A Muslim man who had a sudden brain aneurysm that left him in a coma has converted to Christianity following a near-miraculous recovery.
Karim Shamsi-Basha was in a coma for a month in 1992 but when he woke up, he began a 20-year journey that lead to him becoming a Christian.
His neurosurgeon told him he had seen very few people in his condition go on to make a full recovery and suggested that Mr Shamsi-Basha find out why he survived.
Syrian-born Mr Shamsi-Basha wrote a book about his journey, called Paul and Me, which includes chapters about Paul – one of the Bible’s best known figures – whose conversion to Christianity took place in the city of Damascus.
The author grew up in a closely-knit Muslim family in Syria who were tolerant of all faiths, with a best friend who was a Christian, but he did not seriously consider changing religion before his illness.
Mr Shamsi-Basha told the Christian Post that he practiced Islam seriously as a teenager.
‘I prayed five times a day. I walked to the mosque before sunrise. I fasted the month of Ramadan,’ he said.
When he was 18 he left the country, ran by the first Assad regime, to study at the University of Tennessee in the U.S. before getting married, fathering a son and moving to his home of Birmingham, Alabama, where he was struck by the aneurysm.
On the road to recovery, Mr Shamsi-Basha bagan to read the Bible and was baptised in 1996, but he said it took the end of his first marriage, the death of his father and homelessness, until he fully believed in Jesus.
Mr Shamsi-Basha told the religious publication that God takes ‘credit for my conversion. It was the grace of God that saved me.’
While life has changed dramatically for the author, he is still close to his family are Muslim.
His sister lives in Damascus, while more of his relatives are based in Homs, one of the Syrian cities that has been worst hit in the ongoing civil war.
Mr Shamsi-Basha said: As far as my family goes, we’re terrified. Who knows who is dead and who is alive.’
Source: Mail Online
Leave a Reply