You can watch the YouTube video here or read his testimony below:
Mario Joseph speaks:
Origins
My great grandparents are from Turkey, but they came and settled down in India in the south, Kerala.
When I was in the womb of my mom, there was an infection in her womb.
All the doctors said, "The child will die in the womb."
She did not accept anyones's advice.
She prayed to Allah, saying, "Allah,life belongs to you, so I know you can give life.
If you give life to this baby, I will surrender this baby for you.
That was her offering. Or her surrender.
And miraculously, I was born.
All thought I would die in the womb.
Because I had been dedicated to God,
While I was working in a Muslim Mosque as an Imam, as a parish priest,
once I preached in my parish that Jesus Christ is not God. For me, God was only Allah, and I believed Allah never got married, so no sons for Allah.
So I preached there that Jesus is not God.
Then somebody asked me, "Who is Jesus?" from the crowd.
Maybe a Muslim, but he asked me, "Who is Jesus?"
I was preaching He is not God, but the question was, "Who is he?"
Investigating the Koran
To know who is he, I read the entire Koran once again:
114 chapters, 6666 words in the Koran, when I read it, the name of the Prophet Mohammad I found in the Koran 4 places,
but the name of Jesus I found in 25 places.
There itself, I was a little confused.
Why does the Koran give more preference to Jesus?
And the second thing:
I could not see any woman's name in Koran:
the prophet Mohammad's mothers' name, or wife's name or children's name, no.
In the Koran, there is only one woman's name that I found:
Mariam, the mother of Jesus. The mother of Jesus.
No other woman's name.
And then about Jesus, when I read chapter 3 verses 45 to 55 verses, there are 10 points which the Koran makes about Jesus.
The first thing the Koran says:(Arabic)
The Arabic word which means "Word of God, "
And the second thing: (Arabic)
which means "Spirit of God"
and the third which means "Jesus Christ"
So Koran gives the name for Jesus:
Word of God, Spirit of God, Jesus Christ.
Then the Koran says Jesus spoke when he was very small, like 2 days old after his birth, he began to speak.
Koran says that Jesus created a live bird with mud.
He took some mud, formed a bird, when he breathed into it it became a life bird.
So I think that he can give life. He gave life to mud, clay.
And then Koran says that Jesus cured a man borne blind and a man with leprosy, etc.
Curiously, the Koran says that Jesus gave life to dead people;
Jesus went to heaven, He is still alive, and He will come again.
When I saw all these things in Koran my thinking what the Koran says about Mohammad.
You know, according to the Koran, the prophet Mohammad is not the Word of God, not the Spirit of God, never spoke when he was 2 days old,
never created any bird with mud, never cured any sick people, never raised any dead people, he himself died, and according to Islam he is not alive and he will not come back.
So there is a lot of difference between these two prophets.
I didn't call Jesus, God, you know.
My idea was "He's a prophet, but he is a prophet greater than Mohammad"
So one day I went to my teacher, the one who taught me 10 years in Arabic College, and I asked him,
"Teacher, how did God create the universe?" Then he said "God created the universe through the word."
THROUGH THE WORD
Then my question: "Word" is creator or creation?
Must clear it. My question whether the Word of God is Creator or creation.
Koran says Jesus is Word of God. If my teacher says that the Word of God is Creator, which means Jesus is Creator, the the Muslims must become Christian.
Suppose if he says the Word is creation, he will be trapped. You know why? He said everything is created through the Word.
Suppose if he said the Word is creation, then how did God create the Word? He cannot say that the Word is creation, so he was quite angry he pushed me out of his room and said,
"Word is not the Creator nor the creation, you get out of here" he said.
So when I said that I told my teacher, "Word is not the creator, not the creation" that is why Christian say the Word is Son of God.
Then he told me if there is a son of God, I must show him the wife of God. Without wife, no chance of having a son.
Then I showed a portion from the Koran, Koran says that God can see without eyes, God can talk without tongue, God can hear without ears, it is written in the Koran
I said if that is the case, He can have a child without a wife. So there we had a big argument, and you know at the end what I did?
I took my Koran, put it on my chest and said: "Allah, tell me what I should do, because your Koran says Jesus is still alive Mohammad is no more. You tell me whom should I accept"
After my prayer I opened the Koran. I didn't ask anyone, I asked only my Allah.
When I opened Koran, I saw chapter 10 verse 94. You know what Koran says?
(Arabic quote)
If you have any doubt in this Koran which I give to you, go and read the bible or ask the people, those who read the bible.
The truth is already revealed in that.
So if you ask me who make me Christian, it's not any fathers; it's not my sisters; it's not any bishops' it's not any cardinals; it's not even pope but the holy Koran converted me to Christianity.
So after seeing this, I decided to study the Bible and I went to a retreat center called the Divine Retreat Center that is in India.
Starting to study the bible
And then while I was doing my bible studies, there are a lot of points which touched me from bible.
The first day, Father read John chapter 1 verse 1 onwards:
"In the beginning, there was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, the Word became flesh"
So my holy Koran says Jesus is the Word of God now the holy Bible also says Jesus is the Word of God.
So I found that both are very similar and I was happy to know that I need Koran and I need Bible, both.
You know, I was in a mood like, one day I become Christian, one day Muslim, one day Christian, you know?
I need both.
While I was thinking like that, again one more word I heard that was John Chapter 1 verse 12
Such a lovely word for me because its written in Bible that if anyone accepted Jesus, Jesus will give them power to become children of God.
You know, all the verses of the Koran, Allah calls the human beings slaves, and Allah is master.
Master cannot love the slave, slave cannot love the master.
I don't like to be called by someone a slave. Koran says you are my slave.
Finding a Dad, finding the Son
But when I heard John chapter 1 verse 12 it says, "If you believe in Jesus, Jesus will give you power to become children of God"
So immediately I said I need Jesus, because I want to be a child of God. There I began to call my God, "Daddy".
Until then I never knew that I could call God "Daddy" Jesus taught a prayer in Aramaic language (Quote Aramaic)
"Our God who art in heaven" "Abbun" he called. In Arabic language, Abbun means "Our dad"
And if you ask me, I cannot express my joy whenever I call my dad you know whenever I call God "Dad".
And whenever I think that the Creator of the universe is my dad, I have a kind of joy which I cannot express.
It's beyond my ..and experience I cannot explain.
Only you can understand by experience. So I really love to call my God, dad.
There I decided to accept Jesus.
Suffering for Jesus
... and when finally my dad came there, it was very horrible because he beat me very badly, and I was bleeding from my nose and I was unconscious and then he took me home.
I don't know how he took me but somehow he took me home because I was unconscious.
When I came conscious, I was in a small room without any clothes, I was completely naked and my hands and legs were chained very tightly, and I could not even speak because there was chili powder in my mouthy, nose, eyes, and
you know wherever the wound was there on my skin, they had placed some chili there also. To burn me.
They had done so much because it is written in the Koran in 18 places to fight with the non-believers and it is written in some places to kill the one who rejects Islam.
So my dad is obeying the law of the Koran. So he wants to do something. Within a few days they did not give me food or water, and I was dried up, and when my lip broke, and I was trying to lick a little blood, to wet my throat, then my brother came
and passed urine in my mouth, you know. They said that's the punishment for you to believe in Christ. And then after so many days, like, without food or water my stomach became wrung, and my body became weak, and I became like a new born.
Finally I lost even my memory power.I can't even think, because I had no food, no water. So, like a dead man. I don't know how many days more than 20 days I was there in the room.
and one day my dad came to the room and he removed my chain and I was not awake.And he choked my throat very deep to know if there was life in my body. So when he choked me very deep, I couldn't breathe. So when I opened my eyes I could see a big knife in his hand.
Freedom
So my dad said "it's your last moment. No hope" He said, "if you need Allah, I will allow you to live, if you need Jesus, I will kill you"
I know that, you know when I was in the womb itself, all said I would die but they loved me so much and they prayed and they got life for me and now they want to kill me.
So, I don't know and ..I know my dad well; he will kill me.
So when I know that its my last moment of death, I thought Jesus died , but He came back.
If I believe in Jesus and die, I too may get my life, you know.
A kind of joy, it is better to die in Jesus.
When I decided suddenly a light fell on my forehead, you know like a moon light...something fell on me..
And there was a kind of electric shock, something passed throughout my veins.
I was so energized ,you know, from somewhere, energy flowing through my body, I couldn't control myself there was so much energy in my bones.
I pulled my dads hand down, and I cried out "JESUS".
When I cried out, my dad fell on the ground.
When he fell with the knife which he was holding, there was a big wound on his chest and there was bleeding and some kind of foam was coming from his mouth and he was screaming.
And all were shocked: my brothers and mom, my sisters.
They didn't know what was happening.So they thought my dad was already dead, so they took my dad and ran to hospital. When they went running to the hospital they forgot to lock my room from the outside.
And I had an energy which I cannot tell you because I was only like a new born, no food so many days, more than 20 days.
New born, but with a lot of energy. So I just came out and put on my dad's clothes and ran to the taxi stand to get a taxi straight away to get out.
On the way the taxi man, he was a Christian so he bought for me some candy, juice and everything and he knows my struggle and he took me to Potta.
And he contacts me even now, he's a very good friend of mine, the taxi driver.
So I went to Potta, that day really I understood my Jesus is alive, even now
When I called him for my need, He saved me which means He is present here even when I am talking to you. So that is my life.
Everywhere I know that He is present. Because after my conversion 18 years I never thought that the Muslims would allow me to live 18 years.
And I have even preached in the Middle East where the Arabs came but nothing happened.
So which means that my Jesus is alive and he is protecting me
Last updated: 20th April 2015 by http://www.aleteia.org/en/religion/article/the-dangerous-road-from-imam-to-catholic-preacher-an-interview-with-mario-joseph-13174001Adverts
