Believer Beaten Nightly for Three Years, Leads Abusers to Christ

Night after night for three years, Jamil endured the same abuse. Different groups of men — leaders of a local Islamist group — came to his home and took turns beating him. They punched him, slapped him and kicked him, their hatred inflamed by drunkenness. In their eyes, he was a kafir, or infidel, in his small Central Asian village, and he was leading others away from Islam. In Jamil’s country, you had to be Muslim in order to truly belong, and to these drunkards, Jamil no longer belonged.

Jamil was raised in a moderate Muslim family, but his older brother adopted more radical beliefs while serving a prison sentence. Jamil’s curiosity was piqued by his brother’s views, so he began his own search for spiritual truth. During his studies, he met Christians who shared the gospel with him. Jamil knew he had found the one true God, and he turned his back on Islam for good.

He immediately began sharing the gospel, leading his Islamist brother to Christ as well as three other siblings. He planted four house churches before his church sent him as a missionary to a village composed entirely of Muslims.

Jamil shared the gospel as he worked to support his family. News of his Christian faith spread quickly among the villagers, and they soon decided that he had to be stopped. That’s when the nightly beatings began. They couldn’t allow kafirs in their village.

“You Can Beat Me, but Not My Child”

When the men came to beat Jamil, he shared the Scripture with them and never tried to retaliate. But one night the beating went too far.

That night only one man showed up to deliver the beating. As Jamil endured the punches, his 6-year-old son walked into the room. The man stopped hitting Jamil and turned to look at the boy. He then drew back his arm and shoved his fist into the young boy’s stomach. Jamil’s son fell to the floor, gasping in pain.

Jamil had had enough. He was unable to turn the other cheek. While he could take the beatings himself, he couldn’t allow the man to hit his son.

Seeing his temper flare, the attacker turned and fled. A rush of adrenaline surged through Jamil’s aching body as he pulled himself off the floor and frantically searched for a knife. The attacker ran out the door and down the street to his own house, where he hid in a back room. Jamil burst into the man’s home and stopped in front of his attacker’s elderly father, who was sitting in the front room. “Where is your son?” Jamil demanded. “I’m going to kill him!”

“Jamil, this isn’t like you,” the elderly man replied. He knew that Jamil had endured years of nightly beatings without fighting back. “Why do you want to kill my son?”

After telling the father what his son had done, Jamil stumbled back into the street, still filled with rage and thoughts of revenge. He later told everyone in the village that the man’s attack on his son was unacceptable and dared anyone to fight him.

Jamil couldn’t sleep that night. He became restless as his anger subsided, and he was convicted by the Holy Spirit of his vengeful thoughts. He knew that he needed to ask for forgiveness. The following morning before sunrise, he walked back to the home of his son’s attacker and asked the man and his elderly father for their forgiveness.

Although the man and his father were affected by Jamil’s apology, the villagers still didn’t want the kafir in their village, and the nightly beatings resumed.

“You Cook for Us”

One night as the leaders of the local Islamist group were leaving on a hunting trip, they barged into Jamil’s home at dinner time to deliver their nightly beating. And this time they were hungry. Turning to Jamil’s wife, one of the men gruffly said, “You cook for us!” They sat on the floor around the table looking at her as if they were daring her to refuse their demand. Jamil’s wife looked questioningly at her husband, hoping Jamil would tell her what to do. “Please cook for them,” he told her.

Jamil’s wife dutifully prepared the meal and served the men who had beaten her husband and son. As they ate, Jamil saw his opportunity and began to share the gospel with them. He knew that sharing the gospel could lead to more beatings or, even worse, the beating of his son and possibly his wife.

As the men finished their meal, Jamil ended his gospel presentation by saying, “May God bless your hunt.”

The men were astonished. “We came here to eat your food and beat you, but now we cannot,” said the leader. “We will leave you in peace.”

Jamil and his wife were stunned at their response as they pushed back from the table and left the house.

Days later, the leader of the group invited Jamil to his home to share the gospel with his family. As the villagers observed all that happened, the gospel began to make headway.

VOM supports persecuted believers like Jamil by providing them with the tools they need to share the gospel and disciple new believers. Jamil and his family have moved to another area, where they serve in a greater capacity leading believers. The believers in the village where Jamil was beaten were cared for by another Christian.

Jamil endured three years of beatings before finally seeing the gospel take root and multiply in his village.