Converts from Islam — in their own words
Famous Muslim converts to Christianity
Some of the most remarkable conversions in Christian history were of Muslim scholars and preachers — men who set out to refutethe Gospel and were won by it. If you're looking for real conversion stories from Islam to Christianity, or considering the step yourself, the richest are the 19th-century testimonies these converts wrote themselves. Here are the notable accounts, with the primary sources, free to read in the public domain.
The primary source
A Mohammedan Brought to Christ
Imad-ud-din Lahiz · 1885
He was a Sunni maulvi — a Muslim cleric and controversialist who debated against Christianity — and he became an ordained Church Missionary Society clergyman at Amritsar, honoured with a D.D. and serving as chaplain to the Bishop of Lahore.
Muslim scholars who converted to Christianity — the historical accounts
1885 · Punjab, North India
Imad-ud-din Lahiz
The strongest single account in the genre. A fourth-generation Muslim scholar who translated the Quran into Urdu and debated against Christianity at the famous 1854 Agra debate — then, after years of restlessness, was baptized at Amritsar in 1866 and became an ordained clergyman. He wrote the memoir specifically to answer those who claimed he had converted for gain, which makes it an unusually pointed sincerity document.
1905 · Ottoman Anatolia
John Avetaranian (Muhammad Shukri Efendi)
A mullah who claimed descent from Muhammad, he was shaken by the drowning of twelve Turkish converts in Constantinople, found a Turkish New Testament, and embraced Christ despite the danger — going on to produce the first Uyghur New Testament in Kashgar. His autobiography is the closest thing to a first-person Ottoman-world convert memoir; our clean edition preserves the public-domain 1905 German original (modern English translations remain in copyright).
1604 · Persia & Spain
Don Juan of Persia (Oruj Beg Bayat)
The earliest account here by three centuries. A Shia courtier and secretary to Shah Abbas's 1599 embassy to Europe, he converted to Catholicism in 1602 knowing apostasy meant death and that he could never go home. Baptized at Valladolid with the King and Queen of Spain as sponsors, he published his own story in 1604 — and was murdered in a street brawl a year later.
c. 1860s · Dholpur / Punjab
Safdar Ali
A close friend of Imad-ud-din who converted after the same 1854 Agra debate. His Niaz Namah — letters to his family explaining why he left Islam and answering common Muslim objections — is genuine first-person material (much of it still only in Urdu).
1898 · Beirut, Syria
Kamil Abdul Messiah
From a prominent Beirut Muslim family, Kamil came to faith through the Arabic New Testament and joined the Arabia mission. His story survives as a biography by the missionary Henry Jessup that quotes his own letters extensively — a partly first-person testimony, and we say so plainly. He died young, apparently poisoned.
early 1900s · Afghanistan / North India
Sultan Muhammad Paul
Born in Kabul in 1881 and educated in Arabic and Islamic texts in Delhi and Bombay, he began as a polemicist — debating Christian preachers to disprove Christianity and protect Muslims from being “misled” — before his own conversion and ordination as an Anglican priest. A striking parallel to Imad-ud-din’s debater-turned-convert arc. His Urdu autobiography, Mein Maseehi Kyun Ho Gaya (“Why I Became a Christian”), survives in modern English translation.
Well-known modern converts
The tradition continues into our own day. These contemporary accounts remain in copyright, so we don't sell them — but they're the names most people are searching for:
Nabeel Qureshi (1983–2017)
A former Ahmadiyya Muslim who became a widely read Christian apologist; his memoir Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus is the best-known modern account.
Mosab Hassan Yousef (b. 1978)
Son of a Hamas co-founder, he described his conversion in Son of Hamas (2010).
Questions about Muslim conversions to Christianity
- Who is the most famous Muslim convert to Christianity in history?
- Among documented, public-domain accounts, Maulvi Imad-ud-din Lahiz is the most significant. A fourth-generation Islamic scholar who had translated the Quran and debated against Christianity, he converted in 1866 and became a leading Indian churchman — and left a first-person autobiography written to prove his sincerity. In the modern era, Nabeel Qureshi (Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus) is among the best known.
- Which Muslim scholars converted to Christianity?
- The best-documented are the 19th-century Punjab scholars: Imad-ud-din Lahiz, a fourth-generation maulvi who had translated the Quran into Urdu and debated for the Muslim side at the 1854 Agra debate; his friend Safdar Ali, a deeply trained maulvi in the British Educational Department; and the Afghan polemicist Sultan Muhammad Paul, who studied under respected scholars in Delhi and Bombay and debated Christian preachers before converting. Each left a first-person account of why he changed.
- Are there real historical accounts of Muslims converting to Christianity?
- Yes. The richest vein is 19th-century missionary-society autobiographies, especially from the Church Missionary Society in the Punjab — Imad-ud-din Lahiz and Safdar Ali being the strongest first-person examples, alongside Kamil Abdul Messiah in Syria and John Avetaranian in Ottoman Anatolia. Several are free to read in the public domain.
- Why are these conversion accounts relatively rare?
- Under Islamic law apostasy long carried the death penalty, and even after the Ottoman reforms of 1844 and 1856 conversions were often made discreetly. Where converts could publish openly — notably British-ruled India — a genuine autobiographical genre developed; elsewhere, testimonies mostly survive embedded in mission records rather than as standalone books.
- Can you convert from Islam to Christianity?
- Yes — many have, and left first-person accounts of doing so. It is worth being honest that it can be costly: under Islamic law apostasy was long treated as a grave offense, and in some places and families conversion still carries real social or legal danger. The testimonies gathered here are, in part, records of people who counted that cost. Imad-ud-din wrote his specifically to answer those who doubted a Muslim scholar could sincerely convert.
- Where can I read conversion stories from Islam to Christianity?
- The strongest first-person conversion stories are the autobiographies listed above — Imad-ud-din Lahiz above all, alongside John Avetaranian, Don Juan of Persia, Safdar Ali, and Kamil Abdul Messiah. Each is free to read in the public domain, and Imad-ud-din's, Avetaranian's, Don Juan's, and Kamil's are also available as clean editions. For the wider library of Christian conversion testimonies, see our full collection.
- Can I read these testimonies for free?
- Yes. Every account here is in the public domain and we link a free source. Four — Imad-ud-din, Avetaranian, Don Juan of Persia, and Kamil Abdul Messiah — are also offered as clean, readable editions; the others link directly to their free full texts or references.
More conversion stories
T.S. Baker — testimonies in their own words, free sources linked.