Alhamdulillah - How Allah Showed Mercy to My Family

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, Jummah Mubarak everyone. I spent some time today thinking about the path that brought me to Islam. I’m a revert, and there’s one memory I can’t separate from everything that followed. When I was very young, my parents were devout Orthodox Christians and went through a really hard time. My mother fell into deep despair and began to question God, His existence, and why so much suffering was happening. In that low moment she even said she didn’t believe in God anymore. Not long after, in the middle of the night, I had a sudden epileptic attack out of nowhere. There was no warning and no prior medical history. This was in the early 2000s in Eastern Europe, in a small village where my parents had almost nothing and the nearest hospital was far away with scarce resources. I was convulsing in my mother’s arms and she was sure I was dying. All she could do was turn to prayer. She pleaded with God for forgiveness and begged Him to save me. By Allah’s will a family friend managed to get us to the hospital quickly and that likely saved my life. Afterward I couldn’t speak properly for a while, and when I did I told my mother I could not see - everything was dark. The doctors later said that what happened should have either killed me or left me with permanent brain damage. Instead I recovered over about six months. I was on medication for years but never had another episode, and there’s been no sign of lasting damage. The medical staff were astonished and told my parents my recovery seemed like a miracle - something statistically almost impossible at the time. After that my parents prayed constantly, recited psalms, and took me to the monastery every week. They came to believe that my life had been restored only by God’s mercy. Growing up I always felt my life was spared for a reason and not to be taken for granted. In time I found Islam, and it became the greatest mercy and blessing in my life. When my parents feared they were losing me, Allah returned me to them by His mercy - and then guided me to become one of His servants. Alhamdulillah.