ALIYAH

 "Aliyah!” Father thundered my name. I had barely gotten enough sleep since I was awake the whole night clearing the house.  Father had just been appointed as the Emir of the Jama’are Emirate and the celebration held the previous day.

Source: Tim.D

"Uba ina zuwa”, I responded as I dawdled to the sitting room. There, I saw fury on father’s face, Momma was just staring at me with a face full of worry. My heart skipped a beat. I had never seen Uba and Uwa in such moods. “What could have happened?”, I wondered. My sleepy eyes cleared up fast when father handed me a piece of paper. “What is the meaning of the rubbish written here?”, he snapped.

Glancing through the paper, sweat from heaven knows where flooded my body. I remained speechless as I recalled how it all started.

I was in the central mosque some months ago, memorizing some of the verses of the Al-Baqarah. I was on verse 255 when I heard a strange voice whisper “Jesus is the only true and living God”. Upon looking around to find no one,  I continued the memorization only to hear the whisper again. “La samah Allah”, I exclaimed. “I would never be part of this blasphemy”. So, I closed my Qu’ran and rushed home trying hard not to ruminate on the strange blasphemous voice.

Throughout that week, I had different encounters with people and in studying my Qu’ran that provoked a plethora of questions in me about all I’ve ever known as my religion.

Brought up in a very strong Islamic home, I understood clearly the principles of the Holy Qu’ran and had become one of the best female apologists in my region. What I could not decipher was why the ‘messenger personality’ was so interested in me.

20th of April. That night, I had just observed the Isha. As I stood up, I saw Him. I immediately knew it was the ‘messenger personality’. He was full of light and life beyond what I could explain or even understand. He told me his name. His love was so overwhelming that I could not resist, I didn’t even know when I broke down in tears and mumbled, “I don’t want to continue in darkness; draw me into your light, Jesus, my Lord and God”. He drew me up into His embrace. “Welcome home, daughter”, He said. That was the beginning of my new journey. The peace and euphoria I felt that night made me pen down every detail of my encounter. Despite the fact that I was joyous about my decision, I knew it wasn’t time for my family to know about it. I had succeeded in hiding my new identity for the past five months and three days, even the paper I wrote on was securely tucked away. It remained a mystery to me how the paper got to father.

“Are you deaf or you’ve suddenly turned dumb?”, Father raged.  He continued, “so we are the ones in darkness, right?”. I didn’t know what to say or even how to say it, I just knelt before him, “Uba, garfarta mani”, I said in tears.  “But that’s my decision”, I spoke firmly with a courage that I found surprising. My declaration ignited more annoyance in Father and Momma as though petrol had been added into a burning fire. Unbothered by their reaction, I continued, “Christ is now my Lord and Sav...”.  “Shut up”. Momma interrupted and hissed. “I believe you don’t know what you are saying because if you do, you won’t be uttering those nonsensical words to your father with so much alacrity”. When father saw I was unbending in my decision, he threatened to starve me and also cut me off from my education. 

Today marks the tenth day I’ve been locked up in an underground room with no food or water in sight, not even Uwa was allowed to see me. The most painful part of this is that I’m being tortured by my own blood. I never for once saw myself in the shoes of those Christians who shared stories of their persecution for their faith. I don’t know what awaits me next but what keeps me going every day is that I wake up full and filled with the love of Christ, my Saviour and Lord. I feel strong and peaceful whenever I remember a Romans 8:35 bookmark from my secretly-downloaded YouVersion Bible App. He went through death and hell for me so, my life, and heart will be His forever…for nothing shall separate me from His love, not starvation, not excommunication, not blood, not affliction, not peril, not even death.

I would like to specially thank my friends, Eloho and bro John for helping me proofread this story...I love you, and for my loyal readers, you remain my strong motivation...

Debhie