Second Chance: Muslim Man Has Brain Aneurysm, Converts To Christianity After Waking Up From Coma

Although coming to Christ will sometimes be a process that happens over time for many, the Author and Finisher of our faith will be faithful to complete it in all who seek Him. May the Lord continue to move in the hearts and minds of all those who yearn for His Salvation …

1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Hebrews 12:1-2, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

By Morgan Lee, Christian Post – “Karim Shamsi-Basha was still a Muslim when a sudden brain aneurysm left him in a coma for almost a month in 1992. After the Syrian-born Shamsi-Basha made an amazing almost-complete recovery, his neurosurgeon, recognizing the rarity of what had occurred, told him that he had ‘seen very few people recover as you did. You have to find out why you survived.’

These would be the words that catalyze an almost 20 year journey that would eventually lead Shamsi-Basha to Jesus Christ.

Shamsi-Basha’s new book, Paul and Me, tells of this quest, and recounts how he spent close to two decades of his life discovering Jesus and learning his purpose, which he now testifies is ‘to share God’s love with people and let them know He loves all his children.’

Released last month, the book intersperses chapters of Shamsi-Basha’s own life and walk with God, with various theologians’ thoughts about Paul, one of the Bible’s most central figures, whose own conversion experience took place in the ancient Syrian city of Damascus.

Shamsi-Basha grew up in a Muslim family in a Syria he says was tolerant of all faiths. Indeed, his best friend was a Christian, the two were frequently at each other’s houses, and had all sorts of discussions and arguments with each other about faith, though no one ever succeeded in converting the other.

While his family practiced Islam culturally, Shamsi-Basha says he was ‘very serious in [his] teenage years.’

‘I prayed five times a day. I walked to the mosque before sunrise. I fasted the month of Ramadan,’ he added.

Tired of the corruption of the first Assad regime, Shamsi-Basha immigrated to the United States at the age of 18 to attend the University of Tennessee. From there he married, had his first son and moved to his current residence of Birmingham, Al. before he was struck by the brain aneurysm.

After his recovery, Shamsi-Basha began reading the Bible, struck by its focus on God’s love and grace, and was baptized in 1996 in what he terms was his ‘near-conversion.’

But, Shamsi-Basha said, it took over 10 more years, and the dissolution of his first marriage, the death of his father, homelessness and another failed relationship, for him to ultimately be at a place to fully accept Christ as his Lord and Savior, a process that is his new book’s focal point.

‘In 2008 I completely surrendered to God,’ he said. ‘Now I can’t get enough.’

Meanwhile, Shamsi-Basha now tells everyone he can that he credits Jesus Christ and the saving grace of God for his conversion. ‘Salvation is of the Lord,’ he firmly emphasized to The Christian Post, adding that God takes ‘credit for my conversion. It was the grace of God that saved me.'” Read more.