The Symptoms of Prophecy

9. The Symptoms of Prophecy

Symptoms of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) include muscle twitching/rigidity, facial flushing, lip smacking, confusion/fear, profuse sweating, depression/suicidal ideation and visual/auditory hallucinations.

Geschwind syndrome is a manifestation of TLE characterized by extreme verbal output, hyperreligiosity, altered sexuality and intensified mental life.

Authentic hadiths describing Muhammad’s revelations:

Sahih Bukhari 6982 (First revelation)

“The angel caught me (forcefully) and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it anymore” (×3)
“his neck muscles twitching with terror till he entered upon Khadija and said, ‘Cover me! Cover me!’ They covered him till his fear was over and then he said, ‘O Khadija, what is wrong with me?’”
“the Prophet (ﷺ) became so sad as we have heard that he intended several times to throw himself from the tops of high mountains”

Sahih Bukhari 6982

Sahih Bukhari 3215

“The Angel sometimes comes to me with a voice which resembles the sound of a ringing bell, and when this state abandons me, I remember what the Angel has said, and this type of Divine Inspiration is the hardest on me”

Sahih Bukhari 3215

Authentic Hadith: Bell Is the Instrument of Satan

“The bell is the musical instrument of the Satan.” Sahih Muslim 2114

Sahih Bukhari 4750

“So there overtook him the same hard condition which used to overtake him (when he was Divinely Inspired) so that the drops of his sweat were running down, like pearls, though it was a (cold) winter day, and that was because of the heaviness of the Statement which was revealed to him.”

Sahih Bukhari 4750

Sahih Bukhari 5

“Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) used to bear the revelation with great trouble and used to move his lips (quickly) with the Inspiration”

Sahih Bukhari 5

Sahih Muslim 1690c

“Whenever Allah’s Apostle (ﷺ) received revelation, he felt its rigour and the complexion of his face changed. One day revelation descended upon him, he felt the same rigour. When it was over and he felt relief, he said: Take from me.”

Sahih Muslim 1690c

Sahih Bukhari 4985

“The Prophet’s face was red and he kept on breathing heavily for a while and then he was relieved.”

Sahih Bukhari 4985

Face Red and Snoring Like a Camel (Parallel Narrations)

“Ya’la put his head in and saw that the face of Allah’s Messenger was red and he was snoring.” Sahih Bukhari 1536

“`Umar lifted one corner of the cloth and I looked at the Prophet (ﷺ) who was snoring. (The sub-narrator thought that he said: The snoring was like that of a camel).” Sahih Bukhari 1789

Sahih Bukhari 4592

“Allah revealed to his Apostle while his thigh was on my thigh, and his thigh became so heavy that I was afraid it might fracture my thigh.”

Sahih Bukhari 4592

Less likely than a 7th century man in a cave getting revelation from the creator of the universe?

Neurologist’s Diagnostic Study of Muhammad

“Although an unequivocal decision is not possible from existing knowledge, psychomotor or complex partial seizures of temporal lobe epilepsy would be the most tenable diagnosis.” Dr. Freemon, Neurologist, “A Differential Diagnosis of the Inspirational Spells of Muhammad the Prophet of Islam,” Epilepsia (1976)