I used to be a muslim. I absorbed myself in Shariah and followed it to the best of my ability. Every so often, my conscience would awaken from its self imposed slumber. Usually that could be remedied by praying more often and reciting the Qur’an louder, but my conscience would get louder every time. Eventually there came a point in which I could no longer ignore it; I had to face the fact that I was a broken sinner and that all I deserved [from God] was God’s wrath.
Islam is very much about personal merit; you have to earn your status of righteousness and your good deeds must outweigh your sins. The Holy Spirit showed me that it’s not about earning your way to God-- it’s about living by faith and looking to Christ as my only possible solution. The only way I was going to get into Heaven was if I had a substitute. Christ is like the stars, in the sense that you can only see them during the night time. Similarly, Christ’s beauty shines when our horrible depravity is used as its backdrop.
And then there is the fact that Muhammad contradicted the Qur’an. The Qur’an says that there is no compulsion in religion, but Muhammad taught that if someone leaves Islam, they are to be killed. This leads to many persons going through the motions of Shariah without sincerity. They want to leave Islam, but the threat of execution prevents them. This contradiction helped me leave Islam. I spent 27 years ignoring God’s call to repentance, but God was still merciful to me even though I am not at all deserving of mercy.
