JINN OF THE UNSEEN WORLD, PART 5:
NATURE AND TYPES OF JINN:
Generally, the administrative and social systems of the Jinn are almost akin to those of human beings. They have kings, courts, armies, and social functions. It is said that originally the Jinn were concentrated into twelve tribes that later on were sub-divided into many. Often they are in a state of war and often they conclude treaties in order to avoid conflicts. They have communities consisting of their families and clans and are ruled by kings. They play, sleep, and have their own pet animals, especially dogs. The riding beasts of jinn include gazelles, jackals, foxes, hedgehogs, and ostriches. The Jinn husband their own animals.
The Jinn eat and drink, have weddings and mournings, produce children and die. They love to sit in places between the shade and the sunlight and move around when the dark first falls. Since they take rest, and in view of a prophetic tradition that Shayateen do not sleep during mid-day, it can be safely deduced that they sleep too! The Jinn may remain invisible but may also assume a physical shape before a human being. Apart from the Jinn who follow Islam, the other Jinn follow the religion of their own choice such as Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism, Judaism, etc. As we noted before, some are good, some are evil, and some, are ambivalent. They are subject to rewards or punishments by Allah (swt) on the Day of Judgment.
THEIR LIFESPAN:
Their lifespan is much longer than that of humans. According to a tradition, all the Shayateen are the seeds of Iblis. There were some of them who had faith, such as Hāma b. al-Hām b. Lāqīs b. Iblīs, who is known as a believing jinn as we noted before. Allah has given respite to Iblis till the Day of Judgment and many other evil Jinn are to survive mankind but they are to die before the general Resurrection. Other Jinn die before him though they may live many centuries. However, many of the evil Jinn are killed by the shooting stars, hurled at them from heaven. When the Arabs witness a shooting star (shiháb), they often exclaim, ‘May God transfix the enemy of the faith!’
There are both male Jinni and female Jinniya and they do get married. Ibn al-Arabi states in Fatuhat al-Makkiya [435]: The union of marriage between them is a spiral, as when smoke comes out of a potter’s kiln or a kitchen oven; that is how one enters the other and they satisfy each other in this coupling. They find each other like the pollen from the palm tree, solely by smell, as happens with their food. He further states: Procreation amongst jinn involves air being projected into the female womb so that the conception and reproduction of the jinn take place. For every human child, one thousand children are born among the jinn (Tūsī, p. 484)! However, Sayyidunā ‘Amr Bikālī رَضِىَ اللهُ تَعَالٰی عَـنْهُ has stated, ‘Whenever a human is born, nine jinns are also born.’ (Jāmi’-ul-Bayān, vol. 9, pp. 85, Ḥadīš 24803). The jinn require the services of human midwives, and it is said that every midwife must help deliver a jinn child for every one hundred human children she delivers. The midwife is taken to the jinn mother blindfolded, and after the conclusion of her duties, she is given a handful of onion skins as payment. If she places them under a rug and keeps her experiences with the jinn a secret, then every morning she will find a gold coin under her rug. If not, her payment will stay onion skins [Massé-1886-1963].
By the way, there have been some cases where human beings inadvertently found themselves at the wedding of Jinnis. One such case is of Noura. Noura Al-Tukaka was a famous Kuwaiti folk singer who gained great fame in
THEIR FOOD AND DRINK:
The Jinn do eat and drink. Ibn Mas'ood, (may Allah be pleased with him), said: The Messenger of Allah (Sal Allahu Alayhi Wasallam) said:
'Once the jinn called me, and I went with him and recited Quran for them.' He took me and showed me the traces of where they had been and the traces of their fires. They (his fellow jinn) asked him for food and he said: 'You can have every bone on which the name of Allah has been mentioned that comes into your possession, as meat, and all the droppings as food for your animals.' The Prophet (Sal Allahu Alayhi Wasallam) said, 'So do not use [these things] for cleaning yourselves [after relieving oneself], for they are the food and provision of your brothers. '[Muslim]
When the Prophet (Sal Allahu Alayhi Wasallam) said that bones are the food of the jinn, Ibn Mas’ūd asked him how these could be. The Prophet (Sal Allahu Alayhi Wasallam) said that they would still find the meat in the bone as if it had not been touched by humans. What the Prophet (Sal Allahu Alayhi Wasallam) means is that the taste and the odour which they need are still there in the bone. And in another Hadīth, he said: “Surely God put in them [i.e. bones] their sustenance”.
In fact, there are several hadiths in this regard that also mention the delegation of the Jinn of Nasibeen, and the hadiths that say Satan eats and drinks with his left hand and that we need to use our right hand. Additionally, there are hadiths that while entering one's home and before eating one must pronounce the Tasmiyah, i.e. Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim According to Ibn Qayyim (1292-1350 c.e.), Rahmān describes the quality of abounding Grace which is inherent in and inseparable from the Almighty, and Rahīm expresses the continuous manifestation of the Grace in our lives and its effect upon us as a result of our own activities.
Satan and his disciples happily find lodging and boarding in the home of the person who fails to utter the Tasmiyah in the given situations:
In the Musnad Ahmad the following hadith is recorded: If the man enters his house and mentions the name of Allah upon entering it and upon eating therein, Satan says, There is no lodging for you here and no meal here. But if the man enters his house and neglects to mention the name of Allah upon entering it, Satan says, 'I have found lodging for you.' And if he does not mention Allah’s name upon eating his meal, Satan says: 'I have found lodging and a meal.' This hadith was also recorded by Muslim. Muslim recorded in his Sahih, on the authority of Ibn Umar (R), that the Prophet (Sal Allahu Alayhi Wasallam) said: If one of you eats, he should eat with his right hand. And if he drinks, he should drink with his right hand. Verily, Satan eats with his left hand and drinks with his left hand.
The Messenger of Allah (Sal Allahu Alayhi Wasallam) did not permit the believing Jinn to have anything on which Allah’s Name has not been mentioned as those are for the unbelieving Jinn.
In the hadith narrated by Abd Al-Rahmān b. Abī Laylā [reported in Al-Bayhaqi’s, Al-Sunan Al-Kubrā 7:445,446], of the man who was abducted by jinn, here is a part of the hadith:
Umar (Allāh be pleased with him) asked the man, “What was your food when you were amongst them?” He replied, “Difficult [stolen?] food, and what had not had the name of Allāh mentioned over it.” ʿUmar ® asked, “And what did you drink when you were amongst them?” He replied, 'Jadaf' (a type of drink that does not ferment).”
A slightly variant account mentions:
“Ful (brown fava beans) and anything on which the name of Allah is not mentioned”, said the man. 'What was their drink?’ 'Umar asked. He replied, ‘Jadaf.’ He also said it is ‘every vessel left uncovered’. According to al-Damiri (1341-1405 c.e), Jadaf is the froth whipped up from the water.
Hence, it is as clear as a crystal that the texts of the above hadiths definitely prove that the devils eat and drink. Unless people say the name Allah prior to eating, Jinn will share human food, sapping its energy, eating and drinking with their left hand as they are wont to do!
RESIDENCE OF JINN:
Jinn are also known to reside in valleys. It was customary for the pagan Arabs to be afraid of them whenever they travelled, caught a game, or camped in a valley. So in order to avoid their harm, they used to say: “we seek refuge in the master of this valley from the foolish ones of his folk” after which they felt safe. According to the following tradition, translated from al-Qazwini (1203-1283 c.e.) – “It is related by a certain narrator of traditions, that he descended into a valley with his sheep, when a wolf carried off a ewe from among them; and he arose and raised his voice, and cried ‘O inhabitant of the valley!’ Whereupon he heard a voice saying, ‘O wolf, restore to him his sheep!’ And the wolf came with the ewe, and left her, and departed.” According to Qazwini, the same opinion was held by the modern Arabs of his time, though probably they did not use such an invocation.
Pausing here for a moment, A question arises whether it is unjustifiable to seek the help of Jinn in view of Surah 72:6 and Surah 6:128 of the Holy Qur’an!: Now, Surah 72:6 states: 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).
And, Verse 128 of Surah An’am states:
“And on the Day when He will gather them (all) together (and say): ‘O you assembly of jinn! Many did you mislead of men,’ and their Awliyaa’ (friends and helpers) amongst men will say: ‘Our Lord! We benefited one from the other, but now we have reached our appointed term which You did appoint for us.’ He will say: ‘The Fire be your dwelling place, you will dwell therein forever, except as Allah may Will….”
An Islamic scholar of repute states: The correct interpretation in the Tafsirs is not “but they (jinn) increased them (mankind) in sin and transgression” but rather “but they (mankind) increased them (jinn) in sin and transgression” because the jinn imagined themselves to be very powerful when they saw human beings ask for their protection. As for the second verse, …its meaning according to al-Hasan al-Basri, as cited in Ibn Kathir, is that ‘the jinn commanded and the human beings obeyed;’ whereas the Prophetic way of getting assistance from the jinn is for the human being to command and for the jinn to obey. It is kufr to suggest that it is unjustifiable since Sayyidina Sulaiman (upon him be peace) did it, the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) commanded it, and exorcists in this Ummah do it every day.
To continue regarding Jinn's abode, traditionally, it is believed that the cosmic mountain of Qaf (Jabal al-Qaf) which encircles the world of humanity is the abode of jinn. Qaf Mountain is
mentioned by the famous historian Tabari who quotes in Chronicles of
Tabari: The Prophet of Islam(Sal Allahu Alayhi Wasallam) is
reported to have said: “Allah created the mountain Qaf all around the Earth. It
is called stake of the Earth, as it is said in the Quran, ‘And the mountains as
pegs?’ This world is in the middle of the mountain of Qaf as the finger is in
the middle of the ring. No man can reach there, for he needs to spend four
months in the darkness..." The
mountains may have a giant emerald at the summit or be comprised entirely of
emerald or the greenstone peridot. Some consider it to be Paristan of the exquisite winged creature renowned for their beauty; some Jinnistan the
home of the Jinn ruler Malik Gatshan and his court; or a parallel dimension that inter-penetrates our own.
Now, the Jinn's abode could be anywhere on the planet Earth. They prefer to choose as their principal places of resort, or of occasional abode, places of impurity like garbage dumps, dunghills, camel pastures, the bathrooms, latrines, ovens, and wells;
(pix: Jinnaat ki Baoli)
desolate places, graveyards, market places [Muslims are warned not to be the first to enter the market or the last to leave it], inter-sections of roads, deserts, valleys, the sea, and rivers and all places "dark, dank and deep". They also can live in the houses where people live. The Jinn also dwell in caves.
from Abdallah bin Sarjis that the Prophet (Sal Allahu Alayhi Wasallam) prohibited as unpleasant about urinating in a cave?" He replied: 'It is said that they are the homes of jinn.' The Jinn also dwell in burrows and cracks in the wall. The Holy Prophet (Sal Allahu Alayhi Wasallam) has stated, ‘None of you should urinate in a burrow.’ [Sunan Nasa'i, pp. 14, Hadith 34]Jabir (R) reported: I heard Allah's Messenger (Sal Allahu Alayhi Wasallam) as saying: The throne of Iblis is upon the ocean and he sends detachments (to different parts) in order to put people to trial and the most important figure in his eyes is one who is most notorious in sowing the seed of dissension. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 5031) Their main aim and objectives are to break and fragmentize society and gradually deviate them from the guided masses within the society. Shaytan knows very well that the family is the foundation and a vital element in maintaining a stable society as is apparent from the previous hadith (under subtitle Throne). Establishing problems in the family and creating friction between its members would be in the right direction to wreck the stability of the family. Leaving them more and more vulnerable to the dangers that face the Muslims of this day and age.
In the words of Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani, “The Devil, no matter how many people exist on earth, hopes to turn each and every one of them into devils.”
THEIR LIFESPAN:
Their lifespan is much longer than that of humans. They live for centuries or a millennium or more. As the Holy Qur'an mentions, Allah has given respite to Iblis till the Day of Judgment. In fact, according to some hadith, the great-grandson of Iblis, Haam, reverted to Islam during the time of Muhammad (Sal Allahu Alayhi Wasallam). He was a kid during the time of Cain and Abel and had, among other prophets, also met Isa (a.s.) whose greetings and the message he conveyed to Prophet (Sal Allahu Alayhi Wasallam). That indicates that he must have been thousands of years old. According to a tradition, all the Shayateen are the seeds of Iblis and die not but with him. Other Jinn die before him though they may live many centuries. However, many of the evil Jinn are killed by the shooting stars, hurled at them from heaven. When the Arabs witness a shooting star (shiháb), they often exclaim, ‘May God transfix the enemy of the faith!’
Allah says in the Holy Qur'an, "and indeed we have adorned the nearest heaven with lamps, and We have made such lamps (as) missiles to drive away the Shayateen, ( 67: V 05)
POWER OF JINN:
What clearly distinguishes the Jinn from mankind is their powers and abilities. For the most part, it is accepted that the Jinn have colossal powers and are not foreordained by the laws of Physics, such as matter, weight, time, and place. Unlike humans, they can cross over the dimensional boundaries of The Seen and The Unseen worlds. They can moreover travel any place within the squint of an eye and transform into the shape of other creatures such as cats, dogs, feathered creatures, serpents, or even human beings. Allah has given them these powers as a test for them. If they oppress others with them, then they will be held accountable. Allah Almighty says: “… Verily he (shaytan) and his soldiers from the jinn or his tribe see you from where you cannot see them…” (Al-A`raf: 27) Under normal conditions, Jinn cannot be seen in their natural state. They can remain invisible unless they wish to appear in a dense, physical form before the humans since they are excellent shape-shifters. They are able to take on any physical form they like so that they can appear as humans, animals, reptiles, trees, and anything else.
Jinn have immense strength and speed. The Qur'an also tells us that Jinn used to move freely about in the galaxy until Allah restricted their movement to our universe only. "And we touched the heavens, but found it full of powerful guards and projectiles. And we used to sit in it in places of listening, but anyone who sits now finds a projectile seeking him." (72:8-9) The jinn are able to talk in numerous dialects of those people whom they come in contact with. According to a few traditions from the Maghreb, they talk Suryaniyya, or old Syriac, which Berbers called the dialect of communication with the jinn. According to the Moroccan people, 30% of whom are purely of Berberic heritage, though the jinn talk, their dialect is diverse from that of men. When a jinni talks through the mouth of a human being, he calls cash "ashor" rather than flus (ڢلوس), and excrements "jatu". The sound of his voice is exceptionally thin. Some say that the jinn can communicate mentally and telepathically and this, in turn, facilitates the jinn to transfer thoughts and possess their victim.
Jinn can affect the material world, i.e. they can move physical items or even craft objects - as we shall observe later when discussing King Solomon. Also, Jinn do not follow the same concept of time as humans (i.e. Jinn can stay for days without moving as is evident by the Jinn not noticing Sulaiman(a.s.)'s death until a "worm" finished eating its way through his staff, breaking it.
ANIMALS CAN SEE JINN:
Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "When you hear the crowing of cocks, ask for Allah's Blessings for (their crowing indicates that) they have seen an angel. And when you hear the braying of donkeys, seek Refuge with Allah from Satan for (their braying indicates) that they have seen a Satan." -- Sahih al-Bukhari 3303. This is also reported in Sahih Muslim Book 035, no. 6581.
Keep a white
rooster (in-home) as neither Satan nor magicians would come near the home, and
near its surrounding ones, where there’s a white rooster. (Mu’jam Awsaṭ, vol. 1, pp. 1201, Ḥadīš 677)
‘Do not
speak ill of the white rooster as I am its friend and it is mine. Its enemy is
my enemy. It drives jinns off as far as its voice reaches.’ (Luqṭ-ul-Marjān, pp. 165)
Pausing here for a moment, Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have peered deep into the eye of the chicken and found a masterpiece of biological design. Scientists mapped five types of light receptors in the chicken's eye. They discovered the receptors were laid out in interwoven mosaics that maximized the chicken's ability to see many colours in any given part of the retina, the light-sensing structure at the back of the eye.
Based on the above short summary, it seems some of the animals can see with their infrared rays, while the demon itself comes from a genie (jinn) created from fire, while angels are created from light, meaning worth the ultraviolet rays. Birds have an extra cone for seeing violet and ultraviolet light. It means the devil is included in the infrared scope. Therefore, the animal can see the devil. As for the rooster it is able to see ultraviolet light, Therefore, the angel can be seen by the rooster.
Some Jinn are good, some are ambivalent, and some are downright devilish. “We made the evil ones friends only to those without faith,” says the Quran al-Karim in 7:27.
The Shayateen are pure evil and are known to be the cause of many troubles in the human world. They are sometimes used and controlled by strong dark magicians. Shayateen have the ability to cause illness and even death. They are also capable of much destruction and can cause a person to lose everything they have. Perhaps most dangerous of all though, Shayateen are known to have the ability to possess humans. While other Jinn also have this ability, the act is much more malevolent when done by Shayateen. As stated in al-Furqān bayna awliyā’ al-Raḥmān wa-awliyā’ al-Shayṭān, Ibn Taymiyya believed the jinn to be generally "ignorant, untruthful, oppressive, and treacherous". He held that the jinn account for much of the "magic" that is perceived by humans, cooperating with magicians to lift items in the air, delivering hidden truths to fortune tellers, and mimicking the voices of deceased humans during seances. Naturally, he was referring to the Shayateen.
The Holy Qur'an states: "And entice whoever you can of them with your voice, and mobilize all your forces and men against them, and you may share with them in their money and children, and promise them. But the devil promises nothing but deceit. As for My servants, you will have no power over them. And your Lord suffices as a Caretaker." (17:64-65)
In other words, On the one hand, Satan becomes a partner with the one who follows him in the earning and spending of his money without putting in any labour in it. On the other hand, he does not become a partner in bearing the consequences of his error, crime, and sin. But his foolish dupe follows his instructions as if he were a partner, nay, a stronger party. Again in regard to the children of such a man, the father himself bears the whole burden of bringing them up, but under the misguidance of Satan, he trains them in wrong and immoral ways as if he alone was not their father but Satan also was a partner in it. However, Satan will not succeed in alluring Allah's righteous servants who are steadfast in His obedience and who as such will not succumb to Satan.
The good side of the Jinn should not be forgotten. Good genies are despised by bad jinn, as a result of which other Jinn will stay away from these good genies. A momin genie fears Allah (swt) and will not enter others’ houses without asking them. Without the necessity of becoming visible, good Jinn may pass on some benefits to humans. Jinn’s voices may be heard on some occasions when they wake up a person for prayers or tell him of some things. They may draw their attention to some harmful things. Although rarely, a genie may make himself visible to some people when pointing them towards something good or something evil.
To give a random example: During the Rwandan genocide when a million people were killed in a matter of 100 days, both Hutus and Tutsi avoided searching in local Rwandan Muslim neighbourhoods under the belief that local Muslims and Masjids were protected by the power of Islamic magic and the efficacious Jinn. In Cyangugu, instead of destroying the Mosque the arsonists ran away fearing the wrath of Jinn who they believed were guarding the Mosque.
As stated, a jinni may make himself visible to some people when pointing them towards something good or something evil. According to ibn Ka’b and ‘Abdur Rahman ibn Bishir, and quoted by Qadhi al Shibli (Badr al-Din Abu Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al-Shibli (712/1312 - 769/1367), a Hanafi jurist from Syria:
Some pilgrims were on their way to Makkah. After leaving the place called Imarat Othman, they lost their way. Being overwhelmed by thirst, they desperately began their quest for finding some water. However, all that they could find was salty water. Some pilgrims advised the rest not to consume any salty water lest they perished, but to press ahead where they might find some potable water. Finding none even after having walked all day long, and even as the night fell, they contemplated returning to the salty water. So desperate were they that they donned their mortuary shrouds. Suddenly, a man of blackish complexion appeared before them from behind the palm trees. He said, “I’m the remaining jinni from amongst those who had heard the Prophet’s (ﷺ) recital. I’d heard him (ﷺ) say that a Muslim is a brother to other Muslims and hence should guide them, and never disappoint or deceive them. He should like for them what he likes for himself and hate what he hates for himself. Go in this direction till you reach Akma. Then turn left where you will find potable water.” They did.
According to one of the world's most renowned scholars of Islamic history and the spiritual science of Sufism, Jinn exist and Jinn have no permission to harm any human being except by permission of Sultan of Jinn. This sultan will not give any permission without going to Sultan al-Awliya and asking his permission. So Muslim Jinn are not allowed to harm any Muslim. Now as far as black magic is concerned, there are people who do black magic. That might be what makes one afraid or imagine there are Jinn. But non-mu’min is where the black magic works and they can harm. But they cannot harm without permission of Sultan al-jinn. So don’t put this in your mind. If you are afraid, read Surat al-Jinn every day before you sleep and that will take it away.
Then again, it is well to remember that some creations of Allah (SWT) are sent as a Rahmah in order to combat every type of negativity. Being Momins, they know how to deal with their world and its denizens. Of course, the environment needs to be pleasing for attracting their energy with recitations from the blessed Qur'an Shareef, and the compilations of the Salwats from the Dala'il Al Khayrat (دلائل الخيرات) in an ambience suffused with the
In conclusion, the believing Jinn help the believers even though the believers may not realize it, and they love everything good for them. Similarly, believing humans love everything good for their believing brethren among the jinn, and they ask Allah to give them everything good. The believers among the Jinn attend the lessons of humans sometimes and in some lands, and they benefit from the lessons of humans. This has been clearly stated by many of the scholars whom the jinn contacted and asked about some issues; they told them that they had attended their lessons. All of this is well-known, and Allah is the One Whose help we seek.
In the words of Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani: "Do not imagine that the true Awliya are only from humankind since the saintly ranks of the Nuqaba at least include many kings of the jinn."
And Allah is the One Who grants strength to do what is right.
(To continue in Part 6.)
NASIR ALI
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