Michael Joshua Knutz grew up in the Bronx with a Jewish Ashkenazi father from Lviv and a half-Jewish, half-Slovak Protestant mother. His spiritual journey took him from Hebrew school to being baptized as a Christian at a Pentecostal revival meeting in the mountains of West Virginia, to studying in a Hindu ashram — until he finally discovered the Quran and Islam, and everything he had been searching for his entire 72 years fell into place.
A Jewish Youth Who Could Not Stop Searching
Michael hated regular school and Hebrew school was even worse — he was eventually asked to leave. His father, a commercial artist, had to teach him his Bar Mitzvah at his grandfather’s synagogue. Yet beneath the surface, an insatiable spiritual hunger drove him from one faith tradition to another. He was baptized as a Christian after being “touched by the Holy Spirit” at a revival meeting, but it still was not enough. He went on to study Hinduism in an ashram, but still felt he had not reached his spiritual destination.
“When the missionaries came, we had the land and they had the Bible. But when they left, we had the Bible and they had the land. That was foundational to the subjugation in the world today — that’s not the problem of all Christians, because there are sincere Christians who just don’t have all the information.”
How the Quran Connected Everything
When Michael finally got exposed to Islam and began reading the Quran, something remarkable happened: the more he learned about the Quran and Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), the more he was able to properly understand the Old and New Testaments. Islam did not contradict what he had learned before — it completed it. He also shared the inspiring story of basketball legend Hakeem Olajuwon, who refused to endorse expensive shoes so that poor inner-city children would not fight or steal over a shoe bearing his name, instead endorsing a $35 shoe that everyone could afford.
“I still believe with all of my heart that the majority of Americans live up to their better nature. Hakeem Olajuwon said: ‘I don’t want poor inner-city children fighting or killing each other for a shoe with my name on it.’ So he endorsed a $35 shoe instead.”
An Invitation for Every Sincere Seeker
- Michael’s journey through Judaism, Christianity, and Hinduism before finding Islam demonstrates that sincere seekers are eventually guided to the truth
- The Quran helped him make sense of everything he had learned from previous scriptures — Islam completes rather than contradicts the original message of all prophets
- The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: when you take a hand span toward God, God takes ten hand spans toward you
- Whether you are Jewish, Christian, Hindu, or searching from any background, the Quran is waiting to answer the questions that nothing else could
