God’s Word tells us, “For those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). When we read Naila’s story, we see how God pursued her heart through a series of circumstances and individuals, drawing her to Him and calling her into a relationship with Him. We see how He is protecting her and sustaining her in the midst of great persecution.
God’s Power Shows Up for Naila
Naila grew up in a devout Muslim family. Her grandfather was a mosque imam. As a child, Naila befriended a Christian classmate whom she loved and urged several times to become a Muslim.
One day during summer vacation, Naila asked her Christian friend to utter the Shahada, an Islamic oath, to become a Muslim, but the girl refused. She said: “I am not afraid of you. Jesus loves me and will not let you hurt me.” Naila became angry and reacted by pushing her friend off the edge of the building they were in, saying, “Much good may your Jesus do you then!” The girl fell from the second story down to the ground.
Naila ran down the stairs, thinking that she had killed or hurt her friend, but she found her friend completely unharmed! The Christian girl said to Naila again, “Jesus loves me, and you can’t hurt me.” Naila was confused by her own sinful actions and by the fact that God could love people and care for them.
God continued to place Christian influences in Naila’s life. When her family moved to a new home, there was a picture of the Virgin Mary left on Naila’s new bedroom wall. They could not remove the picture, so Naila kept it there. Naila also now had new Christian neighbors and she spent a lot of time with them. She decided to ask them questions about their faith.
Under pressure from her family, Naila eventually got married. Her husband was not a devout Muslim, so Naila wore a burqa but did not participate in the Muslim rituals of fasting and prayer. In time, they had three children together.
God’s Provision for Naila
Tragically, Naila’s teenage sister died suddenly, and Naila began thinking more about her own eternal destiny. Then Naila’s young daughter became very ill. Her condition was so poor, the doctors gave up on her chances of survival. At this point, Naila remembered her Christian childhood friend who had been protected when she fell from the second story. Naila asked the Lord to save her daughter, and miraculously, her daughter recovered quickly.
Doctors were astonished and asked Naila many questions, trying to find a reason behind what had happened. Her only answer was that this was a miracle.
One day, Naila received a Bible from a Christian man who was renting a storage space from her father. When she had questions about Scripture, she asked him, and he suggested that she “prepare herself to enter the presence of God” before reading. Naila wasn’t sure what he meant, but she prayed and asked God for guidance. Through the Holy Spirit’s power, she began to understand God’s Word better as she read the Bible more and more.
Naila’s husband was working as a contractor in a neighboring country, so she and her children stayed with her parents. Her surviving sister noticed that she was fasting and praying according to Christian traditions and told their parents. The family reacted with violence and hatred. They beat and humiliated Naila. They forced her to recite the Quran aloud and to watch Muslim TV channels. They also thought of sending her away and brought in a cleric to revert her to Islam.
God’s Protection Over Naila and Her Children
Naila was scared for her safety. She was reluctant to leave her children, but when a mob gathered and she felt threatened, she left home and went to a place a Christian pastor found for her, where she lived with other Christian women from a Muslim background.
When her husband learned through his parents about her conversion, he said that he would become a Christian to be with her, but this was a lie. He only wanted the church’s help in order to get a visa.
The church helped the whole family apply for visas, but Naila was denied and returned home with her children while her husband moved. Now, she depends on minimal help from her church and is currently staying in a Help The Persecuted Safe House with her children. Meanwhile, her husband, living far away, still sends threats to those helping her, and her parents and in-laws are looking for her.
Naila’s only safe harbor right now is the Body of Christ. Even her own husband and family have turned against her. Help The Persecuted can offer her support and stability because of generous brothers and sisters like you who further our ministry to those who have been abandoned and threatened because of their faith. Join us in praying for Naila and her family, that God would protect her and her children, and change the hearts of her loved ones so that they might know the freedom of following the one true God through Jesus Christ.