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?