Son of a Sheikh becomes a Child of God
Where would your hope lie if you lost your home? Or your family, relatives and entire community? If you were rejected by your siblings? Called names by your parents and even threatened to be killed by your closest friends?
Anwar’s answer is “I have hope in Jesus”.
Anwar, 25, is a young man from the suburbs of Syria, where he lived in a simple community of around 700 people. His community was all from Alawite background, a branch of Islam. Their leader is the Sheikh, a very strict and extreme follower of the Alawite traditions whose duties include officiating prayers, funerals, marriages and religious judgment. Anwar is the Sheikh’s son.
Growing up in a the sheikh’s family has made Anwar very well known in the village. “My childhood memories are very annoying to me, I was excluded and didn’t have many friends, I would spend hours on my phone, but I was also very religious, I would pray with my dad and imitate his moves”.
“When I turned 15, I started asking my dad serious questions about the Alawite religion. I was very curious about who Allah really was, does he love me? And what should I do to please him? Unfortunately, my father wouldn’t answer me, he would tell me ‘You’ll know more when you grow up.’”
Anwar was always told he needed to wait. Wait for a certain age, wait till he would memorize a certain prayer, wait till he follows a certain rule, until waiting was no longer an answer for him.
The Alawite faith is very secretive, Anwar explains that it is even not allowed for women to learn the secrets of that religion, only the men who go through series of training, and of a certain age. At one point, he started watching documentaries about religions. “I was sure that Christianity is a lie and I was convinced that it is a wrong faith because to us Christians are deluded, they worship a human not a God, they are infidels.”
Anwar is taught by his parents and community that he shouldn’t be friends with a Christian. “I wasn’t supposed to let any Christian enter my life, they were said to have a way of convincing people to join their false religion, but as I grew up and went to college, I met a Christian girl.” Anwar mocked this girl when she told him about the gospel, how Jesus died and was risen from the dead to save humankind. “I didn’t believe a word she said, especially when she told me that He is alive now and I can ask him myself.”
With the war raging in Syria, Anwar faced many difficulties. He was postponing his mandatory military service using his student alibi, but at that time he was failing his classes and risking being expelled from college. His health, both physically and mentally, was deteriorating; he had severe stomach pains and was suffering from loneliness as he was living alone in the family’s second house in the main district. “I went through deep depression, and above all, the Christian girl kept talking to me about Jesus which made the pressure even higher. At that point I believed that Allah hated me, and I hated him for allowing all this to happen to me, I wanted to end my life.” Anwar looked for a way out of his miserable life, he thought he had no future, no hope.
But God had another plan for him.
“My friend said ‘If you want to end your life then you have nothing to lose, why not try to talk to Jesus and see what he has to tell you?’ so I thought to myself, if it doesn’t work then I can still kill myself, so why not try this? She taught me how to pray and I went into my room and I remember thinking that I was a crazy person for talking to myself. At first nothing changed but after a while I became addicted to knowing Jesus. I started watching videos, listening to worship songs and sermons, I completely forgot about suicide. One day I was talking to Him and I remember I started crying, I poured my heart out to Him, and suddenly I wasn’t alone anymore, I have a friend, Jesus.”
Anwar started reading the gospel of John. God was talking to him through the Bible, spiritual songs, and sermons. “I fell in love with Jesus, He is my best friend, I don’t talk to my family, I just talk to Him about everything.”
His newfound faith gave him such joy, but it was coupled with fear of his family finding out the truth about his conversion. “If they found out the truth I would be in danger, I could be killed, kicked out of the house, deprived of my inheritance and disowned”. Anwar couldn’t utter the word ‘Jesus’ in front of them. He rememberd the storeis he had heard about people who converted and got slaughtered, attacked or imprisoned. “I remember when my friend took me to the church for the first time in the city, I didn’t hear the sermon nor the songs, I was preoccupied by the fear of someone recognizing me and telling my family.”
Eventually word got out that Anwar was attending a church. As the son of a Shiekh, the news spread like wildfire, reaching his parents. “I heard that my mother had a nervous breakdown, and I called my siblings but they didn’t pick up, I called everyone and no one answered, after few hours my sister called and she was crying, she said ‘Don’t ever come back here, my mother is in the hospital because of you, you are no longer my brother’ wasn’t your faith enough for you, you have no honour’ and she hung up on me.”
Anwar’s family kicked him out of the house he was living in. He came to the city and had no place to go. He contacted his friend who connected him with the local church, which partners with Open Doors. Open Doors was able to help Anwar rent the room he lives in currently. Anwar then began the process of finding a job to help him live on his own.
Anwar’s friend works at the Open Doors Centre of Hope in Syria. She shared his case with the management and he was employed at the Centre where he teaches English to grades 5-8. “They helped me in my hardest conditions, this was a new hope for me, a new start and new opportunity for the future”.
Anwar favourite part is to talk to children about Jesus, they pray together at the beginning of every day. “The Centre of Hope gave me a new beginning in my life, after my old family became like strangers to me. I had nothing to belong to, I was alone. Now I’ve met a new family in the church…we laugh together, we share our thoughts and time with each other. If it wasn’t for the centre I don’t know what I would do, I think I would be homeless, hungry and alone.”
“Jesus is everything to me, when I had no one, He was with me, my brother, my companion, my best friend. I talk to him all the time, I rely on him, Jesus truly saved my life. When I wanted to kill myself, He pulled me back and gave me hope for the future, when things go wrong, I escape to Jesus. I know He has a good plan for my life…I don’t want to live a second without Jesus, and I say to all the people who are going through the same circumstances ‘Have courage and trust the Lord because it’s worth it, it’s really worth everything.”
Anwar continues to pray for his family and friends, that they will experience the freedom and purpose he found in following Jesus.
