What is Djinn - jinn Muslims believe that jinn are real beings. The jinn are beings with free will, made of smokeless fire by God (the literal translation being subtle fire, i.e., a fire which does not give itself away through smoke), much in the same way humans were made of a metaphorical clay. In the Quran, jinn are frequently mentioned and Sura 72 of the Quran named Al-Jinn is entirely about them. Another Sura (Al- Naas) mentions the Jinn in the last verse. In fact, the Prophet Muhammad was said to have been sent as a prophet to both humanity and the jinn. The jinn have communities much like human societies: they eat, marry, die, etc. They are invisible to humans, but they can see humans. Sometimes they accidentally or deliberately come into view or into contact with humans. Jinn are beings much like humans, possessing the ability to be good and bad. Evil or malicious jinn are called Ifrit usually theyre malicious due to their feeling they have been usurped by humans, example Shaitan. To protect oneself against evil jinn, Muslims say the Arabic phrase,Bismillahi! Allahumma inna audhu bika minal khubthi wal khabaaith, or another dhikr.[1] They have the power to transform into other animals and humans, and they are known to prefer the form of a snake. It is also known that they eat bones and their animals eat droppings, that is why it is forbidden to perform Istinja (washing) with those items. Jinns also have the power to possess humans, have much greater strength than them, and live much longer lives. In fact, according to some hadith, the great-grandson of Iblis, or the Devil (who was born before mankind), converted to Islam during the time of Muhammad, so he must have been thousands of years old. According to the majority of Islamic scholars, Quran states that the Devil was not an angel (which is believed by Christians), but a jinn, citing the Quranic verse And when We said to the angels:Prostrate yourselves unto Adam. So they prostrated themselves except Iblis (The Devil). He was one of the jinn... Surat Al-Kahf,[Quran 18:50]. The jinn are controllable by magically binding them to objects, as Suleiman (Solomon) most famously did; the Spirit of the Lamp in the story of Aladdin was such a jinni, bound to an oil lamp. Ways of summoning jinn were told in The Thousand and One Nights: by writing the name of God in Hebraic characters on a knife (whether the Hebrew name for God, Yaweh, or the Arabic Allah is used is not specified), and drawing a diagram (possibly a pentagram) and strange symbols and incantations around it. It is said that one could kill a jinn with the Inwa, a manner of throwing the stone of a fruit so hard so it could, in fact, kill something. The jinns power of possession was also addressed in the Nights. It is said that by taking seven hairs out of the tail of a cat that was all black except for a white spot on the end of its tail, and then burning the hairs in a small closed room with the possessed, filling their nose with the scent, this would release them from the spell of the jinn inside them. In the Quran, Solomon (Arabic: Suleiman) had members of his army belonging to the race of jinn. Solomon had the ability to communicate with all creatures, which allowed him to communicate with the jinn as well.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 19:57:45 +0000
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