How One Man’s Faith Helped 100,000 Muslims Find Jesus

EARLY INFLUENCES 

Harun was born in Israel to Muslim parents living in an Arab village called Abu Gosh, near Jerusalem.  Known as “Little Switzerland” for its beauty, Abu Gosh is believed to be the town of Kirjath Jearim of the Bible, the resting place for the Ark of the Covenant before King David returned it to Jerusalem (1 Samuel 7:1-2).  He says his parents were exemplary people.  “Thanks to our parents’ wisdom and good heart, our home became a miniature model of a diverse community where each of the eleven siblings lived respectfully of the others.  One of my mother’s educational goals was to teach us to embrace others and love everyone … for example, it was forbidden to tell racist jokes in our home.  I think this is how I learned to accept many kinds of personalities and viewpoints,” Harun says.  Sadly, his father died of lung cancer when Harun was just eight years old, leaving him with a deep longing for a dad.   

Having attended Arab primary schools, Harun had a choice of an Arab or Jewish secondary school.  “I wanted to attend a Jewish school because they were considered high quality,” he says.  And so he did, learning to speak Hebrew fluently and receiving hands-on training in engine mechanics.  “I came to know Jews, Christians, and Muslims and mingled with many Jewish immigrants from various parts of the world.”  Harun’s family and experiences were preparing him to appreciate and work with people of all backgrounds.   

WHO IS GOD?

Though his family was Muslim, Harun says it was more cultural identity than religious practice.  Likewise, in attending the Jewish secondary school, he found that most of the wonderful Jewish families he got to know were secular Jews, and didn’t significantly affect his political or religious views.  What did have a profound effect on him years earlier was the Six-Day War of 1967.  “I believed that God existed, but after the war, I had begun to doubt who He was and whose side He was on.  So, around twelve years old, I decided to search for answers by making the Islamic prayers more a part of my life.”  Harun prayed like a true Muslim, he says, but after a few days, felt bored.  “The biggest reason was that I had so many unanswered questions about religion: Does God really hear me when I pray?  Was I supposed to pray the Muslim way without addressing my personal issues?  Why couldn’t I have a personal relationship with God?  Why did I have to pray at certain times?”  Over the next several years, Harun grew more disillusioned.  “I think I rejected the Muslim prayer concept mostly because I felt it didn’t help me to know God or have a real relationship with Him.  I felt like I was literally “just going through the motions.”  Though he continued to enjoy things teenage boys do, like soccer and friends, he says inside he felt empty.  “I began to doubt everything about Islam, religion, and even God’s existence.  After that, I lived years without believing anything.”  

FINDING ANSWERS

Harun continued his studies after secondary school and went to work in a kibbutz, an agrarian, communal settlement, in Israel.  After a couple years, a charming, Christian young lady from Finland, Sari, also came to work at the kibbutz.  The two took a liking to each other, which quickly grew into love.  Harun eventually moved to Finland, the two married in June of 1980, and soon joyfully welcomed their first son.    (MORE …) 

Though grateful to be a husband and father, Harun still felt lost inside.  “Despite all those good things, life was – though I didn’t want to confess it – off the rails for me.  I smoked weed and drank, but continued to work,” he admits.  Sari and some other Christian women started praying for their unbelieving husbands – and God started to work.  “Sari and I started talking more about Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.”  Then one bitterly cold night as Harun waited in the taxi line after going to a bar, a man named Jouni approached a few of them, asking if they could discuss spiritual issues.  He offered them something warm to drink in a café while the long line went down, so they accepted.  Harun told Jouni he knew all about several religions.  He was shocked by how Jouni replied. “I don’t care if you are a Muslim, studied in a Jewish school, and your wife is a Christian; I see that you are drunk.  The Bible is clear: If you do not have Jesus in your own heart, you will not go to heaven.”  The next week, Harun met again with Jouni and a friend of his to discuss the Bible, and continued to meet with them.  For her part, Sari cleverly pointed Harun to the Old Testament because of his knowledge of Hebrew, and showed him many prophecies of Jesus’ birth, life, suffering, death, and resurrection.  “This discovery shook me, and I was so astonished that the Jews did not believe in Jesus as the anticipated Messiah, though they read their holy Scriptures every day.”   Harun says the Holy Spirit was convicting him of his sins, but he was still confused, had no peace, and knew that publically converting from Islam would break his mother’s heart.  Desperate, he took a sheet of paper and wrote in Arabic, “Judaism, Christianity, Islam,” folded it, and put it under a stone in the forest.  He asked God to please mark which one was true and that he’d be back in a week.  When he returned, he found the ink had washed off from ground moisture, leaving only smudges.  Realizing he couldn’t continue living this way, Harun knew he had to make a decision.  All he’d been learning validated Jesus, “So, I decided to try Jesus,” he explains.  On March 31, 1985, he prayed, “If you, Jesus Christ, are my God and Savior, change my life and turn my black heart into a clean heart… from a hateful heart into a loving heart … from a defiled heart into a pure heart, filled with holiness and self-control.  Later, I started to realize that my heart was filling with love and the power of regeneration.”

THE GOALS 

Harun began witnessing to everyone, including Muslims, throughout Finland and Sweden.  He quickly realized that media was a powerful tool for reaching Muslims, as it provided an effective way to bring truth into their homes.  He immersed himself in media work, producing content for TV, radio, and the internet with Keymedia, but a challenge became clear in how it was done.  “Officially, everything was made for Christians living in the Arabic world.  We understood that we had to change all this to see a revival.  We had to change our strategy,” Harun explains.  Then an idea came to him and his co-workers.  “What if we were to complement the gospel message with straightforward talk that would challenge Muslims with questions exposing the weaknesses in Islam?  No one had done anything like that before.”  So, they prayed for that opening.  In 2003, Al Hayat Ministries started 24/7 satellite TV programming, tracts, publications, and more.  The goal of the programming is “to ardently share the Gospel of Christ, with the utmost respect and unwavering courage, and to aim to provide an enlightening perspective on the misconceptions associated with Islam.”  In addition, their vision is to equip believers from Muslim backgrounds with the necessary tools and knowledge to fulfill the Great Commission.  “Our mission is not only to educate but also to inspire and mobilize individuals towards a harmonious coexistence rooted in truth and love.”  

PERSECUTION 

Harun explains that his ministry has not come without cost.  For a Muslim-background believer (MBB) whose faith is known, they can face prosecution and persecution.  “Every week, we hear reports of how an MBB somewhere has been arrested, abandoned by their families, or otherwise persecuted for their faith.”  The staff of Al Hayat has not escaped these consequences.  Harun himself has received death threats, and even had a fatwa (death sentence) issued against him in 2004.  With the support of his family and staff, who prayed with him for God’s protection, he faced his fear and refused to stop his work reaching out to the Muslim world with love and truth.  

FRUIT 

“Over the last two decades, the total number of salvation decisions reported to Al Hayat and its partners has risen to the hundreds of thousands.  More Muslims have come to Christ in recent decades than in the previous 1400 years combined.  I dare say the phenomenon is primarily due to the emergence of satellite TV, and later, the internet and other new media platforms.  It’s been astonishing to see how Al Hayat has become the largest, most influential Christian satellite television broadcaster to reach Muslim audiences worldwide.”  

To Find out more about Al Hayat Ministries click the LINK!  or to watch their broadcast click the LINK!  

CREDITS

Author, Sharing Jesus, Shaking Islam (Al Hayat Ministries, 2025) / Executive Director, Al Hayat (The Life) Ministries, which includes an Arabic Christian TV channel and receives millions of inquiries each year from Muslims eager to learn more about Christianity.  In its 22-year history, the ministry has seen more than 100,000 Muslims come to faith in Jesus Christ. / Multi-media producer / Married to Sari, two grown sons, Ali and Sami, four grandchildren