Kutty, follower of Christ
“If you try to escape, you’ll be killed!
With those words, Kutty’s older brother bolted the bedroom door shut, and Kutty slumped to the floor in pain. His brother’s brutal blows ceased only after he finally agreed to read the Qur’an. That first assault only foreshadowed what lay in Kutty’s future.
Kutty was born into a Muslim family in South India. As a young man he was depressed. Islam didn’t satisfy his soul, and it seemed to him that no one loved him—including Allah.
Searching to fill the void in his heart, Kutty visited a nearby church. The priest, unable to answer all of Kutty’s questions, referred him to K.K. Alavi, director of Bishara Mission Center. After a week’s discussions with K.K., Kutty enrolled in his Bible school to further investigate the claims of Christianity.
When Kutty’s family discovered he was living at Bishara, five people journeyed from Kutty’s village to retrieve him. They included two leaders of the village mosque, the village mayor and secretary, and Kutty’s brother, who later beat him until he agreed to read the Qur’an.
Kutty managed to escape from his bedroom prison three weeks later to attend an evening Bible study. It wasn’t long after that when he quietly made Jesus the Lord of his life, becoming a secret convert to Christ.
To keep him from straying from the faith he had secretly abandoned, Kutty’s family enrolled him in Qur’anic classes, and arranged his marriage to a learned Muslim woman named Jameela. Jameela was charged with keeping an eye on him, and she zealously reported to his family for years. When their first son was old enough, Jameela employed him to help keep Kutty under surveillance. (He never reported going to church with his father, however, as he enjoyed worshipping and listening to the preaching of the Bible.)
One day Jameela found a booklet of Kutty’s titled, Is Muhammad Prophesied in the Bible? She read it, and then began a comparative study of the Bible and Qur’an. After some troubling weeks, her Islamic prayers and Qur’anic reading ceased altogether, and Jameela embraced her husband’s faith. Kutty was overjoyed. It had taken years.
When word spread that Kutty’s wife had also become a Christian, wave after wave of persecution rained upon the family in the form of death threats, attacks, and even kidnappings of their children. People in the community talked openly about how Kutty and Jameela’s children would surely end up in an orphanage.
Kutty, his wife Jameela, and their four sons with K.K.’s wife as she gives Kutty some much-needed cash after their relocation
Ultimately, Kutty and his family had to be relocated to a safe location, where they adopted Christian names to avoid being questioned in their new community. Through our partner K.K., Heaven’s Family came to the family’s aid, all thanks to gifts to our Muslim-Background Believers Fund. Please pray for this brave family of six as they continue to boldly live out their faith in Jesus.
