Ravi Zacharias Reflects on Nabeel Qureshi's Death: 'We Know Where He Is'

Ex-Muslim turned Christian apologist, Nabeel Qureshi touched millions of people around the world before his untimely death from stomach cancer earlier this month, but evangelist Ravi Zacharias says one thing was clear: "He wasn't ordinary."

"He was like a racehorse. You couldn't stop him. Even in the thickness of his illness," Zacharias said during his eulogy at Qureshi's memorial service. 

Zacharias summed Qureshi's life up in four ways: "abnormally born, abnormally torn, abnormally scorned, and abnormally gone."

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"He was abnormally born in the sense that he was a rare human being who started out to challenge the claims of Jesus Christ, ended up being convinced that Christ was who he claimed to be, but the courage he had was in willing to go where the truth led him," Zacharias said. 

Nabeel was born into a devout Muslim home and grew into his adult years debating Christians about their faith in Christ. It wasn't until he went to college did Nabeel finally study the evidence for the Gospel. He eventually gave his life to Christ and turned his back on his Muslim faith. 

"Nabeel had the courage to recognize he was blind," Zacharias said. "More than that, he recognized the grace of his Savior, who is the only one capable of transforming you from blindness to sight."

Zacharias also said Nabeel was "abnormally torn" by the consequences his decision to follow Christ would have on his Muslim family. He knew that by saying "yes" to Jesus he was committing the ultimate betrayal against his loved ones.  

"He wept. He sobbed. He cried," Zacharias said. "His passion was tearing him apart on the inside over the love for his Heavenly Father and his earthly father and mother and family."

However, Zacharias said despite Nabeel's pain, one thing was true: "What I am paying is nothing compared to what Jesus paid for me."

Zacharias also saw first-hand how Nabeel was ridiculed, slandered, and even threatened by those who hated his ministry. 
 
'They slandered him, they threatened him, they wanted to attack him," he said. "They didn't scorn him for who he was, they scorned him for who he represented."

Zacharias said even though Nabeel's ministry ended by his abnormal and unexpected death, he is where he belongs. 

"This abnormally born, abnormally torn, abnormally scorned man is abnormally gone," Zacharias said. "For the first time in his life, he has seen reality the way God wanted him to see it. He looked through a keyhole all along and now he sees the whole panorama."

"We know where he is. He is at the place that God prepared for him," he concluded.