I was about 20 years old. I am a Muslim from Yemen. I accompanied my dad and mom to South India to get treatment for my mum’s heart problem. While we were there, I fell sick for days on end with a high temperature.

My family took me to hospital and I was admitted. The doctors did all the tests they could think of on me including typhoid and malaria but all the tests came out negative. They gave me all sorts of medication and I was put on a food drip. I didn’t get better and stayed very badly sick. My hands were bruised up from the number of injections they were putting into me. I was in my own room with two single beds--one bed for me and the other mum and dad were sharing. We all were asleep having an afternoon nap.

I woke up, as I could not breathe anymore. I tried hard to breathe, but nothing. I tried again while looking at my chest, but it was not moving or giving any signs of inhaling. I knew I needed help. I felt great pain and looked to my left at my mum’s face, calling her, “mum, mum,” but she was asleep. Then I looked at my dad’s face, calling him, “dad, dad.” I realised I could not make sounds anymore; no one could hear me. There was great pain; then I gave up trying and let go.

I turned my face away from my parents and looked up to the celling. Now that I had stopped trying, relief came, and the pain went away. I smiled and saw light everywhere. The room seemed to disappear, and the light took over everything, and I was enveloped in it. I was happy and relieved and there was a sense of peace and peaceful surrender, and I was smiling.

My dad told me later that mom had woken up and saw me and woke him up. He had not heard me calling, and my head was looking up, my eyes had rolled into the back of my head, and my mouth was open. My dad said he knew I was dead. He ran and found the doctor and they started to bring me back with a breathing pump.

Hours later, I woke up. I still had the breathing machine pumping air into my lungs through my nose. Later on they took it off. The doctors said my chest had stopped working; they could not explain my sickness or what happened to me.

I started recovering straight away and recovered fully within 3 days. Despite the doctors’ strong objections, I was sure I was fine and left the hospital. I had absolute confidence in my health now--I didn’t know why, I but was one hundred per cent certain that I had recovered.

When I returned back to Yemen, I noticed that I seemed to develop the ability to predict things. I would often know who was phoning our house before the phone was answered. There would be an inner voice telling me I would bump into someone familiar, and then I would bump into the same person.I felt I had a sixth sense about personality and an inner voice advising me to do things. I also felt my prayers were being answered, and I seemed to be able to make things happen. I got strong dreams with messages that predicted things, warnings and good news. I became scared of this stuff and prayed for it to go away, which it then did. Now, as I understand this better later in life, I wouldn't now reject it like that. I think I became a more loving person, though, and I became more devout towards God.

I hadn’t thought very much about the light I had seen, or attached any meaning to it, until over 20 years later when my husband showed me some stories about Near-Death Experiences, and that was when I realised what it actually was that may have happened to me.