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 and photojournalist 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 as a teenager.
"I prayed five times a day. I walked to the mosque before sunrise. I fasted the month of Ramadan," he stated.
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 working as a photojournalist at a local newspaper in Birmingham Alabama, getting married and fathering a son.
It was in 1992 when he was covering a fire at Independent Presbyterian Church for his local newspaper, that Shamsi collapsed in its car-park where he suffered a brain aneurism that could have left him paralysed.
After months of therapy, Mr. Shamsi-Basha made a full recovery.
He began to read the Bible and was baptised in 1996, but stated it took the end of his first marriage, the death of his father and homelessness, until he fully believed in Jesus.
Shamsi told the religious publication that God takes "credit for my conversion. It was the grace of God that saved me".