"When you catch those disbelievers, beat them! Allah will be pleased," Zahid encouraged them. The crowd of young men, young people from their house of worship, swinging iron sticks and pipes and cheering in agreement. He felt fine as a young religious leader. And he feels his parents will be proud. Within minutes, he and his friends were combing the village streets looking for Christians to trap.
Zahid has a proud lineage in Pakistan. His father and brother were religious leaders and Zahid had followed in their footsteps. After being assigned to his house of worship for the first time, Zahid's hatred for Christians began to show and he began to round up his followers against them.
His reign was increasingly influenced by one of the religious laws that required death for anyone found guilty of blasphemy of the prophet and their holy book. At the height of their madness, Zahid led his group into the streets, and it didn't take long until they found a group of young Christians to attack, while being chased by one of them dropping his Bible.
A member of Zahid's group picked up his Bible and opened it to shred the pages. Zahid always told his followers to burn all the Bibles they had collected. But this time Zahid felt a strange desire to save and study it and look for the faults in it.
Zahid reported in his own words what happened in keeping the Bible: "I was reading the Bible, looking for contradictions that I could use against the Christian faith. Suddenly, a bright light appeared in my room and I heard a voice calling my name. The light was so bright, it illuminated the whole room. The voice asked, " Zahid, why are you persecuting Me?" I was scared. I didn't know what had just been done. I thought I was dreaming. I asked, "Who are You?" I heard, " I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. " Over the next three days the light and sound returned. Finally, on the fourth night, I knelt down and accepted Jesus as my Savior. "
Zahid's hatred suddenly disappeared. He wanted to share Jesus with anyone he knew. He went to his family members and those in the mosque and told them what had happened to him during the last four nights. His family and friends turned against him, he was arrested by the authorities. Based on his previous religious teachings, Zahid is now considered an apostate, a traitor to religion, and a criminal.
Zahid was placed in prison for two years, where he was tortured repeatedly. One time, they pulled out his nails in an attempt to break his faith; they tied his hair to the ceiling fan and was left hanging there. "Even though I suffered terribly at the hands of my captors, I did not hold any bitterness towards them. I also once hated Christians. According to my old religious laws, I had to be executed by hanging."
"They tried to force me to take my faith back from Jesus. But I couldn't deny Jesus. The prophet of my religion never visited me; Jesus did and I knew He was the truth. I just prayed for the guards, hoping that they too would know Jesus. "
On the day Zahid would be hanged, he was not afraid of death when they came to take him from the cell. Even as they placed the noose around his neck, Zahid preached about Jesus to his guards and executioners. He wants his last breaths on earth to be used to tell his friends that Jesus is "the way, the truth and the life." Zahid stood ready to face his Savior.
Suddenly, loud voices rang out in the room outside. The guards rushed to inform him that the court had issued an order to release Zahid, stating that there was insufficient evidence to execute him. To this day, no one knows why Zahid was suddenly allowed to leave freely.
Zahid changed his name to Lazarus, feeling that he too had been raised from the dead. He ventured into the villages around his home to witness his miraculous release from death. They saw Zahid's sincerity and accepted him into a big Christian family.
[Source: http://pedson.blogspot.com/2008/01/muslim-masuk-kristen-zahid-pakistan.html]
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