AFGHANISTAN: Forgiving the Taliban

Source: SAT-7, October 3, 2019

“When the Taliban found out my brother was a Christian, they hung him upside down, broke his hands and fingers, and burned his face with cigarettes. They put that child of God through the most dreadful torment and killed him.”

Alborz [in Afghanistan] was devastated and felt unable to forgive his brother’s killers.

“Feelings of hate became my constant companion,” he admits. “The anguish and bitterness that filled my being took its toll and soon I found myself with no friends. Even at home I did not speak with kindness to those around me.”

Fathers in this part of the world are likely to encourage or even demand that a murdered child is avenged by his siblings, but Alborz’s father had been a believer in Jesus for more than thirty years.

“When my father told me that I must forgive my brother’s killers or it would destroy my life, I could not accept it.”

For three years Alborz struggled and had further conversations with his father. During this time he also read the New Testament, which deeply affected him.

“The words of Jesus about anger, revenge, and forgiveness had a huge impact on me,” he says. “Reading the Sermon on the Mount truly shook me. My tears flowed, my heart softened, and I finally forgave the Taliban. That moment the burden I had been carrying was lifted from me.

“For the last eight years I have been a genuine believer and I am now able to forgive. I have a great joy in my heart that God has placed there. …I’ve chosen to see beyond despair.”

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