Nabeel Qureshi Dies at Age 34

Ex-Muslim turned Christian apologist, Nabeel Qureshi, passed away Saturday after a year-long battle with stomach cancer. The 34-year-old left behind a wife and two-year-old daughter. The very man who led Nabeel to Christ, David Wood, announced his death on Twitter saying, “My beloved brother Nabeel, rest in peace and joy with the Risen Lord Jesus Christ.”

Qureshi was born and raised in the United States to a devout Pakistani Muslim family.  “My earliest memories are of my mother everyday sitting me next to her and having me put on my skull cap and showing me how to recite the Qur’an letter by letter. I finished the Qur’an when I was five-years-old,” Qureshi explains in a video about his journey to Christ.

He also learned how to defend the doctrines of his Muslim faith and would often challenge non-believers to debates during his time in school. Qureshi finally met his match when he attended Old Dominion University in Virginia and met David Wood. He challenged Wood’s Christian faith when he saw him reading a Bible by himself. Thus began a two and a half year period where the pair challenged each other on the doctrines of their faiths.

Eventually, Qureshi realized his arguments for Islam crumbled under the evidence for Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and divinity.  “At the end of my research, the arguments for and against Islam still hung in the balance, but one thing was abundantly clear: they were far from approaching the strength of the case for Christianity,” Qureshi said.

But it wasn’t just the physical evidence that convinced Qureshi. He had three prophetic dreams about Christ that eventually won him over.  Qureshi accepted Christ as his savior and faced the difficult task of telling his parents. “When my parents did find out it was probably the most painful day of my life,” Qureshi said. “To have Christ in my life makes every loss worth it.”

He went on to study Christian Apologetics at Biola University, while also getting his medical degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School. He later completed a degree in religion at Duke University and entered a PhD program in New Testament studies at Oxford University. Qureshi also became an itinerant speaker with Ravi Zacharias’ International Ministry.

Qureshi published three books, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity, and Answering Jihad: A Better Way Forward, and No God but One: Allah or Jesus? A Former Muslim Investigates the Evidence for Islam and Christianity.

Qureshi made the official announcement of his cancer diagnosis August 2016. “This is an announcement that I never expected to make, but God in his infinite and sovereign wisdom has chosen me for this refining, and I pray he will be glorified through my body and my spirit. My family and I have received the news that I had advanced stomach cancer and the prognosis is quite grim,” he said in a Facebook post.

Qureshi continued to share the gospel and updates on his treatment through videos on his social media page. In the last video before his death, he said he hoped he leaves behind a legacy of love.

“As you consider my ministry, I hope it leaves a message of love, of peace, of truth, of caring for one another,” he says. “Our God is a God of love.”

Watch one of his final videos here