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Mohammad's Mental Health


By: Frederic-John Decat. 

2005/12/30  

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We know that prophets are not ‘’normal’’ person, that they are ‘’off the track’’ and that their acute personal relation with God transform them into somehow psychic case. Among them some became notorious conquerors: Moses, Joshua, Genghis Khan or even Joan of Arc but none of them transmitted an everlasting message of war (Jihad) like the Prophet of Islam: Mohammad. So much that our world is still in the process of endless islamisation. Few weeks passed by without violence perpetrated by Muslims around the world. Is it in Indonesia, in Sudan, in Bali, Iraq; the attack on the World Trade Center, both the Madrid or London trains, the riots in France, crowded manifestations worldwide for the fatwa asking the live of Salman Rushdie and all those implicated in the publishing of his ‘’Satanic Verses’’, up to the killing of Theo Van Gogh.  

Something is obviously wrong with Islam and we must turn to the mental health of its founder, Mohammad. It’s about time to ask ourselves: was Mohammad a sane person, even within the special sphere of prophethood? Let’s look at some evidence that Mohammad was insane, beginning with the account we have from Ibn Ishaq/Hisham…  

It’s related in his ‘’Sirât Rasűl Allâh’’ (translated by Alfred Guillaume) that, first, Mohammad was himself convinced being ‘’possessed by evils’’ and that, accordingly, not to become the ‘’village’s idiot’’, he tried to killed himself, by throwing his body down a mountain (p.106/153). It is then said that Gibril came to his rescue but, still, Mohammad doubt and the storey could have ended there.  

The vision repeated itself, leaving Mohammad in an inner struggle about his own sanity. It is reported (idem) that he stood confused, in the middle of nowhere, until Khadija’s messengers (his wealthy wife) found him on the high ground above Mecca , undecided about his own sanity.  

It is indeed Khadija who first supported and soothed Mohammad in the crucial phase when he himself entertained the deepest doubt about his own sanity. ‘’Woe is me poet or possessed’’ asked the shaking husband. That’s when she brought him to her Christian cousin, Waraqa b. Naufal, who confirmed eagerly that her relative was indeed invested with the genuine mantle of Godly prophethood. What was her authority on the matter?  

Looks like this testimony wasn’t enough and Khadija had to convince him furthermore by a test to ‘’verify’’ if the entity appearing to her husband was indeed an angel or an evil. She asked to meet her while this entity was appearing to the Prophet. When it came to be, she engaged into sexual preliminary, asking at different stages if the entity was still there. It happened that in the process, the entity left when the arousing got warmer. Khadija then said to him: ‘’O son of my uncle, rejoice and be of good heart, by God he is an angel and not a Satan.’’ (106/153; 107/154; 111/155). Her deduction was that an evil wouldn’t have leave while the arousing was indulging furthermore…  

Here, we can clearly see that Mohammad’s mission was never, ever, confirmed by some godly signs with supernatural proofs, but by merely two women, one a Christian cousin and the other one being his wife, surely not interested in the suicide of his husband, with all the guiltiness implicated, not to mention a Mohammad possessed by evils, like some ‘’village’s idiot.’’ So far it’s easy to see that Allah never send a clear and divine sign to Mohammad, neither did Gibril answered by anything comparable to Gideon’s asking in Jud.6.36-40, or the Burning Bush for Moses, the colon of fire, the ten plagues; nothing but the testimony of two earthly women…

 

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