POETS AND PROPHETS

Pervaiz Sahib ....

Thank you for your e-mail. This is an interesting conversation. Could I respectfully point out one strange paradox in this exchange before I say something! Farazana seems to come from believer's standpoint and she says in her e-mail, "I think" and struggling to make rational sense to very provocation questions. On the contrary, Khalid is coming from non-believer's end and how many times he says, "I believe' in his e-mail. Both of these guys have, to my surprise, puzzled me to some degree.
As Farzana ought to define few things and answer Khalid's questions, I think, it would be worthwhile if Khalid clarifies and define some of the ambiguity that he has wrapped around his logical thinking in his e-mail:

-- Define (logically) what is spirituality?
-- Define what is enlightenment?
-- Define what is spiritual encounter?
-- How do we rationally know what and who is a mystic?
-- Is making Laws sufficient to call somebody a mystic or prophet?

By the way, US congress makes so many laws. Can we call US congress members - Joint-mystics, collective-prophet or group of revolutionaries?
Kindly, hold on to one approach: logic vs belief. Changing hats for convenience would not be the best approach. I think, only asking questions is not enough. Here is some of my thinking on this subject:

I think whether "Wahee" or migration of ants etc. it is fundamentally dependent on neuronal phenomena even if we do not understand all details with complete scientific precision. However, it is not logical to fill in lacuna with ambiguous diction and believes. If we do not know the answer to some question, still we can try to keep our approach purely logical.

As far wahee or poetry - Both of these words have become very mystified over the course of time. I think it would be reasonable to allow scientists' moments of discovery and musicians' ecstatic state fall in the same column.

I have said elsewhere that there is a functional element (not anatomical) of brain that is not expressed but it harbors the "Primordial soup of instincts and perceptions". It is access to this unsaid part of brain world when expressed, can appropriately be called "Wahee or revelation'. Such a moment would bring poetry to a poet, melody to a musician, scientific logic to a scientist and wahee to a visionary human who in other words is also called a 'prophet' and so forth.

There is a lot more that can be written but I hope further comments from Farzana and Khalid in the light of what I have said would be educational for me to explore and understand this complex and interesting topic. Finally, I may say that I do not "believe" what I have said is the final word; learning goes on. Best regards.

Tahir M. Qazi, MD
Clinical Neurophysiology
Neuromuscular Diseases
Physical Medicine & Rehab.

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