"13 years ago, a friend gave me a Bible," Mojtaba (alias) begins as he tells his story. At the time, he belonged to Sufism, a Muslim group that practiced mysticism. "I danced, could tell fortunes and put needles through my cheeks and hand in boiling water without feeling pain. That way we thought we were close to God, but inside I felt emptiness."
Besides being a Sufi, Mojtaba had been married several times and had a 99-year Islamic nikah al Mut'a contract with a woman so they could legally have sex for pleasure without living together as husband and wife.
"It wasn't until I got the Bible that my void was filled," says Mojtaba. "I read it for a whole year by myself. I was searching for the truth and knew I had received something precious. In the Bible, there was a prayer of salvation on the last page that you could pray along with. I bent my knees all by myself and prayed the prayer of salvation," he says, demonstrating to me during the conversation how he bent his knees. "I knew for sure that I was a sinner. I asked for forgiveness for my sins. Everything I had done in my life, I brought to Jesus. I asked Jesus to take all my past."
I saw myself crucified with Christ and at the same time I wanted to hug Jesus
"I was working as a truck driver at the time, so I know that when you put a load on the car, it gets weighed down and slows down. I felt the same way. A weight left me when I asked for forgiveness for my sin. I was excited like a child when I told my friend who had given me the Bible that I had accepted Jesus," says Mojtaba with a warm smile.
"My friend helped me read the Bible and also invited me to a neighboring country to Iran so I could be baptized. When I got out of the baptismal water, I held my hands as if I was hanging on the cross, for maybe 40 minutes or an hour. I saw myself crucified with Christ and at the same time I wanted to hug Jesus. I cried for hours. The other Christians came to me, but the priest told them not to interrupt this joyful experience I was having."
"If I hadn't been able to read the Bible in my own language, I would still be lost"
At the time, Mojtaba had two wives, one with a nikah al Mut'a contract and the other in a regular marriage. "I asked the priest what I should do. The priest didn't tell me what to do, but said: 'You already know.' My wives had lived together while I was in neighboring Iran. When I came back, I told them what had happened to me. The woman I had the nikah al Mut'a contract with said, 'Now you are impure, now I can't be with you.' She left me."
"I told the second wife that she could stay married to me, but also that she was free to leave me if she didn't want to be with a Christian. 'I'll give you what I have so you don't leave me empty-handed or in debt,' I told her. But the interesting thing was that she had secretly been reading the Bible. After a week, she accepted Jesus as her savior. She said, 'I love the love of Jesus.'"
To Danish European Mission's intercessors and donors, Mojtaba says of the many copies of the New Testament printed, smuggled and distributed in Iran: "You are a blessing to us. If I had not been able to read the Bible in my own language, I would still be lost." To illustrate what he means, Mojtaba kisses his Bible.
Mojtaba concludes by saying: "People in Iran see Islamic clerics as Pharisees. More people in Iran love Jesus, and there are examples where even Muslims can have a cross around their neck and in their car. They may have a picture of the Last Supper in their homes. They may love and respect Jesus, but they need to hear who Jesus really is. What the story behind the cross really is. That they need to repent of the darkness."
Nikah al-Mut'a
In Shia Islam, it is possible to enter into a nikah al-Mut'a contract for a temporary marriage of pleasure. The contract can have a duration from one hour up to 99 years.
