110 – EPILEPTIC PROPHET PART 4 | Snorting, Lip-smacking, Amnesia & Personality Changes
This episode is the 4th installment in our series ‘Epileptic Prophet’ in which we tackle the question of Muhammad’s mental health problems and possible epilepsy. Our aim is to provide an alternative explanation of Muhammad’s actions and prophethood from a neurological perspective.
We started off this episode by going through the automatisms that Muhammad experienced while receiving revelation. These include severe convulsions accompanied by face color changes, heavy breathing/ snorting like a camel, excessive sweating as well as trembling/shivering. We also responded to Farid’s ill-informed claim that such experiences never occurred by pointing to various hadith, seerat, and other Islamic literature that show that Muhammad did in fact experience these automatisms. Additionally, we presented contemporary epilepsy patients who also have similar symptoms during seizures.
The conversation then moved on to absence seizures and how they affect epileptic patients. We also presented clips of contemporary patients experiencing absence seizures and we compared their symptoms to the descriptions of Muhammad’s seizures provided in various hadith. We then discussed dreamy states and religious inspirations that stem from lingering thoughts that epileptic patients experience after seizures.
Another topic we touched on was Muhammad’s amnesia and how the people around him erroneously attributed it to black magic attacks. We also discussed how amnesia affected the revelation of the Quran resulting in forgotten verses.
We hope you will enjoy this episode and share it with your friends!
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YouTube version of this series:
Part 1: https://youtu.be/WlO4nZUGVf4
Part 2: https://youtu.be/ZI16w6Sl3DE
Part 3: https://youtu.be/fD4FyXSN96k
Part 4: https://youtu.be/Z-IgOnBCv3U
Timestamps:
0:00 Introductions
1:04 Muhammad’s convulsions and shivering, autonomic changes during seizures
6:52 Muhammad snorting like a camel while receiving revelation, moaning like a calf
10:54 Comments from the chat – Does epilepsy make people socially awkward? – personality changes of Muhammad
16:22 Responding to Farid
27:05 Epileptic patients experiencing the snorting sound during seizures
35:53 Muhammad’s face color changes during seizures, contemporary patients with similar symptoms.
38:30 Comments from the chat
46:12 Severe sweating, shaking, and pain while receiving revelation- Responding to Farid
53:53 Dreamy states and religious inspirations from lingering thoughts – Dr. Dede Korkut.
59:15 Channel announcements.
1:00:03 Lip-smacking automatism – responding to Farid
1:08:15 The difficult state of receiving revelation
1:10:20 Epilepsy patient experiencing lip-smacking
1:12:30 Comments from the chat
1:21:00 Absence seizures/ behavioral arrest/ Petit Mal – responding to Farid
1:31:25 Contemporary epilepsy patients experiencing absence seizures
1:33:48 Muhammad’s absence seizures.
1:36:00 Atonic head drop seizures
1:40:20 Comments from the chat
1:44:05 Muhammad’s amnesia and black magic, transient epileptic amnesia.
1:46:46 Did Muhammad have dementia and amnesia? Responding to Farid
1:54:22 Postictal blindness, Muhammad almost went blind due to magic?
2:00:50 Muhammad in a catatonic state – lose limb control, cupping the head
2:06:15 Muhammad forgetting the Quran/revelation
2:10:24 Comments from the chat
2:17:27 Gait disturbance and hydrocephalus – Dr. Marion Walker
2:30:00 Comments from the chat
2:36:42 Sneak peek for the next episode. – Personality changes
2:43:30 Final remarks.
List of Resources:
1. Migraines and severe headache – The life of Prophet Muhammad p308, Itqan Ful Uloom Ul Quran
2. Migraines and epilepsy – Sahih al-Bukhari 5698 bk76 hadith 20, 1836 bk 28 hadith 16, Which lie Within Prophetic Guidance p561, Angel Nelson – Migraines and epilepsy: Is there a link?
3. Autonomic changes during seizures – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC531654/
4. Snorting like a camel – Sahih al-Bukhari 4985 bk66 hadith 7, Sahih Muslim 1180c bk15 hadith 10, Sahih Muslim 1180a bk15 hadith 8, Seerat Halbiya,
5. Muhammad’s face changing color during seizures – Sahih Muslim 2334 bk43 hadith 118, Sahih Muslim 1690c bk 29 hadith 19,
6. Contemporary cases of epilepsy patients’ faces changing color during seizures – Life Alert: The Medical Case of Muhammad
7. Muhammad’s severe sweating – Sahih al-Bukhari 4750 bk 65 hadith 272, Sahih al-Bukhari 2661 bk 52 hadith 25, Sahih al-Bukhari 4141 bk 64 hadith 185
8. Severe trembling/convulsions – Khasais al-Kubra – Suyuti, Seerah Ibn Kathir p285,
9. Face flushing, pallor, and sweating – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC531654/
Tafsir Shinqeeti
10. Dreamy states and religious inspirations from lingering thoughts – Life Alert: The Medical Case of Muhammad p177
11. Automatism: lip-smacking – https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/epilepsy/focal-seizures
https://www.webmd.com/epilepsy/understanding-epilepsy-symptoms
Sahih al-Bukhari 4929 bk 65 hadith 449, Sahih al-Bukhari 5 bk 1 hadith 5, Sahih al-Bukhari 7524 bk 97 hadith 149
12. Absence seizures – https://www.webmd.com/epilepsy/guide/understanding-absence-seizure-basics
https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/55/11/1002.short
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/absence-seizure
https://europepmc.org/article/nbk/nbk499867
13. New Classification of seizures
https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/types-seizures/new-terms-seizure-classification
14. Muhammad had absence seizures? – The life of Prophet Muhammad p108, Sahih Darussalam Sunan an-Nasa’i 2581 bk 23 hadith 147 Vol 3
15. Transient amnesia – https://journals.lww.com/co-neurology/Abstract/2010/12000/Transient_epileptic_amnesia.11.aspx
https://www.medlink.com/articles/transient-epileptic-amnesia
16. Magic made Muhammad experience amnesia – Sahih al-Bukhari 5765 bk 76 hadith 79, Sahih al-Bukhari 6391 bk 80 hadith 86,
17. Postictal blindness in adults – https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/46/6/566.short
18. Muhammad losing control of his limbs – IBN QAYIM – TAFSIR MUWAZATAYN, https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/70553/PROPHET-MUHAMMAD.pdf?sequence=6
19. Muhammad cupped himself to cure his amnesia – Which Lie within Prophetic Guidance p561, Sahih al-Bukhari 5698 bk 76 hadith 20, Sunan Abi Dawud 3860 bk 29 hadith 6,
20. Muhammad forgetting some revelation – Sahih al-Bukhari 5037 bk 66 hadith 60, Sahih al-Bukhari 5028 bk 66 hadith 62, Sahih al-Bukhari 5042 bk 66 hadith 66, Sahih al-Bukhari 6335 bk 80 hadith 32, Seerat Halbiya,
21. Hydrocephalus – https://www.hydroassoc.org/nph-and-comorbidities/
https://academic.oup.com/neurosurgery/article-abstract/39/4/722/2812317
22. Gait Abnormality – Megacephalic: Musnad Ahmad 746 bk 5 hadith 179, Musnad Ahmad 1053 bk 5 hadith 472, Musnad Ahmad 946 bk 5 hadith 373
23. Why was Muhammad obsessed with urine? – Sunan Ibn Majah 348 bk1 hadith 82, 347 bk1 hadith 81, 349 bk 1 hadith 83; Bulugh al-Maram104 bk 1 hadith 123, 103 bk 1 hadith 122,
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