MY ACCOUNT
At A glance
- Abu Sami's government job had required him to convert from his Druze faith to Islam.
- After retiring, he began to question Islam, learned about Christ, and decided to follow Jesus.
- His decision cost him family relationships, his community, and his business.
- Yet he holds onto his faith, shares the Gospel, and prays for his persecutors.
When Abu Sami put his faith in Christ, he lost his family, his community, and his only source of income. Still, this persecuted evangelist cannot help but talk about Jesus.
Abu Sami’s Journey to Faith in Jesus
As a child living in the Middle East, Abu Sami grew up in a family that practiced the Druze faith. But as a young man, he worked for his country’s government, where he was required to convert to Islam.
His conversion was not his choice, but Abu Sami took his new religion very seriously. He prayed, fasted, and performed the Hajj – the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca – just as any devout Muslim would.
“I adhered to Islam, especially to the Quran,” Abu Sami says. “After I retired, someone told us about Christ. So I started searching.”
Abu Sami decided to research his own religion, but he soon discovered that his questions were not welcomed.
“When I really wanted to know and decided to enter the Christian faith, I started searching within Islam deeply,” he explains. “I searched sincerely and started looking for the hidden things that are in Islam. I found that Islam is a misguided religion because in Islam, you're not allowed to argue with the scholars or ask questions about the religion.”
The more he learned about Islam, the less convinced he was about everything he had been taught.
“I found that the religion is not from God,” he says.
No longer satisfied with Islam, he picked up a Bible. At first, he didn’t understand what he was reading, so he started listening to Christian sermons on TV. He began to understand the Gospel, but still he worried that he was making the wrong choice or leaving Islam too rashly.
Then, he met a family friend who was a Christian and who began to disciple him.
“I was excited,” Abu Sami says of his teacher. “I didn't want to listen at first because I didn't want to get involved with religion after leaving Islam. But I listened to Him and became interested.”
Abu Sami studied the Bible with his teacher for about two months before he and his wife decided to give their lives to Christ. What convinced Abu Sami that the Gospel is true? It was “the whole life of Christ,” he explains.
“When I first started to understand the Gospel and began to delve deeper, reading about the journey of the Lord Jesus Christ up until the cross - it opened a gateway for me,” Abu Sami says. “The cross of Christ is the greatest proof of our Lord's love for us, and the redemption that our Lord offered so that we could be saved.”
This love that Abu Sami saw in Christianity stood in stark contrast to the religion he left behind.
“In Islam, the story was all about violence, but Christianity showed how God loved us and that He cares about us.”
From Devout Muslim to Persecuted Evangelist
As a Muslim background believer whose life was changed by the love of Jesus, Abu Sami cannot help but share the good news with those around him.
“I can't help it. I have to speak,” he says. “In every meeting, in every group, I have to talk about Christ. I cannot stay silent.
But in Abu Sami’s community, anyone who leaves Islam is met with suspicion, anger, and hostility – even from close family and neighbors.
“The first people who persecuted me were my brothers and my closest family members,” Abu Sami says. “I tried to bring them to Christ – to tell them about the errors of Islam and Druze faith, and help them understand who Christ is. ... They persecuted me a lot and tried to distance me from Christ. My answer to them was that I could never give up Christ.”
Abu Sami had opened a shop after his retirement from government work, but once his faith became known, his neighbors started boycotting his business. Even his suppliers refused to work with him. When other people in his community became Christians, Abu Sami was accused of “corrupting the Druze” by local leadership.
Abu Sami has been forced to give up not only his relationships with his family and his community, but also his business. With his shop closed and no other source of income available, he’s lost power in his house.
‘My Burden is Light’
Still, Abu Sami holds onto his faith in Christ.
“When I am with God, with our Lord, I shouldn't worry about people or what people want to do to me, because I'm with God,” he says. “I am very happy to be persecuted because of the name of Christ.
As a persecuted evangelist, Abu Sami finds comfort in his favorite Bible passage, Matthew 11:28-29: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Despite the trials he’s endured, Abu Sami prays for his persecutors and for the Druze and Muslims communities to come to Christ.
“I feel sorry for them, not for myself,” he says. “Because whoever persecutes me doesn't know the truth, doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will use me for a plentiful harvest, and that I could see the mosques in Islamic countries turned into churches.”
Secret Believers When Faith Must Stay Hidden, Hope Must Not
Across the Muslim world, men and women are encountering Jesus in hidden places – through a dream, a late-night search, or a quiet conversation with a local believer. But when someone chooses to follow Christ in secret, the cost of their decision can be immediate: family rejection, social isolation, and real danger.
Learn more about how you can support secret believers and help ensure no follower of Jesus ever stands alone.
