Book Club Questions for Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus

1.Lee Strobel's foreword frames this as a story of evidence, friendship, and courage. Before you read further, what do you expect from a book about a Muslim converting to Christianity? What assumptions are you bringing in?

2.Nabeel describes his family — his father Ammi, his mother Abba, and his sister Baji — as the most important people in his world. How does the portrait of a loving, faithful Muslim home challenge any stereotypes you may have held about Islam or Muslim families?

3.The Qureshi family belonged to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a minority sect that faces intense persecution from mainstream Islam. Why is this detail important for understanding Nabeel's specific Islamic formation, and what does it tell us about the diversity within Islam itself?

1.Nabeel describes being trained in Islamic apologetics — arguments for the truth of Islam and against Christianity. Were you raised to defend your faith intellectually? How has that shaped (or limited) how you engage with people who believe differently?

2.One of the key Muslim arguments Nabeel learned was that the Bible has been corrupted (tahrif) and therefore cannot be trusted. How does a Christian best respond to this claim — and why does the answer matter so much for the conversation between Islam and Christianity?

3.The Quran, for Muslims, is not just a scripture — it is the very word of Allah, perfectly preserved in Arabic. How does this view of the Quran differ from how most Christians think about the Bible, and how does that difference affect the whole framework of the conversation?

1.Describe the early dynamic between Nabeel and David Wood. What made their friendship unusual, and why do you think it worked when so many interfaith conversations fail?

2.David didn't try to convert Nabeel — he tried to be his friend and to think honestly with him. How does this approach differ from typical models of evangelism you've seen or experienced? What are the risks and rewards of David's approach?

3.Nabeel writes that David was the first Christian who could actually engage his arguments without getting flustered or defensive. What does this tell us about the kind of preparation and character that effective cross-cultural witness requires?

1.Nabeel had been taught that the Bible was hopelessly corrupted and unreliable. When he actually examined the manuscript evidence, what did he find — and how did that finding begin to destabilize his Islamic apologetics?

2.The textual transmission of the New Testament is actually better attested than almost any other ancient document. Did you know this before reading? How does this kind of historical evidence interact with faith for you — does it strengthen it, feel beside the point, or something else?

3.Nabeel distinguishes between investigating Islam from the inside (as a believer) versus investigating it from the outside (as a historian). Why does this distinction matter, and how does applying historical-critical methods to Islam produce surprising results?

1.Nabeel engages what scholars call the 'minimal facts' approach to the resurrection — focusing on facts that are accepted by the vast majority of historians, including skeptics. What are these minimal facts, and why is this method a powerful tool in dialogue with non-Christians?

2.Islam teaches that Jesus was not crucified — that God made someone else appear as Jesus and Jesus was taken up to heaven. How does Nabeel's investigation of the historical evidence challenge this claim, and what sources does he draw on?

3.Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15 that the risen Jesus appeared to more than five hundred people at once, most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote. Why is this kind of claim significant from a historical standpoint?

1.Islam has a high view of Jesus — it teaches that he was born of a virgin, performed miracles, and will return at the end of time. Why, then, is the Islamic Jesus so fundamentally different from the Christian Jesus, and why does that difference matter so much?

2.Nabeel examines whether Jesus actually claimed to be God — a claim many people, including some Christians, are uncertain about. What evidence does Nabeel present from the Gospels that Jesus made this claim explicitly?

3.C.S. Lewis famously argued that Jesus was either Lord, a liar, or a lunatic — he could not simply be a 'good moral teacher.' How does Nabeel use similar logic in his investigation, and do you find this argument persuasive?

1.Nabeel describes knowing intellectually that Christianity was true while being emotionally and relationally unable to embrace it. Have you ever experienced a gap between what you knew to be true and what you were able to act on? What kept you from the next step?

2.For a Muslim from a South Asian background, conversion to Christianity is not just a private religious choice — it can mean the loss of family, community, and cultural identity. Jesus himself said he came not to bring peace but a sword, and that those who love family more than him are not worthy of him (Matthew 10:34–37). How do you sit with the severity of those words?

3.Nabeel prays desperately that God will show him another way — a way to be both Muslim and a follower of Jesus. Have you ever prayed for God to show you a different path than the one he seemed to be calling you to? What happened?

1.Dreams play a significant role in both the Old and New Testaments as a means of divine communication. How does the broader biblical framework for dreams (Acts 2:17; Matthew 1–2) inform how we evaluate Nabeel's experience?

2.Nabeel describes a series of dreams that seem unmistakably to be pointing him toward Jesus — dreams with imagery he could not have generated from his own imagination, imagery that corresponded to specific biblical themes he had been studying. How do you evaluate this kind of testimony? What would you need to believe in order to take it seriously?

3.It is well documented in missionary literature and in testimonies from the Muslim world that dreams and visions of Jesus are unusually common among Muslims who come to faith. Why do you think God might work this way — especially in contexts where there are few Christian witnesses or where open evangelism is dangerous?

1.Describe in your own words the moment Nabeel finally surrenders to Jesus. What does it look like? Where is he? What does he feel?

2.Nabeel says that his conversion was not a joyful leap but more like a man who, clinging to one ledge, finally lets go and falls into the arms of God. Why do you think his conversion felt more like grief than triumph — at least at first?

3.Romans 10:9–10 says that if we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts, we will be saved. Nabeel had believed in his heart for some time before he was able to confess with his mouth. What was stopping him — and what finally enabled him to make that confession?

1.Describe the scene when Nabeel tells his parents about his conversion. How do his mother and father each respond, and what does their response reveal about the depth of what has been lost — and what each person loves most?

2.Nabeel's mother's grief is expressed in physical, visceral terms. How does the intensity of that grief challenge any easy narrative that conversion is straightforwardly good news for everyone involved?

3.Nabeel's father had always been Nabeel's spiritual hero — the one who modeled what it meant to love Allah. How does Nabeel hold onto his love and respect for his father even as he walks away from everything his father taught him to believe?

1.What was it like for Nabeel to enter a Christian community for the first time as a believer? What surprised him, confused him, or delighted him about how Christians worship and do life together?

2.Paul writes that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). What does this newness look like practically for Nabeel — which parts of his old identity does he grieve, and which new things does he embrace?

3.Nabeel had a deeply formed devotional life as a Muslim — regular prayer, fasting, and a sense of God's nearness. How does he carry those disciplines into his Christian life, and what challenges does he face in finding their equivalents?

1.Nabeel went from being a defender of Islam to being a defender of Christianity. What unique gifts and experiences did his Muslim background give him as a Christian apologist that someone who had never been Muslim could not easily replicate?

2.Paul in Acts 17 engages the Athenians on their own terms — quoting their poets, engaging their philosophers, beginning with what they already know. How does Nabeel use a similar approach when engaging Muslims, starting with shared ground before moving to points of difference?

3.1 Peter 3:15 commands Christians to be ready to give a reason for the hope they have — but always with gentleness and respect. How does Nabeel embody (or sometimes struggle with) this balance of conviction and gentleness in his apologetic work?

1.By the time of the book's writing, what was the state of Nabeel's relationship with his family? What does this tell us about the long, non-linear nature of the healing that follows conversion?

2.Paul writes in Philippians 3:7–8 that he counts everything he once gained as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. How does Nabeel embody this verse — and how does he also complicate a too-simple reading of it by being honest about what the loss actually feels like?

3.Nabeel does not end his story by saying everything worked out perfectly. Why is that honesty important — both for his own integrity and for the integrity of the Christian message he is sharing?

1.Nabeel's book, beyond being a memoir, functions as an introduction to Islam for Christians. What are the three or four most important things you learned about Islam from this book that you did not know before?

2.The five pillars of Islam — shahada (declaration of faith), salat (prayer), zakat (almsgiving), sawm (fasting), and hajj (pilgrimage) — shape the daily life of every devout Muslim. How does understanding these practices help you appreciate both what Muslims are devoted to and where the gospel speaks most powerfully into that devotion?

3.Islam and Christianity share common roots in Abraham. But as Galatians 4 suggests, the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Isaac represent two fundamentally different approaches to God — one based on human striving, one based on divine promise. How does this biblical framework help you understand the deepest difference between the two faiths?

1.Looking back across the whole book, which week's discussion or which chapter from the book was most significant to you personally — and why?

2.How has your understanding of Islam changed as a result of reading and discussing this book? How has your understanding of your own Christian faith changed?

3.Nabeel's story has three major threads: friendship, intellectual investigation, and supernatural experience. Which of these three threads resonated most with your own journey of faith — and which challenged you most?