Jinn: Difference between revisions
[checked revision] | [unchecked revision] |
(Rejected the last text change (by CPO675) and restored revision 138065 by CPO675: I think this may be saying that the jinns take the form of a snake, not that they possess them, I'd like to see some commentary on this) Tag: Manual revert |
(→Hadith: Corrected previous update - jinn take the form of snakes - not possession.) |
||
Line 165: | Line 165: | ||
This lead to Muhammad even supposedly ordering the killing of black dogs for this reason: | This lead to Muhammad even supposedly ordering the killing of black dogs for this reason: | ||
{{Quote|{{Muslim|10|3813}}|Abu Zubair heard Jabir b. 'Abdullah (Allah be pleased with him) saying: | {{Quote|{{Muslim|10|3813}}|Abu Zubair heard Jabir b. 'Abdullah (Allah be pleased with him) saying: | ||
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) ordered us to kill dogs, and we carried out this order so much so that we also kill the dog coming with a woman from the desert. Then Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) forbade their killing. He (the Prophet further) said: It is your duty the jet-black (dog) having two spots (on the eyes), for it is a devil.}} | Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) ordered us to kill dogs, and we carried out this order so much so that we also kill the dog coming with a woman from the desert. Then Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) forbade their killing. He (the Prophet further) said: It is your duty the jet-black (dog) having two spots (on the eyes), for it is a devil.}}Jinn's take the form of snakes, so give them three days warning in case they are devils who will not heed it: | ||
{{Quote|{{Muslim|26|5557}}|Abu as-Sa’ib, the freed slaved of Hisham b. Zuhra, said that he visited Abu Sa’id Khudri in his house, (and he further) said: I found him saying his prayer, so I sat down waiting for him to finish his prayer when I heard a stir in the bundles (of wood) lying in a comer of the house. I looked towards it and found a snake. I jumped up in order to kill it, but he (Abu Sa’id Khudri) made a gesture that I should sit down. So I sat down and as he finished (the prayer) he pointed to a room in the house and said: Do you see this room? I said: Yes. He said: There was a young man amongst us who had been newly wedded. We went with Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) (to participate in the Battle) of Trench when a young man in the midday used to seek permission from Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) to return to his family. One day he sought permission from him and Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) (after granting him the permission) said to him: Carry your weapons with you for I fear the tribe of Quraiza (may harm you). The man carried the weapons and then came back and found his wife standing between the two doors. He bent towards her smitten by jealousy and made a dash towards her with a spear in order to stab her. She said: Keep your spear away and enter the house until you see that which has made me come out. He entered and found a big snake coiled on the bedding. He darted with the spear and pierced it and then went out having fixed it in the house, but the snake quivered and attacked him and no one knew which of them died first, the snake or the young man. We came to Allah’s Apostle (may peace be upon him) and made a mention to him and said: Supplicate to Allah that that (man) may be brought back to life. <i>Thereupon he said: Ask forgiveness for your companion and then said: There are in Medina jinns who have accepted Islam, so when you see any one of them, pronounce a warning to it for three days, and if they appear before you after that, then kill it for that is a devil.</i>}} | |||
Satan can appear with fire to burn you, but are repelled by certain prayers: | Satan can appear with fire to burn you, but are repelled by certain prayers: | ||
{{Quote|{{Muslim|4|1106}}|Abu Darda' reported: | {{Quote|{{Muslim|4|1106}}|Abu Darda' reported: |
Revision as of 21:38, 26 April 2024
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination
| This article or section is being renovated. Lead = 2 / 4
Structure = 3 / 4
Content = 3 / 4
Language = 3 / 4
References = 2 / 4
|
Jinn (جن ǧinn, singular جني ǧinnī ; variant spelling djinn) or, as Romanized more broadly, genies[1] are said to be supernatural creatures that occupy a parallel world to that of mankind. Belief in jinn was common in pre-Islamic Arabia, where they were thought to inspire poets and soothsayers.[2] Their existence is confirmed in Islam as they are mentioned in the Qur'an, hadith, other Islamic texts and Arab folklore. The Jinn are believed to exist in many sub-species themselves, with some living in the air, others as humans on land, and some like "snakes and dogs".[3] Together, the various jinns, humans and angels make up the three sentient creations of Allah. Like human beings, the jinn can also be good, evil, or neutrally benevolent.[4]
Islamic beliefs
The jinn are mentioned frequently in the Qur'an. There is a surah titled Sūrat al-Jinn (the 72nd chapter of the Qur'an), and verse 67:5 discusses the stars from the "lowest heaven" which are used as missiles against any mischievous jinn that attempts to eavesdrop on conversations between angels.[5]
In Islamic theology jinn were created from smokeless fire by Allah as humans were made of clay.[6] According to the Qur'an, a jinn named ʾIblīs refused to bow to Adam when Allah ordered angels and jinn to do so. For disobeying Allah, he was expelled from Paradise and called "Šayṭān" (Satan). The Qur'an also mentions that Prophet Muhammad was sent as a prophet to both "humanity and the jinn," and that prophets and messengers were sent to both communities.[7][8] In Surah al-Jinn, the Qur'an describes a contingent of jinn being sent by Allah to Muhammad to hear and then convey his message to other jinns.
The Qur'an also describes Sulayman (Solomon) has having had an army of jinn that god had made subservient to him.
Jinn are usually invisible to humans, and humans do not appear clearly to them. Frequenting toilets,[9] they feed on faeces and bones,[10] have the power to travel large distances at extreme speeds and are thought to live in remote areas, mountains, seas, trees, and the air. Like humans: jinn can also choose to become Muslims, will be judged on the Day of Judgment, and will accordingly be sent to Paradise or Hell.[11]
Scholars' views
While many Islamic scholars today reject the possibility of jinn possession, there is classical precedent for belief in jinn's ability to possess and interact with human beings in this and numerous other ways. Most famously, Ibn Taymiyyah (a famous 'proto-Salafist' movement scholar who taught other influential figures including Ibn Kathir) was a proponent of this view in his Essay on the jinn (Ibn Taymiyyah also claimed to know and to have mastered the "poetry of the jinn").
All qualities and behaviours of the jinn other than possession and certain types of interactions with humans, however, are agreed upon (such as those stated above), as they are stated in explicit terms in Islamic scriptures.
Cultural presence
In the Muslim world
Belief in jinn and some form of black magic and jinn-human communion is an inextricable part of Islamic doctrine, however the details of jinns' interaction with human beings is less explicitly formulated in Islamic scripture. Still, belief in jinns' ability to: engage in specific black magic contracts with human witches and warlocks, possess human bodies, fall in love with human beings, rape human beings, haunt houses, etc. is wide-spread in the Muslim world. Many Muslim-majority countries have laws explicitly outlawing the practice of black magic as well as black-magic squads employed by the state to hunt down alleged sorcerers. Exorcism (Ruqya as conducted by Raqis, or exorcists) as a cure for jinn-possession is also extremely commonplace in the Muslim world and in many places constitutes a multi-million dollar industry. Exorcists are infamous for abusing their patients under the guise of exorcising jinns.
In the West
In many modern cultures, a Genie is portrayed as a magical being that grants wishes. The earliest of such jinn stories in folklore originate in the book of the One Thousand and One Nights[12], but the idea of jinns granting magical acts through black magic to sorcerers was a well-established in pre-Islamic Arabia (and Islam confirmed this).
Supposed jinn possessions and exorcisms have been recorded in the UK in the 21st century[13] as have services to remove jinn (among other Islamic superstitions such as Evil Eye affliction, Envy, and Black Magic).[14]
Relevant Quotations
Qur'an
Creation
The Jinn are described in the Qur'an as having been made of a smokeless flame:
Which were created before humans:
And are made up of communities/nations like humans:
Dr Amira El-Zein discusses some classical Islamic views on these nations:
The Jinn interacting with humans
The first part of Surah al-Jinn discusses the activities and thoughts of a group of Jinn who encountered Muhammad:
(Interestingly verse 8 onwards uncharacteristically seems to swap to the jinn's perspective without explanation, contradicting the idea that the Quran is solely the word of God; the section in brackets on verse 8 below is added entirely by the translator Pickthall, which is why most official translations do not have this - as you can see following the link to quranx).
2. Which guideth unto righteousness, so we believe in it and we ascribe no partner unto our Lord.
3. And (we believe) that He - exalted be the glory of our Lord! - hath taken neither wife nor son,
4. And that the foolish one among us used to speak concerning Allah an atrocious lie.
5. And lo! we had supposed that humankind and jinn would not speak a lie concerning Allah -
6. And indeed (O Muhammad) individuals of humankind used to invoke the protection of individuals of the jinn, so that they increased them in revolt against Allah);
7. And indeed they supposed, even as ye suppose, that Allah would not raise anyone (from the dead)
8. And (the Jinn who had listened to the Qur'an said): We had sought the heaven but had found it filled with strong warders and meteors.
9. And we used to sit on places (high) therein to listen. But he who listeneth now findeth a flame in wait for him;
10. And we know not whether harm is boded unto all who are in the earth, or whether their Lord intendeth guidance for them.
11. And among us there are righteous folk and among us there are far from that. We are sects having different rules.
12. And we know that we cannot escape from Allah in the earth, nor can we escape by flight.
13. And when we heard the guidance, we believed therein, and whoso believeth in his Lord, he feareth neither loss nor oppression.
14. And there are among us some who have surrendered (to Allah) and there are among us some who are unjust. And whoso hath surrendered to Allah, such have taken the right path purposefully.The interaction between men and jinn is further stressed here:
Both jinn and mankind can be lead astray:
2. The King of mankind, 3. The god of mankind, 4. From the evil of the sneaking whisperer, 5. Who whispereth in the hearts of mankind,
6. Of the jinn and of mankind.Prophets are sent to both humans and jinn:
Jinn are aware of at least some previous revelations given to and used by humans (mentioning Moses), and spread the word to warn other jinn:
30. They said, 'Our people, we have heard a Book that was sent down after Moses, confirming what was before it, guiding to the truth and to a straight path.
31. O our people, answer God's summoner, and believe in Him, and He will forgive you some of your sins, and protect you from a painful chastisement.Ibn Taymiyyah believes this confirms that Muhammad and the Quran is for both mankind and jinn[15]:
And some scholars believe like Muslim jinn today there have been Jewish jinn in the past:
It is unclear how rules around e.g. circumcision and eating halal/kosher are followed or if they are at all relevant.
The jinn can create buildings/structures and transport people to far locations instantly:
The Qur'an states that Sulayman (Solomon) had control over an army and workforce comprised of jinns and animals, among others:
13. They made for him what he willed: synagogues and statues, basins like wells and boilers built into the ground. Give thanks, O House of David! Few of My bondmen are thankful.
14. And when We decreed death for him, nothing showed his death to them save a creeping creature of the earth which gnawed away his staff. And when he fell the jinn saw clearly how, if they had known the Unseen, they would not have continued in despised toil.The Qur'an describes a jinn from Sulayman's forces delivering to Sulayman, in the blink of an eye, the throne of the Queen of Sheba:
39. A stalwart of the jinn said: I will bring it thee before thou canst rise from thy place. Lo! I verily am strong and trusty for such work.
40. The one who had knowledge of the Book said, ‘I will bring it to you in the twinkling of an eye.’ So when he saw it set near him, he said, ‘This is by the grace of my Lord, to test me if I will give thanks or be ungrateful. Whoever gives thanks, gives thanks only for his own sake. And whoever is ungrateful [should know that] my Lord is indeed all-sufficient, all-generous.’Romantic and sexual relations
The verses describing the virgin women of heaven claim they will not be touched by either humans or jinn:
With the implication being according to many scholars that it is possible for them to have intercourse with humans, such as in classical tasfirs, and rulings from shaykhs. And many ruling that jinn can technically perform marriages with humans, but it is not lawful.[16] [17] [18]
Satan
The Qur'an describes Satan (Iblis) as having been of the Jinn:
The Qur'an says that Satan has a team of invisible entities spying over mankind. In the eyes of exegetes, these are the Jinn:
While some classical Islamic scholars differentiated between the "shayateen" (plural of Satan, or Shaytan, and translatable as "demons") and the jinn, most simply understood the shayateen to be the group of jinn who committed themselves to serving Shaytan (the head evil Jinn) or who engaged in evil black magic contracts with people. The Qur'an describes such demons as having helped propagate the secrets of black magic that had been revealed to the people of Babylon by two angels:
Blocked from reaching upper skies/heavens by stars/meteors
The rebellious jinn, referred to as satans, are blocked from reaching the 'Exalted Assembly' (listed in secondary Islamic literature as a group of angels with special knowledge) who they would steal information from. Stars with clear flames are thrown at them by the guardian angels, with the author seemingly conflating stars and meteors (see: Scientific Errors in the Quran#Meteors as stars fired at devils):
Madness and Possession
Pre-Islamic Arab beliefs supported the claim of jinn possession:
The devil's (a jinn) touch making one mad has been interpreted by many classical commentators to confirm jinn possession as a cause or the cause of madness:
A much longer list of scholars citing the Islamic evidence for jinn possession, including the hadith, can be found via this Salafi website (Salafi Research Institute) webpage - Evidences for Jinn Possession.
Making people forgetful
Satan causes Moses to forget something.
Hadith
Bones and animal dung are food for jinn's:
Jinn frequently visit toilets:
Jinn snatch items away at night as well as children:
Jinns listen to the Qur'an - though this is bizarrely told to the prophet by a tree:
Satan, who is believed to be a jinn, causes yawning:
Urinates in people's ears causing oversleeping:
And sometimes hides in people's noses during the night, which can (seemingly) be gotten rid off by cleaning it:
Shapeshifts into black dogs:
This lead to Muhammad even supposedly ordering the killing of black dogs for this reason:
Jinn's take the form of snakes, so give them three days warning in case they are devils who will not heed it:
Satan can appear with fire to burn you, but are repelled by certain prayers:
God also gave power to Muhammad to seize jinn, who originally intended to tie one to a mosque pillar, but thought otherwise after thinking of Suliman (Solomon):
We are given confirmation of the jinn from listening to 'the exalted assembly' of angels and stealing information, getting attacked with shooting stars, and often embellishing it with lies before passing the information on:
And in:
External Links
- Jinn & Mental Health - YouTube Video
References
- ↑ Genie - Wiktionary, accessed April 27, 2012
- ↑ Britannica.com. History & Society. Entry on Jinni.
- ↑ Hughes, Thomas Patrick (1885). "Genii". Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopædia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies . London, UK: W.H.Allen. pp. 134–6. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
- ↑ El-Zein, Amira. "Jinn," 420-421, in Meri, Joseph W., Medieval Islamic Civilization - An Encyclopedia.
- ↑ The World of Jinn - Invitation to Islam, Issue 4, January 1998
- ↑ Quran 55:14-15
- ↑ Quran 51:56
- ↑ Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb al-Ṭabarī, Tuḥfat al-gharā’ib, I, p. 68; Abū al-Futūḥ Rāzī, Tafsīr-e rawḥ al-jenān va rūḥ al-janān, pp. 193, 341
- ↑ Sunan Abu Dawud 1:6
- ↑ Sahih Bukhari 5:58:200
- ↑ Tafsīr; Bakhsh az tafsīr-e kohan, p. 181; Loeffler, p. 46
- ↑ The Fisherman and the Jinni - from The Arabian Nights, translated by Sir Richard Burton in 1850
- ↑ Possession, Jinn and Britain's backstreet exorcists - BBC website, 19 December 2012
- ↑ For example, https://sincerityruqyah.co.uk and https://www.hijamainlondon.com/jinn-ashiq
- ↑ https://kalamullah.com/Books/Ibn%20Taymiyahs%20Essay%20on%20the%20Jinn.pdf
- ↑ https://islamqa.org/hanafi/daruliftaa/7923/human-jinn-inter-marriages/
- ↑ https://www.islamawareness.net/Jinn/fatwa_marry.html
- ↑ https://fiqh.islamonline.net/en/may-a-human-marry-a-jinni/