“I hate my life! And how many times have I said those words? A thousand? At least. Maybe ten thousand!”
Dina Hadad looked out the front window of her home in Aleppo and her heart sank. It was what she feared all day. Dina’s husband was home.
Mohammad Hadad walked angrily up to the front door and slammed it shut with all his might. It was going to be another night of terror in the house. He didn’t say a word, but he had “the look.” Dina had grown accustomed to “the look” and the rage behind it that emanated from his whole being.
“My husband’s contorted face could clear out a room in seconds. By the time the door slammed, our two children were already hiding in their bedrooms. I dared to ask him a simple question:
Mohammad, before dinner I need to run down to the souk to get some nice fresh hot pita bread. Is that alright? Do I have your permission?
I never saw Mohammad’s fist coming at me. When it hit me on the side of the head, I fell and hit the other side of my head on the kitchen sink. A few minutes later, I came to and felt the blood pouring out of my nose.
The beatings were not daily, but almost. How did I marry such a vicious monster? With all my might I endured the abuse praying that Allah would keep Mohammad from turning his evil temper on our precious children. They didn’t deserve a home like this. No one did. And all the time, Mohammad justified his evil drunken violence with Suras from the Quran.
What a religion we have! Are women just born to be slaves, punching bags, and baby machines? Is that our lot?
My husband was rich and did whatever he wanted. His three businesses thrived, and he was also a faithful leader at the mosque in Aleppo. He and the imam were as close as brothers and that all worked for Mohammad’s benefit too of course. His frequent payments were kindly accepted by the imam to cover his schemes.
My husband, Mohammad was a sex-addict and over the first several years of our marriage he had 66 affairs. That’s right 66. He counted them and would tell me about each one and even arranged for the imam to call it a temporary marriage. Basically, it was legalized prostitution. Mohammad paid the money, the women agreed, and the imam and mosque were fine with it. Mohammad bragged about how the women loved him, but they did it for money plain and simple.
How I hated him. It was my passion in life to one day leave him forever. This would be my ultimate revenge to take the two children and never let him see them again.
Mohammad was a Jihadist. He despised all Syrian government officials and lived for the day that he could do something heroic for all Sunni Muslims. He wanted to kill President Assad. Little did he know, that my hatred for him was so deep that the only Jihad I could think of was within my home. I wanted to kill him.”
Mohammad:
“But then something happened one night. It changed everything. Jesus came to me in a dream and told me that I was on the wrong path and that he loved me. How could He love me? My own wife didn’t love me!
I thought it was some kind of hallucination and that would be the end of that. But, Jesus kept coming to me. More dreams. More love. More confusion on my part, so I decided to find a Bible. I’d heard about the Book and I had to get one.
I’m sorry to say that I stole one out of a church. I started to read one night when Dina went to sleep and the words on the page did something deep in my heart. I read the Bible late at night for months and hid it from her.
In the midst of war that raged around us, Jesus was coming to me in dreams, and I was also finding comfort in the Bible. I decided to take the next step.
I dared to go to a church. There was one in my city, it was no more than a large Bible Study in a home. I made sure that no one was watching, and I quietly went in. I was overwhelmed by the love I felt in that room. And from total strangers too.
I never heard words like that in my life. How could Jesus forgive me? Anyone but me! My evil heart was so dark. I beat my wife mercilessly. I degraded her by all the other women in my life and I used to brag about it to her. Then I excused myself by quoting from the Quran to justify my sin.
Jesus saw right through it. When I read the gospels and saw how Jesus talked to the Pharisees… it was as if He was speaking to me alone.
Yet, this amazing Jesus was willing to forgive me anyway. After a year of reading the Bible and going to the Bible studies, I couldn’t stand it any longer. I repented, and I gave my life to Jesus. How I wept for all my sins! The first person I wanted to tell was dear Dina. Could she ever begin to forgive me?”
Dina:
“Well Mohammad you’ve done it this time! You’re forgiven? How convenient is that? For all the misery you’ve caused me, and I’m supposed to just look the other way?
Never! I will never forgive you!”
Mohammad:
“How could I blame Dina? I deserved it, all of it.
But then Jesus took over. I prayed that God would make me a good husband, a real husband like I read about in the New Testament. He did that! I fell in love with Dina and I would even pray before dinner to Jesus. I would always thank Him for Dina and our two wonderful children. For eight months I invited her to go to church with me and she would just day no. But one day I invited her, and she said: “I am ready.”
It took Dina about a year before she found her way to Jesus. It was a day I will never forget. She was finally free, and she also was able to forgive me. She loves Jesus with her whole heart and smiles all the time.”
Dina:
“I was able to forgive Mohammad only because Jesus forgave me first. In my own strength, I could not control the bitterness inside of me. I could not forgive. Jesus gave me the power to forgive.
When I did forgive Mohammad, he told me that he loved me. He had never said those words to me before.
He told me that he loved me over and over. Then he smiled and told me that he loved me and just me alone.”
The Uncharted Team recently met the Hadads in Lebanon. They are now refugees and have left Syria. Mohammad lost his businesses and the imam that was closer than a brother has now called for Mohammad’s death. Both Dina’s parents and Mohammad’s have done the same. But the Hadads both said that they are ready to die for Jesus.
Mohammad:
“I think this is the way that Dina and I will die. We expect to be killed because we love Jesus and left the religion of Islam.
But, Jesus has done so much for us. He forgave me for all the evil. He gave me a beautiful loving wife in Dina that forgave me. Now we have a third child and we tell each of them about Jesus who set us free every day. How could we ever deny our Jesus?”
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