032 – The Neuroscience of Prophethood with Abdullah Gondal
20 academic references, 19 case studies/examples, 50+ ahadith/narrations, 4 papers positing Muhammad as an Epileptic. Was Muhammad actually crazy? Were his revelations a result of seizure or psychosis? How can a crazy man give birth to the Islamic civilization? Join Abdullah Gondal and Abdullah Sameer as they analyze Muhammad in light of Neuroscience.
YouTube version of this podcast: https://youtu.be/5dTJDndGXDY
Timestamps:
0:00 Introductions
4:43 An overview of the neuroscience of prophethood.
7:04 An overview of the brain anatomy and functionality of various regions.
9:40 What is Epilepsy? What are seizures and various types of seizures?
12:40 Understanding brain functions – More neuroscientists are Atheists? Symptoms of temporal lobe epilepsy.
18:40 Postictal psychosis, A seizure leading to psychosis for an extended period of hallucinations.
25:00 Disclaimer
25:50 Academic papers and books listing Mohammad and many other influential historical figures as potential patients of epilepsy.
31:30 More religious leaders from different religions listed as possible epileptics (more academics papers)
33:50 Case study by examples (Alfred Lord Tennyson, Edgar Allan Poe, John Nash). Utilizing epilepsy to become geniuses in different walks of life
44:50 Napoleon Bonaparte, Joan of the Arc (Epileptic leaders of vast empires)
49:10 Case studies on how Epilepsy made patients more religious. Finding revelations from cultural contexts.
54:00 Is Epilepsy a good thing to have?
55:23 Back to the case study by examples and the similarities between various epileptics and Muhammad. (St. Brigitta)
1:03:00 Muhammad’s childhood and youth
1:09:50 Hadiths – Trees and rocks can speak? Trees that can see genies, talking cows, and wolves
1:16:10 The first revelation
1:33:10 Conditions during revelations(Ringing bells, lip-smacking and jittery teeth, snorting like a camel, foaming at the mouth). Variations in Ibn Kathir’s descriptions of Muhammad’s epileptic symptoms.
1:55:30 Yasir Qadhi – Heavenly tree revelation/ hallucination
1:59:15 General hallucinations, Muhammad forgetting some verses, Muhammad’s revelations.
2:17:20 The Quran – Poetry work of an epileptic or divinely inspired?
2:28:10 Is epilepsy deadly? How would Muhammad survive it for so long?
2:29:44 Sexual perversions among epileptics.
2:36:00 Final remarks
2:37:30 God forcing people to indulge in sexual perversions? (A clip)
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