Shabana, the three-time world champion from Cairo, was competing in KL for the first time since 2000 - and looking for his first Tour title of the year.
In the climax of the men's $52,500 PSA World Tour event, the 30-year-old was facing England's Nick Matthew, the second seed who last week won the gold medal in the World Games in Chinese Taipei.
With too many errors from the Egyptian in the first game, world No5 Matthew soon opened up a one-game lead. But Shabana cut down the errors in the second and drew level before increasing his dominance over Matthew to forge a title-winning victory after 51 minutes.
"I have no complaints," said Shabana after clinching the 23rd PSA Tour title of his career. "It is good to win a tournament after such a long time. It has taken hard work and patience along with the realisation that I am still a good player."
Matthew admitted that his opponent deserved the win: "I kept fighting but he was too good, even though I was throwing everything at him," explained the 29-year-old from Sheffield.
"He got the balance between defence and attack better than I did. Nothing changes really; I am trying to get into the top four and Shabana showed that he is too!"
Semi-finals:
[1] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt [4] James Willstrop (ENG) 11-3, 11-4, 12-14, 11-9
[2] Nick Matthew (ENG) bt [3] Wael El Hindi (EGY) 11-6, 11-5, 9-11, 11-8
Quarter-finals:
[1] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt [8] Farhan Mehboob (PAK) 11-6, 11-8, 11-6
[4] James Willstrop (ENG) bt Omar Mosaad (EGY) 11-6, 11-4, 11-6
[3] Wael El Hindi (EGY) bt [6] Ong Beng Hee (MAS) 11-9, 12-14, 8-11, 11-6, 11-9
[2] Nick Matthew (ENG) bt [7] Aamir Atlas Khan (PAK) 11-5, 11-8, 11-9
1st round:
[1] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt [Q] Yasir Butt (PAK) 11-3, 11-1, 11-6
[8] Farhan Mehboob (PAK) bt Cameron Pilley (AUS) 11-6, 8-11, 11-6, 4-11, 11-7
[4] James Willstrop (ENG) bt Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY) 10-12, 8-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-3
Omar Mosaad (EGY) bt [5] Mohd Azlan Iskandar (MAS) 10-12, 11-5, 11-1, 11-9
[6] Ong Beng Hee (MAS) bt Muhd Asyraf Azan (MAS) 11-5, 11-9, 11-5
[3] Wael El Hindi (EGY) bt [Q] Saurav Ghosal (IND) 11-8, 11-7, 11-6
[7] Aamir Atlas Khan (PAK) bt [Q] Renan Lavigne (FRA) 11-3, 11-8, 8-11, 8-11, 11-7
[2] Nick Matthew (ENG) bt [Q] Simon Rosner (GER) 11-5, 11-8, 13-11 (38m)
Qualifying finals:
Yasir Butt (PAK) bt Tarek Momen (EGY) 11-4, 12-10, 11-5
Renan Lavigne (FRA) bt Aaron Frankcomb (AUS) 11-9, 11-5, 11-8
Simon Rosner (GER) bt Mansoor Zaman (PAK) 11-5, 11-3, 11-5
Saurav Ghosal (IND) bt Julien Balbo (FRA) 7-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-7
Issued by iSPORTmedia