AGAINST THE GRAIN
By Khalad Hussain
Xlibris. 218 pages. £13.99
ISBN 978 1 479 732 838
One of the clearest marks that a person is truly born again of the Spirit of God is that he or she instinctively rejoices in the news of another person’s conversion to faith in Christ (Acts 15.3).
So the reading of this book – the detailed story of the arrival of a Pakistani boy of barely secondary school age who was sent illegally to Britain with a strange family, and of his long journey to embrace the Christian faith – cannot but be an encouragement to believers. But to this reviewer, who has lived for more than 40 years among Pahari-speaking Kasmiris (who, like Khalad, have practised the rights of Islam from birth) and who has met or heard about distressingly few who have come to faith, it was a great thrill to read this informative and moving testimony.
Culture that dominates
Here you can gain real insights into the very different culture that dominates life in rural, Pakistani-administered Kashmir. Here you can also discover how such people struggle with what we consider the normal and even the right way to do things in Britain. Here you can learn afresh of the power that love within the Christian community can have on outsiders. And here you can see how a genuine commitment to follow Christ can be made with very little understanding, something the reviewer shares with the author.
Strengthened by Scripture
But the book does not simply lead us to the point of Khalad’s conversion. It also helps us to see how his faith becomes stronger and deeper as he immerses himself in the Scriptures and commits himself wholeheartedly to life and service in the local church. Of particular interest is the way he learns to reconnect with, and truly to appreciate, his family, his homeland and his mother tongue, and the way he came to realise his need to gain a legal right to be and remain in the UK.
This reviewer did not agree with all he read here, but he did greatly appreciate the spirit in which it is written and the story it gives of God’s amazing grace in seeking and finding the individual sinner. And I am confident that it will prove a tonic to many who decide to read it.
