Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity (2014) is a book of memoir and apologetics, written by Pakistani American author Nabeel Qureshi (1983-2017). It recounts his intellectual and spiritual journey from his Muslim childhood to an eventual embrace of Christian belief in his early adulthood. The book explores The Emotional and Relational Costs of Religious Conversion, The Balance of Intellectual Arguments and Spiritual Experience, Friendship as a Catalyst for Spiritual Transformation, and The Role of Historical and Textual Criticism in Religious Belief.

Qureshi held multiple graduate degrees in medicine and theology, and served as an apologetics speaker for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries before his death from stomach cancer in 2017. He is the author of two other books of Christian apologetics, Answering Jihad (2016) and No God but One—Allah or Jesus? (2016). Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus became a New York Times bestseller and won the Christian Book Award in two separate categories in 2015.

This study guide uses the 2018 third edition from Zondervan Reflective.

Language Note: Spellings of Islamic terms in this study guide reflect Qureshi’s usage.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature occasional references to a historical event implying mass rape in a wartime context. One guide section also includes discussion of child sexual abuse.

Summary

Qureshi’s Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus is a memoir of religious conversion, tracing the author’s journey from devout Muslim to committed Christian. The narrative is divided into 10 parts, each marking a distinct phase in Qureshi’s spiritual and intellectual development.

Parts 1 and 2 relate the story of Qureshi’s childhood and teenage years. Born to Pakistani immigrant parents in the United States, Qureshi was raised in the Ahmadiyya Muslim tradition, a reformist sect that emphasizes peaceful dialogue and missionary activity. His childhood and adolescence were marked by deep religious devotion, regular prayer, memorization of the Quran, and participation in his mosque community. Qureshi emphasizes the warmth and cohesion of his family life, presenting his Muslim upbringing not as oppressive or culturally backward but as loving, intellectually rigorous, and spiritually fulfilling. Qureshi’s emphasis on Islam as a comprehensive way of life—encompassing not merely religious belief but identity, belonging, and culture—emerges prominently in this section.

Parts 3 and 4 explore Qureshi’s early years at university, during which he took on an active role in defending and promoting Islamic belief. He engaged in numerous interfaith dialogues and debates, approaching these encounters with confidence in the superiority of Islamic arguments. It is during this period that he meets David Wood, a Christian student who becomes his closest friend and intellectual sparring partner. Their friendship forms one of the narrative’s central threads, and Qureshi portrays it as characterized by respect, affection, and argumentation. Rather than presenting conversion as the result of abstract theological study, Qureshi emphasizes the personal dimension: David’s willingness to engage seriously with Qureshi’s objections, his patience in answering questions, and his embodiment of Christian virtues in daily life. The discussions between the two friends range across historical, textual, and philosophical grounds, touching on the reliability of the New Testament, the nature of God, and the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus.

Parts 5 and 6 mark the beginning of Qureshi’s serious investigation of Christian claims. Despite his initial confidence in Islam’s superiority, David’s challenges prompt him to examine the historical foundations of Christianity. Qureshi describes his study of New Testament textual criticism, the historical evidence for Jesus’s death and resurrection, and the early Christian understanding of Jesus’s divine identity. Qureshi presents himself as someone who takes seriously the intellectual content of religious claims, unwilling to rest on inherited tradition alone. His investigation leads him to conclude that the historical evidence for Christianity’s claims is stronger than he had previously acknowledged, a realization that creates profound internal tension given the implications for his Muslim identity.

Parts 7 and 8 document Qureshi’s investigation of Islam’s foundations, leading to his ultimate decision to embrace Christianity. He examines the historical reliability of the hadith literature, the Quran’s textual history, and Islamic teachings about the nature of God and Jesus. His conclusion—that the evidence better supports Christian claims than Islamic ones—precipitates a crisis of identity.

The final sections, Parts 9 and 10, describe his quest to find God’s personal guidance, above and beyond the rational arguments. His prayers are answered in dramatic fashion, with dreams and a vision that confirm his belief that he should leave Islam for Christianity. These final sections also emphasize the devastating personal cost of his conversion: The grief of his parents, the rupture of family relationships, and his alienation from the Muslim community that had defined his entire life. Qureshi’s conversion is presented not as a triumphant discovery but as a painful necessity, undertaken at tremendous personal sacrifice.