Pray4Pashtuns Ramadan2024

Day 26-Strongholds: The Madrassas

• For thousands of madrassa students like Salman in Pakistan and Afghanistan to hear the gospel.
• For boldness for madrassa students who have come to faith; for their courage and wisdom in sharing with their classmates, teachers, and family.
• For “Pauls,”—respected men of faith from the madrassa background—who can develop material—such as books, audio, and video—that will portray the Word in ways that will resonate with their community.

MATTHEW 11:28-30“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

More Reading:

Salman Khan is both relieved and anxious. Today is his graduation day from the madrassa (religious seminary)—the cramped white boarding school that has been his home for ten years.

He is relieved to have passed the rigorous years of memorizing, the strict discipline of prayer and more prayer, the boredom, and the fear. While his brothers and sisters have relaxed and played, Salman has been cooped up in strict isolation. He has lived in fear of his teachers who have brutally punished him for the slightest mispronunciation of Arabic, the tiniest errors in doctrine, and carelessness of dress. Today he will be done with all the years of mistreatment.

Salman is also anxious. Although he is about to be crowned with the turban of honor in his graduation ceremony, he is secretly harboring the doubt that he can ever be good enough to be sure of his salvation. He also doubts that his teacher’s relentless attacks on other religious beliefs are well-founded. He is weary of the steady diet of suspicion, hatred, and violence that his learning has fueled.

Though Salman has read about Jesus in the Qur’an and has heard stories of God’s love, he’s never met a Christian or read the Bible. He wishes that he could; however, he is worried that his family will find out about his doubts and his longing for freedom and truth.