Zubeda closed her eyes to sleep off a sharp chest pain. A light flashed, and she was standing somewhere else, shouting, “I’m dead!” In this episode of God’s Truth Podcast, the singer and intercessor who came to Jesus out of Islam as a child describes standing before God, being welcomed by people who already knew her, and watching a man who had died suddenly being turned away. When she tried to pray for him, God said, “It’s too late.”
A child who wanted to talk to God
Zubeda grew up in a Muslim family, the only daughter. At the mosque she sat at the back with the women, copying prayers in Arabic she couldn’t understand. By nine, she longed to speak to God and to worship Him, but she didn’t know how.
When evil spirits troubled her family, it was their neighbour, a pastor, who came and prayed, and the spirits left. Every Christmas she watched the Jesus film on a projector outdoors and fell in love with Him. At ten, when an evangelist came, she gave her life to Jesus and ran home to tell her father. He was furious. “That’s how my fight started,” she says.
One instruction
At university, in January 2013, Zubeda says the Lord woke her at 1 a.m. and spoke to her. She felt His love, peace and joy with nothing held back. He showed her His glory and gave her one clear instruction: to stay in that glory, she had to leave secular music and the ways of the world behind.
For a while she did. Then, without realising it, she began to drift.
The photos that wouldn’t upload
Toward the end of 2014, Zubeda was new to Facebook and thrilled by it. The night before an exam, instead of studying, she spent hours trying to post photos of herself, copying what everyone else did. Nothing would upload. Friends who were good with computers tried and failed. Her laptop battery died. She went to bed frustrated.
The next day, in the middle of her exam, a severe pain gripped her chest. Back at her hostel she lay down to sleep it off. The moment she closed her eyes, a light flashed and she was gone.
“This is home”
Zubeda knew at once she was out of her body. Terrified of death, she looked for any way back to earth and found none. Then a sudden peace flooded her, and she felt the Holy Spirit saying, “This is home.” She says it felt like waking from a nightmare. Earth was the bad dream. This was reality.
Then, on what looked like a giant screen, the photos she had tried to post appeared, moving as if dancing to secular music. She heard God’s voice: “You have been disobeying me.” She understood then that He had blocked them.
Welcomed by people she already knew
Next, a group of smiling people came out to welcome her. She had never met them, but it felt like they had always been friends, and she found herself laughing with pure joy. Among them was one woman she recognised from earth, already in heaven, laughing back at her.
The man who ran out of time
Then the Lord lifted her eyes to a man who had just died suddenly in an accident. He lay face down, unable to turn his head, with no idea where he was. The Holy Spirit showed Zubeda his life: clubbing, worldliness and a foul, cursing mouth. He was on his way to hell, angry and complaining.
Zubeda begged the others to tell him he was dead so he could prepare, but they stayed silent. So she began to pray, “God, forgive him.” Before she could finish, God’s voice stopped her with a firm “No.” It was too late.
Multitudes, and the angels at work
Then she saw crowds of men, women and young people, all headed for hell. One woman’s eyes locked on hers, begging for a little hope that wasn’t coming. And still more souls kept arriving, nonstop.
She watched angels processing them at speed. They were tall, wingless and human-looking, with serious faces that left no room for pleading. “As soon as someone comes in,” she says, “they have to go to where they belong.”
An angel handed her timber to help with some kind of construction. After helping, she found herself walking down a hill, and then she was back in her body, in shock.
“The whole world takes worship from me”
In her final year at university, Zubeda was alone in her room, a worship song on repeat, her heart wholly on God. Suddenly Jesus was standing in the middle of her room. His eyes were full of pain. “The whole world takes worship from me,” He said. She protested that big churches everywhere worship Him. He repeated the words with even deeper sorrow, then asked, “Will you worship me?”
“Yes, Lord,” she said. “I give you all my worship.” She kept it to herself for years, afraid Christians would be angry. Today she is a singer who believes true worship comes from the heart, led by the Spirit, and not from performance or tradition.
A covenant at her bedside
Zubeda is honest that she kept falling away and coming back. One Christmas, dressed up to be seen at church, she collapsed on the way. As her vision faded she thought, “If I die now, I’m going to hell.” She survived, and on New Year’s Day she knelt by her bed and made a covenant to serve God with her whole life.
The enemy fought back with a headache so severe she couldn’t pray. In a dream, Jesus came to her like a teacher, asked if it was severe, and looked into her eyes. The pain vanished. In time, she was baptised in the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues.
Three keys to walking closely with God
- Obey His voice. Zubeda points to Exodus 19:5 and the closeness Moses had with God through humility and obedience.
- Love Him by keeping His commandments. Jesus promised to manifest Himself to those who do (John 14:21).
- Seek Him with your whole heart. “Ye shall seek me, and find me” (Jeremiah 29:13).
Her family and her message
Zubeda’s mother, who came from an Anglican background, has since been saved and prays with her. So has one of her brothers. Her father remains a Muslim, and she is still praying for her whole family.
Her message is urgent: repent, because time is short. Seek God’s face, not just His hand. Come out of the world, including what we post on social media, and turn from the pride of life (1 John 2:15–16).
Mentioned in this episode
- The Jesus film, which Zubeda watched every Christmas as a Muslim child
- Our free Christian community, where Abigail and Zubeda first connected
Scriptures in this episode
- 1 John 2:15–16, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life
- John 4:23–24, worship in spirit and in truth
- Exodus 19:5, “if ye will obey my voice indeed”
- John 14:15, 21, if you love me, keep my commandments
- Jeremiah 29:12–13, seek me with all your heart
- 2 Peter 3:9, not willing that any should perish
- Ephesians 2:8–9, saved by grace, not of works
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