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 turnexhorted 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 on my
body. The blisters burst open and became sores.
The flesh and bones, from where pus began to flow
out, became very hot and began to melt. Worms
were competing to get at the marrow of the bones.
The pain was unbearable. The stench could not be
described. I was being pulled into a bottomless
pit. There was nobody to save me.
Without realizing I cried out,
“God, save me”.
Then a man, holy and bright,
descended from heaven and touched me. I
understood it was Jesus. For a moment I closed my
eyes with a heavenly joy, for His touch cooled my
body and mind. When I opened my eyes all the
blisters and sores had disappeared from my body.
I am purified as if washed with a perfumed
ointment. But Jesus who came in bright and
spotless was now infected with blisters and
sores. Pus and discharges were flowing out of
them. Worms and maggots were roaming freely on
his body. It was like an abominable, foul
smelling creature.
Yes! “Surely he has borne our
griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed
him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But
he was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our inequities; upon him was the
chastisement that made us whole, and with his
stripes we are healed” (Is 53:4-5).
Christ had taken on himself all my
afflictions. I should have been condemned to
death for all my sins. But I saw Christ taking on
all my sins and being cruicified in my place for
my sake.
Earlier I never believed that
Christ was crucified. I used to ask how our sins
would be washed away by his death, even if he was
crucified. But now I was convinced how and for
what Christ died.
“For our sake he made him to
be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor
5:21).
I saw Jesus breaking the tomb and
rising up from the dead. He was more glorious and
resplendent in resurrection than he descended
from the clouds.
I fell at his feet crying,
“My Lord and my God”.
I do not know whether this
experience which occurred me in my own house in
an area where there are no christians, is a
dream, or a revelation or a vision. I was not at
all believing such kind of matters. But this
experience transformed me into a Christian.
It enabled me to throw away the
old man and made me to become a new man. I
receivd joy and peace the like of which I never
knew before.
I shared my conversion of mind and
joy at the same night to my parents. Although
they listened me, but tried to dissuade saying
this was only a trick played by Iblis (Satan).
But I was convinced that the loving God has saved
me through His only Son and that I would inherit
eternal life. As a result I had to face torture
and threats in my life.
I was baptized in the water as
soon as I accepted Him as my personal Saviour.
God baptized me with the Holy Spirit too.
One day I was narrating my
christian experiences to some of my friends near
the mosque. Suddenly one of my cousin brothers
named Salim stabbed me with a knife. My lower jaw
was split. Everybody thought that I may die. But
God saved me and made me a witness again at that
place. Salim was making arrangements to murder me
in another way and had a plan to convert it into
a suicide. For the same he was buisily making a
noose at the top of a tree. But a whirl wind blew
and Salim fell with the branch of the tree. He
was near to death. Instinctively I wished for his
death. But Jesus ordered me to love and nurse
Salim as He had loved me when I was His enemy. At
my initiative Salim was taken to the hospital and
was in plaster for more than six months. When
Salim recovered he accepted Jesus as his Savior.
The Jama’ath authorities chained me, shaved
my head, and locked me in an underground cellar
when yet another person became a Christian. When
I tried to escape acid was sprayed on me. I was
beaten up several times and even lost a few
teeth. I considered these experiences as lucky
gains made in the name of Jesus and as symbal of
my spiritual fervour.
The Lord visited a few more people
who caused trouble on me. Most of them led to
believe in Jesus. My parents and siblings who
banned me from the entire area is now visiting
me, and are willing to pray with me, though in
private. My family and I can now visit with
confidence our ancesteral home and the adjoining
muslim neighbourhood as witnesses to the Gospel.
The Living God is helping us in that.
God has given me a deep burden
about those who go astray. Also He empowered me
to preach Gospel. By Gods grace I have already
preached before thousands of crowds. Preaching
the Word of God, using the gift of healing,
counseling, sharing the testemony are the part of
my preaching ministry.
While many who take pride in
calling themselves christians look upon gospel
work with contempt, I consider it only God’s
grace that I look upon proclaiming the Gospel as
a great honour. My life’s goal and ambition
is to show the muslim world the truth and thus
help them in saving their souls.
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