A VERY WARM WELCOME VISITORS

Thursday, December 8, 2022

1042. Rafi's Romantic Songs: Aisa na ho ke

 


Presenting my 1042nd transcription & translation of Rafi Sahaab's Solos:


Movie: AAKHRI DAO (1975)

Maiden release: Naaz Cinema

Music:  Laxmikant-Pyarelal

Lyrics:  Hasrat Jaipuri


 Aisa na ho ke, in waadiyoN meN,

LEST IT HAPPENS THAT IN THESE VALLEYS

Main kho jaauuN,

I MAY GET LOST,

Aisa na ho ke, in waadiyoN meN,

LEST IT HAPPENS THAT IN THESE VALLEYS

Main kho jaauuN,

I MAY GET LOST,

Aur tum mujhe DhuunDha karo,

AND YOU KEEP ON SEARCHING FOR ME

Aur main kabhi mil na paauuN,

AND I’D NEVER BE FOUND!

Aisa na ho ke, in waadiyoN meN,

LEST IT HAPPENS THAT IN THESE VALLEYS 

Main kho jaauuN…

I MAY GET LOST…

AaiiN agar, mujh ko nazar,

IF I HAPPEN TO CATCH THE GLIMPSE

jhiiloN ke Jhilmil darpan meN tum,

OF YOU IN THE SHALLOWS’ SPARKLING MIRROR,

AaiiN agar, mujh ko nazar,

IF I HAPPEN TO CATCH THE GLIMPSE

jhiiloN ke Jhilmil darpan meN tum,

OF YOU IN THE SHALLOWS’ SPARKLING MIRROR,

Milne gale, jaauungaa main,

 I’LL REACH OUT TO EMBRACE YOU,

Ho jaauunga jalwoN meN gum,

LOSING MYSELF IN THE SPLENDOUR!

Aur tum mujhe aawaaz doh,

AND THOUGH YOU GIVE ME A HOLLER,

Laut kar, main na aauuN,

I MAY NOT COME BACK!

Aisa na ho ke, in waadiyoN meN,

LEST IT HAPPENS THAT IN THESE VALLEYS

Main kho jaauuN…

I MAY GET LOST… 

yeh dhundh kyaa, jaise dhuuaaN,

ABOUT THIS MIST, ‘TIS  LIKE VAPOUR

merii hii aahoN se, paida hua,

BEGOTTEN FROM MY OWN SIGHS,

yeh dhundh kyaa, jaise dhuuaaN,

ABOUT THIS MIST, ‘TIS LIKE VAPOUR

merii hii aahoN se, paida hua,

BEGOTTEN FROM MY OWN SIGHS,

Aashiq huuN main, wo dil jalaa,

A LOVER AM I, WITH THE HEART-INFLAMED,

Lekin tumiih pe shaida hua,

BUT DEEPLY IN LOVE WITH YOU,

Dekha karo chaaroN taraf,

DO LOOK IN FOUR DIRECTIONS

Aur main kahiiN chhip na jaauuN,

LEST I MAY HIDE SOMEWHERE!

 Aisa na ho ke, in waadiyoN meN,

LEST IT HAPPENS THAT IN THESE VALLEYS

Main kho jaauuN,

I MAY GET LOST,

Aur tum mujhe DhuunDha karo,

AND YOU KEEP ON SEARCHING FOR ME

Aur main kabhi mil na paauuN,

AND I’D NEVER BE FOUND!

Aisa na ho ke, in waadiyoN meN,

LEST IT HAPPENS THAT IN THESE VALLEYS 

Main kho jaauuN…

I MAY GET LOST…

Main kho jaauuN…

I MAY GET LOST…

Main kho jaauuN.

I MAY GET LOST.

TRANSLATED BY NASIR ALI



Saturday, September 3, 2022

1041. Rafi's Sad Song: naa kisii kii aankh kaa noor hoon...

 


 



Movie: LAL QUILA (1960)

Lyrics:  Bahadur Shah Zafar

Music:  S.N. Tripathi



Naa kisii kii aaNkh ka nuur huuN

NEITHER I’M THE LIGHT OF ANY EYE, 


Naa kisii ke dil kaa qaraar huuN

NOR FOR SOMEONE’S HEART A SOLACE AM I, 


Jo kisii ke kaam naa Aa sakaa

BEING OF NO BENEFIT TO ANYONE 


Main voh ek musht-e-ghubaar huun

A MERE FISTFUL OF DUST AM I 


naa toh main kisii kaa habiib huuN

NEITHER I’M A BELOVED OF SOMEONE,


Naa toh main kisii kaa raqiib huuN

NOR AM I A RIVAL OF ANYONE,


Jo bigaR gayaa voh nasiib huuN

I’M THE DESTINY THAT IS DOOMED, 


Jo ujaR gayaa voh dayaar huuN

A PLUNDERED LAND AM I!


Meraa rang-ruup bigaR gayaa

MY DISPOSITION HAS DECAYED,


Meraa yaar mujhse bichhaR gayaa

MY FRIEND HAS PARTED COMPANY,


Jo chaman KHizaaN  meN ujaR gayaa

THE GARDEN THAT GOT RAVAGED BY AUTUMN


Main usii kii fasl-e-bahaar huuN

A CROP OF ITS HARVEST AM I!


Pa.e fatiha koi aaye kyuuN

WHY SHOULD ONE COME TO INVOKE BENISON,


Koi chaar phool chaRHaaye kyuun

WHY SHOULD ONE OFFER A FEW FLOWERS,


Koi aake shamma jalaaye kyuuN

WHY SHOULD ONE COME TO LIGHT A LAMP,


Main voh bekasii kaa mazaar huuN

SUCH A FORLORN TOMB AM I!


TRANSLATED BY NASIR ALI.

NB:  9 मार्च 2006 को जब हिंदुस्तान के राष्ट्रपति एपीजे अब्दुल कलाम ने मज़ार पर हाज़िरी दी; तब उन्होने वहां के विज़िटर्स बुक में लिखा : 

‘आपने अपने एक शेर में लिखा है कि मेरे मज़ार पर कोई नहीं आएगा, न कोई फूल चढ़ाएगा, न शमा जलाएगा.. लेकिन आज मैं यहां सारे हिंदुस्तान की तरफ़ से आपके लिए फूल लेकर आया हूं और मैंने शमां रौशन की हैं।’

Sunday, July 31, 2022

THE PHILANTHROPIC SIDE OF RAFI SAHAAB - AN INCIDENT.

THE PHILANTHROPIC SIDE OF RAFI SAHAAB – AN INCIDENT. By Nasir Ali. 

This evening I had a chance visitor. After we had exchanged greetings and taken our respective seat, he blurted out: “Rafi Sahaab was indeed a saint.” He repeated: “Yes, he was a saint despite the fact that he made a living in the Bollywood film industry.” 

I was caught unawares and also pleasantly surprised. This was not because of his statement, but because such conversation was not expected in the least. I asked him, “Why do you say that?” It was then he narrated to me what he had heard from his friend who was a poor guy from the Bandra vicinity – Behrampada (in Mumbai City) to name it precisely. Here is what he told me about an incident that pertained to the early Sixties: 

 This man from Behrampada had four daughters. One of them had reached the age of marriage. He was much worried. He had no money or means to get his daughter married. He had heard from his neighbours about Mohammed Rafi Sahaab and that he was a good man. They told him to approach Rafi Sahaab for help. He had his own doubts initially because he himself was a nobody whereas Rafi Sahaab’s was a great name. Will he help him – a total stranger that he was to Rafi Sahaab? 

Gathering Rafi Sahaab’s address, he finally came to his Bungalow. The security guard told him that Rafi Sahaab was not present. Not losing hope, he visited it again the next day and then the next day only to be told the same thing. He finally requested the security guard to inform Rafi Sahaab about his visit. The security guard accordingly did so. So on his next visit, the security guard let him inside the gate, when he was astounded to see Rafi Sahaab beckoning him. 

Now when our man entered the living room, Rafi Sahaab politely told him to sit down. Snacks and tea were offered to him. After he had had his fill, Rafi Sahaab asked him the purpose of his visit. That man explained his plight and misery and informed Rafi Sahaab that he had a daughter of marriageable age but could not get her married since he had no money. Rafi Sahaab asked him how much money he needed. He quoted an X amount. Hearing this, Rafi Sahaab requested him to come back the next day without fail. 

So the next day, this man went to see Rafi Sahaab at his bungalow again. Rafi Sahaab was waiting for him. He offered him snacks and tea again. After he had finished with his victuals, Rafi Sahaab handed over the required X amount that the man needed for his daughter’s marriage. Moreover, he also gave him the same X amount three times over, saying that these were for his remaining three daughters’ marriages too. He was very happy. Too happy in fact. He had got more than he had asked for. But there was one condition attached: Rafi Sahaab asked him not to divulge this incident to anyone, nor to say anything about the money he had got from him. This much he promised. 

In due course, he got all his daughters married decently and was relieved of his duties thanks to the generosity and altruism of Rafi Sahaab.  It was only after Rafi Sahaab passed away that he felt he could now tell the world how Rafi Sahaab had helped him. 

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by CopyscapeWhen I heard the above story from my friend, naturally I choked with emotions. Then I recollected all those stories that I had sometimes read in the magazines about how Rafi Sahaab time and again rescued even Bollywood industry people, including music directors, from financial straits.  Yes, not only was Rafi Sahaab a man with a Golden Voice, but he was also a man with Golden Heart.

NASIR ALI

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

PART 10 - JINN OF THE UNSEEN WORLD, EXPLORING SOME BASICS...

From the Desk of a Layman, Nasir Ali:

Part 10: Jinn of the Unseen World, exploring some basics...



After having discussed Ghouls, we now turn to another sub-set of Jinn known as Si’lat/ Si’lah/ Sila,(pl.Sa’aali) adj: su'luwwa).  The silah is a variant of the Ghul. This djinn is often referred to in the feminine. These smartest of the Jinn are excellent shapeshifters who are easily able to mimic the appearance of a human.  Being open-minded, they are able to mix in human society with comparative ease though they prefer to live near rivers, desolate parts of deserts, oases, jungles and thickets.  They tend to shapeshift into men or women and lure them into bed. However, most are merely lovers looking to find mates.  Owing to their propensity to bed humans, Si’lats are sometimes mistaken for Succubi or Incubi which they are not.  Their nature is built in such a way that sexual activity and the need to reproduce supersedes any other need they may have.  Indeed, they are the most salacious of the Jinn who appear as beautiful women ready to go to the extent of wedding, bedding and producing babies by interbreeding with humans.  The offspring born of Si’lats are known as Bonoo.  However, some of the male counterparts can be manipulative, and often trick women by impregnating them with Bonoo against their will. 

The Si’lats can be found by their half-breed appearances as creatures, despite their shape-shifting capacities.  They are also known as Jinn of the Lightning.  Some describe their overall appearance as resembling grey-hounds, who possess very long forelegs and hind feet and have a mane of ash-grey colour, being the Bedouins' favourite canine who enjoy frightening camels away from their grazing areas. Something that both forms have in common, though, is the ability to appear as an animal and have malicious intent.  Ancient traditions describe this jinni as sudden in appearance and disappearance, with a cat-like face, canine teeth, and a forked tongue.   In Middle Eastern legends they are shown as pernicious creatures who tend to mislead the desert or forest travellers.  After overcoming them they play a cat-and-mouse game, making them dance to their tune before eating them.  Those humans who display refined manners are rarely eaten.  More often, they are helped on a quest or journey.  It is said that the good Si’lats dine only on animal meat, while evil Si’lats prefer human meat.  It is also known that they hide the location of oases from those humans they don’t like. 

The si’luwa is a water demon from Iraq and is a variant of the s’ilah. She is described as a woman having a fishtail in place of legs, with pendulous breasts hanging down to her knees, while her body is covered in long hair.  Being the product of river demons and humans, she seeks human lovers.  Nevertheless, she too hunts humans for meals. 

Ancient Arabic geographers have shown in their maps an island known as the “Island of the Sealah” off the coast of China, where these demons resided and ate humans who fell to their lot.

In the Middle East, it is common knowledge that Jinn are scared of wolves as the wolves can see them. In fact, the sorcerers are known to use wolves to devour the Jinn.   When the wolves chase them, they go and hide in stones as they can live/hide in stones.  Si’lats are the most vulnerable.  The Wolf is their nemesis who devours them with relish.  It is alleged that even the images of wolves will repel the Si’lats.  

Al-Qazwini mentions that the wolf hunts the si’lah at night. When a si’lah is caught by a wolf, she cries out as it tears into her and begs to be saved offering a thousand dinars to her rescuer. The author states that the people ignore these pleas because they know it is the si’lah.  In fact, Robert Lebling states that wolves are the only animals that the djinn fear. He says that the djinn cannot escape the wolves by sinking into the ground, thus falling prey to the teeth and claws of the wolves.  In Iraq and other parts of the Muslim world, wolf teeth are worn as protective talismans.

INCUBUS AND SUCCUBUS:

According to the Jewish folklore or texts, Lilith who was Adam’s first wife (a non-Islamic
concept) later became a succubus after leaving the Garden of Eden.  The most powerful Succubus to have lived is believed to be Lilith, the queen of Hell. She’s also the mother of all Succubi. Her counterpart – the first and most powerful Incubus – was Lilu.  Benjamin Adamah notes in his The incubus or succubus – nightmare or astral sex date?  “Legend has it that the incubi and succubi came from the community that rose from Lilith and Samael. They were responsible for erotic fantasies, drives and desires and were particularly fond of lonely travellers and men, who had been away from their wives for a longer period of time.  They caused wet dreams and thus the loss of precious life energy and from this wasted seed new incubi or succubi were born.”    In medieval Europe, union with an incubus was supposed by some to result in the birth of witches, demons, and deformed human offspring.

Incubus and his female counterpart, the Succubus, visit women and men in their sleep, lie and press heavily upon them, and seduce them.   Incubus and succubus can be relentless in pursuit of their sexual desire so much so that they grow violent when resisted.  However, they are considered less dangerous than possessing demons.  Incubi are especially attracted to women with beautiful hair, young virgins, chaste widows, and all “devout” females.  Therefore, tales of Incubi and Succubi were originally linked more with monks and nuns – two groups of individuals who have sworn celibacy.  Consequently, there have been cases where many nuns became pregnant and killed their children at birth and then buried them outside their nunneries.    

In medieval Europe, witches were said to copulate willingly with incubi, especially at a Witches' Sabbat when witches and sorcerers gathered at a secret place for worshipping the Devil and indulging in orgiastic rites, dances, feasting, etc.  The inquisitors’ handbook the Malleus Maleficarum (1487), stated that “in times long past the Incubus devils used to infest women against their wills,” but “modern witches . . . willingly embrace this most foul and miserable servitude.” Some incubi served as Familiars to witches, who sent them to torment specific individuals.  

FRANCESCO-MARIA GUAZZO related a story in Compendium Maleficarum (Book of Witches, 1608) about a beautiful noble girl who refused to marry men of her station but instead fell into an affair with an Incubus. She freely told her parents of the marvellous sex they had at night and sometimes during the day. One night, the parents, a priest, and others bolted the house doors and went into their daughter’s bedroom with lit torches. There they found her in the embrace of a hideous Demon, “a horrible monster whose appearance was terrible beyond human imagination.” It was only after the priest began his prayers and rituals that the Incubus released the girl, but not before setting fire to the furniture in the room and taking with him the roof of the bedroom.  The girl immediately gave birth to a monstrous baby which was burnt by the midwives.





In modern representations, a succubus is often depicted as a beautiful seductress or enchantress, rather than as a demonic or scary entity, in a female form, that appears in dreams to seduce men, usually through sexual activity. The succubus can cause an erection directly.  When a human has intercourse with a succubus or an incubus for fairly long periods, a need for more sex keeps on rising.  The impacts related to the succubus range from sexual stimulation to increased heart rate to preventing sleep, as well as many others too numerous to mention. Repeated sexual activity with a succubus or an incubus can cause poor physical or mental health, and as they suck out life energy it may even cause death.
 
According to the Malleus Malefic Arum, or Witches' Hammer, written by Heinrich Kramer (Henricus Institor) in 1486, both entities need a human to procreate. As a Succubus has sex with a man, she steals seeds from the male human. Then the demon shifts into a male form, Incubus, and has sexual intercourse with a woman in an attempt to impregnate her.  They do not possess their own semen; they collect it from men in nocturnal emissions, masturbation or, while the Demons are masquerading as succubi, from coitus.  An incubus may pursue sexual relations with a woman in order to father a child, as in the legend of Merlin.  The hybrid of human and incubi/succubi is called a Cambion.  

Coming to their genuine shapes, they look nothing like the beautiful masterpieces depicted in movies.  They are demons and sizeable and serpentine evil animals with skeletal ghost limbs that have qualities of a fowl. Their underbellies are continually washed with the blood of their victims down the ages.  Their backs bear stripes of hair.   Some Incubus penises were described as scaly, like the skin of a reptile. Incubi are not interested in procreation, only in degrading sex. Incubi have enormous phalluses that are so stiff they cause women great pain.  A woman accused as a witch in Haraucourt in 1586 described her Demon’s penis as long as a kitchen tool and without testicles or scrotum. Another accused witch, a woman named Didatia of Miremont, said at her trial in 1588 that she was “always so stretched by the huge, swollen member of her Demon that the sheets were drenched with blood.”  On the other hand, a succubus's private area feels like a cavern of ice, and their purpose is supposedly to take the seed of young men and return it to incubi, their demonic male analogues.

It may be stated here that Abrahel, called the Queen of the Succubi, is especially devoted to seducing men of doubtful asceticism, more punctually to peasants and men of little formal instruction.  It takes the form of a beautiful woman who captivates them immediately. It then disposes of them at will, causing them to commit real follies to satisfy their whims. Abrahel is also known to be especially cruel and perverted, even by Demons' standards, enjoying psychologically torturing and manipulating her victims. 

The French Demonologist, Nicholas Remy notes in Demonolatry, a succubus case that
happened in 1581.  A shepherd named Pierron Armenterious of Dalheim was persuaded by a succubus, Abrahel, to murder his son. After the murder, Pierron was so overcome with grief and guilt that he contemplated suicide.  Abrahel told him that if he worshipped her, she would restore the boy back to life.  He complied, and his son returned to the living.  However, the boy wasn't as intelligent as before; he was also skinnier and slower.  A mere year later the young boy died again, and a nauseating smell started to emanate from the corpse. The father buried the cadaver without holding a funeral.  In the words of Remy, "The child's body, which gave off an insufferable stench, was pulled out of his father's house with a hook and buried in a field."  The story does not make further mention of the succubus demon or the shepherd.

Francesco-Maria Guazzo wrote of one alleged succubus incident in Compendium Maleficarum (1608), in which a succubus forced herself on a young man near Aberdeen, Scotland. The succubus visited him in bed every night and stayed until dawn. The young man claimed that he tried to get rid of the succubus, but to no avail. Finally, the local bishop ordered him to go away to another place and devote himself to prayer and fasting.  After several days, the young man said the succubus left him.  

However, both entities are not bound by form or gender.   They can shapeshift into whatever the human most desires.  In other words, whatever the sleeping person desires, that will come forward. Incubi and Succubi are said to be mortals like us, so they basically can be killed either through decapitation or by ripping their hearts from their chests.

It cannot be said that all succubi were malevolent.  As a young priest, Gerbert of Aurillac (946-1003 C.E.) fell madly in love with the daughter of the Provost of Rheims who cruelly rejected him.  He fell into a deep melancholy.  According to Walter Mapes in De Nugis Curialium (Trifles of Courtiers), after being jilted in love, he got involved with a succubus named 
Meridiana.  Meridiana offered him all of the sins of the flesh and lust-filled sex that he could ever want beyond his wildest dreams, as well as wealth, good fortune, and knowledge of the mystical arts if he would only stay faithful to her and her alone.  Gerbert of Aurillac agreed and his career rose very fast. From the monk, he rose to be the Bishop of Rome, became Archbishop of Rheims, then Cardinal, Archbishop of Ravenna, and finally Pope Sylvester II.  All the while, quite against his vows, he secretly indulged in satisfying his every carnal desire with Meridiana.  In fact, he also had flings with his early rejector who now suddenly found him worthy of her love.  This went on until one day Meridiana predicted that Gerbert would die as he celebrated mass in Jerusalem, which actually turned out to be Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (Holy Cross of Jerusalem) in Rome.  

Before his death, Pope Sylvester II (999–1003) confessed his sins and died repentant. Of course, there are some gory details here; but we need not go into them.  According to Lore, his tomb sweats prior to the death of a prominent person. If a pope is going to die, the sweat is so heavy that it turns into a stream and creates a large puddle, and Sylvester’s bones shake and rattle.

For the sake of brevity, we shall not discuss how these spirit demons can be conjured by witches, sorcerers, and shamans. During the witch hysteria in Europe, incubi were believed to be instruments of the Devil, tormenting people for the sole purpose of degrading their souls and perverting them to more vices. During the witch hunts, Demonologists wrote handbooks on witches, the Devil, and Demons. They described the appearances, behaviour, and characteristics of incubi and remedies against them.    The 15th-century witch hunter's manual, the Malleus Maleficarum, is a notorious, much-maligned text on how to identify, capture, and kill witches. Thousands of women of whom many were innocent were burnt at stake in Europe.  Just because some women had a crooked nose, or were living singly with a cat, or dressed somewhat differently, or were assertive and intelligent, and so on was good enough to be branded a witch,
Women who “tried to seduce” men were accused of being Succubi in disguise, while women who became pregnant outside of wedlock were accused of consorting with Incubi.  It may be stated here that the famous late-fifteenth century German handbook for the prosecution of witches, put forth “the Devil, a witch, and the permission of Almighty God”, as “the three necessary concomitants of witchcraft”

The men accused of witchcraft were tortured until they confessed to having sex with Demons, among other Demonic crimes.  In a grave travesty of justice, we have the classic case of Father Urbain Grandier who during the Witch Trials of 1634 in France was falsely accused of casting spells and inflicting mass demonic possession on the Ursuline nuns of Loudon. Despite the very gruesome tortures that included the smashing of both his legs till the marrow oozed out of the bones, Grandier did not confess as he laboured under the belief that he would be exonerated.  Grandier was convicted of practising witchcraft,  summoning evil spirits, and causing demonic possession of the Ursuline nuns of Loudun. Of course, later on, it was found that the entire case had been concocted by his rivals including a Bishop, a Cardinal and a Baron as well as Mother Superior who produced a forged Devil Pact to get even with Grandier for having spurned her offer of a Confessor at the Convent and thus shattering her dreams of having sex with him.  But the damage had been done! Grandier was burnt alive at the stake for the alleged offences. Ironically, even after this,  the 12 Ursuline nuns who had given depositions at the trial continued to show signs of demonic possession by contorting their bodies, lifting their skirts and begging for sexual relief in a language that “would have astonished the inmates of the lowest brothel in the country.” 

 Ludovico Maria Sinistrari (d.1701 C.E.) in Demonioality: Incubi-Succubi is not dismissive of their salvation. He advances the theological argument that these minor demons have souls, and can be saved from damnation. He distinguishes them from the more vulgar type that tends to possess humans in terrifying displays.  Here he cites the views of saints, scholars and churchmen and their descriptions of a world filled with beings able to assume human shapes in order to haunt and taunt their mortal victims.  Repeated intercourse with these demons theoretically causes insanity and extraordinarily ill-health.

Down the centuries many such encounters have been recorded involving various individuals.  Even in the modern world, there have been encounters between these demons and humans.  Some Hollywood actresses have gone on record to state their experiences, their encounters with these spirits.  The truth is, Lucy Liu, Anna Nicole Smith, Natasha Blasick, Kesha, and even porn stars have all publicly admitted to ongoing sexual relations with amorous spirits though they term it Spectrophilia.

When asked why, the answer is always the same: sex with these spirits is ridiculously pleasurable, as they have the ability to manipulate our bodies in ways that a human may not be able to.  











To Continue...

NASIR ALI

Monday, May 23, 2022

PART 9 OF JINN OF THE UNSEEN WORLD, EXPLORING SOME BASICS...

From the Desk of a Layman, Nasir Ali:

JINN OF THE UNSEEN WORLD, EXPLORING SOME BASICS, PART 9.

Speaking of Ghouls, one must willy-nilly turn to ALF LAYL WA LAYL or THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS which is one of the great books on fiction which fired the imagination of the readers down the centuries in the orient and the occident.   These stories are anonymous and have their roots in an oral culture, passed down from one generation to the next.  The most ancient testimony to the existence of a collection of tales bearing this title is given by Masʿūdī (d. 345/956; see Morūǰ IV, p. 90; ed. Pellat, sec. 1416). He refers to work full of untrue stories translated from Persian, Sanskrit, and Greek, including the “book entitled Hazār afsāna, or the thousand tales, because a tale is called in Persian afsāna. Moreover, the names of the protagonists also suggest Persian origin.  This volume is known to the public under the title "One Thousand and One Nights."  

The French scholar Antoine Galland  [ɑ̃twan ɡalɑ̃]  (1646-1715)  found the Arabic original and translated it into French as Les Mille et Une Nuits.  His version of the tales was published in 12 volumes between the years 1704-1717 and thus it was he who introduced The Nights to Europe.  Despite the interpolations and loose translation, Galland's work was a raging success.      Translations of Galland's into English, Italian, Russian and other languages soon followed.  It exerted considerable influence on subsequent European literature and the western world in its understanding of the Middle East, inspiring the work of William Beckford, the 18th Century author of the Arabian-themed novel "Vathek,. The folkloric studies of Sabine Baring-Gould, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Addison, Johnson and Goethe were among the 18th-century writers whose work was heavily influenced by the Nights.  It even inspired painters, musicians, poets, dramatists, and others. .  

The tales in the collection of Galland and in more complete editions discovered since his time are chiefly Persian, Indian, and Arabian in source, and in ultimate origin come from all the ends of the earth. No two manuscripts have precisely the same contents, and some of the most famous of the tales here printed are probably not properly to be regarded as belonging to the collection but owe their association with the others to their having been included by Galland. Thus “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” is found in no Oriental version of the “Nights,” and “‘Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp” was long supposed to be in the same situation, though in recent years it has turned up in two manuscripts.  Contrary to popular assumptions, Galland did not concoct the "Story of Sidi Nouman". He collected it (and composed it up) from a Syriac-Christian storyteller named Hanna Diab, who moreover gave him  "Aladdin" and "Ali-Baba". Consequently "Sidi Nouman" is at least 300 years old and from a truly mid-eastern source (Hanna Diab). It won't be easy to find mid-eastern tales on ghouls older and more authentic than the tale of Sidi Nouman.  The tales of  Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp, The Seven Voyages of  Sindbad the Sailor and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves are the most popular of the lot and have even been turned into children’s films and cartoons.

Edward William Lane translated The Thousand and One Night directly from  Arabic into English and published it in three volumes in 1839-41.  Lane was prudish in his interpretation of the Nights as he expunged stories and occurrences that smacked off sexual content.  His abundant endnotes furthered his didactic aims.    On the other hand, Sir Richard Burton produced his English translation from Arabic in 10 books accompanying six supplementary books (1885-8), he retained the sexual settings,  using copious notes on matters of bestiality, homosexuality and emasculation. Though his unexpurgated 16-volume edition was highly praised by some critics for his exceptional literary skill, robustness and honesty, some other critics attacked his Nights as “garbage of the brothels,” and “an appalling collection of degrading customs and statistics of vice.”

It is said that the Nights still carries with it a certain mystique and awe with it as well, as there is a Middle Eastern superstition that no one can read the last of the Nights without falling dead.  


Now, One thousand and one nights tell the tales of fictional Scheherazade, (Shahrzad) narrated to King Shahriyar (Shahryar) who used to kill his virgin bride in the morning after having consummated his marriage during the first night.  This killing spree went on daily for three years till his Vizier could no more find a virgin bride in the kingdom and was compelled to give his own daughter, Scheherazade, in marriage to the king.  Of course, the reluctant Vizier was advised to take this step by Scheherazade herself who was confident of surviving the ordeal.  Scheherazade's self-confidence was not misplaced:  In Sir Richard F. Burton's translation of The Nights: she was described in this way: "[Scheherazade] had perused the books, annals and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples and instances of bygone men and things; indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. She had perused the works of the poets and knew them by heart; she had studied philosophy and the sciences, arts and accomplishments; and she was pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well-read and well-bred."

When Scheherazade and the King are in bed and he wants to get into her she starts to weep. He asks what is wrong. She says she would like to see her sister before she sees the dawn. Dunyazad (Dīnārzād)  is brought and the King removes the bride’s maidenhead. But at midnight Dunyazad, who has been secretly coached before, asks for a story. Scheherazade is willing to tell her if the King consents, which he does. She makes the king honour-bound to a certain condition that he could kill her in the morning only after she has finished 

relating a story to him at night.  And so the first night of the Thousand Nights and a Night begins.  

Scheherazade narrates tales from within her own tale, but within her tales, characters also tell tales, and within those tales of characters are their characters telling tales.  When morning overtakes the completion of the tale, Scheherazade lapses into silence and the story remains incomplete.  Then Dunyazad exclaims, “Sister, what a strange and entertaining story!”  Scheherazade replies, “This is nothing compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if only the king spares my life!”  The king was honour-bound to stay her execution until such time as Scheherazade had completed her story.  The following night when Scheherazade finishes the previous story she then begins a second and more exciting tale.   At the first streak of dawn, she again stops halfway through the story.  As instructed, in the story cycle, it is Dunyazad who initiates the tactic of cliffhanger storytelling to prevent her sister's execution by Shahriyar.  Once again, the king spares her life for one more day so Scheherazade can finish the story.  She never does, for completion of the story would signal the end of her life!  Thus, the nightly tales, also known as The Arabian Nights, go on and on as she weaves a deep narrative, forming links of rich tapestries of old legends and parables, the fantastic and the trivial.  There are palaces in the sky, Jinnis, giant birds, and speaking fish.  When the stories speak of the mighty, they do not leave out the mundane.  When spiritual love is mentioned, sexual pleasures are not avoided.  She entertains the ruler with love stories and erotica, tragedies, comedies, poems, riddles, songs, historical tales, injustice against women,  humour, numerology, occult magic, deceit and vengeance.  This labyrinth of tales entertains us, sometimes instructs us, and sometimes poses a challenge or a chastisement.  The fact is that many fantastic and delightful elements fill its pages as well against the backdrops of not only Baghdad, Basrah, Cairo, and Damascus, but also North Africa, China, Greece, Turkey and India.  The Nights echoes also the similarities of the two societies of jinn and humans in many stories.  Starting from the 271 night and ending on 282 night in the Syrian manuscript (now lost) is the story of Qamar al-Zaman, though it is found in the Egyptian recension of the Nights.  The story of Qamar and Budur is portrayed through various stages of adventures, including their marriage, culminating in years of pain and separation thanks to the interventions of jinniyah Maymuna and Ifrit Dahshan.  

Scheherazade tells the stories each night to create her life anew each night.  After 1001 nights and 1000 enthralling stories, Scheherazade tells the king that she has no more tales to tell him.  By this time the king has already fallen in love with her, and become wiser, with his faith in womanhood restored.  What’s more, Scheherazade has borne him three sons.  Shahriyar deems it fit to make her his Queen.  

Now, why did Shahriyar behave in the manner he did before his meeting with Scheherazade who cured his morbid cruelty, makes for an interesting background which does not figure in the Tales:  Shah Zaman and Shahriyar are brothers and rulers in their particular kingdoms. After a space of twenty long years, the brothers wish to see each other. Shah Zaman, planning to take off but overlooking something at the royal residence, returns to discover his spouse ‘embracing with both arms a dark cook of detestable angle and foul with kitchen oil and grime'. "If such case happens while I am yet within sight of the city what will be the doings of this damned whore during my long absence at my brother's court?"  Shah Zaman draws his scimitar and, cutting the two in four pieces with a single blow, leaves them on the carpet… Arriving at his brother Shahriyar’s house, he falls sick with grief.  Eventually, after his brother leaves for hunting,  Shah Zaman sees his sister-in-law and slaves there having sex as well.  His sister-in-law calls out a title and after that springs with a drop-leap from one of the trees a huge drooling blackamoor with rolling eyes which showed the whites, a genuinely ghastly sight. He walks strongly up to her and tosses his arms around her neck whereas she grasps him as warmly. At that point, he “busses” her and winds his legs around hers, 'as a button-loop clasps a button,' and throws her and enjoys her.  Shah Zaman feels superior on seeing that his brother has more issues than he. Shahriyar inquires after Shah Zaman’s progressed well-being and extracts the secret from him. In secret, they observe the intercourses happen once more after they have faked another hunting trip.   Losing all hope, the brothers spurn their royal residences and meander into the desert until they come to an oasis and a tree.  A column of smoke rises and they hide in the tree. The smoke takes the shape of a Jinni. The Jinni has a key that he uses to release a young lady from a ‘box of seven chains.’


The Jinni copulates with her and falls asleep.  Presently she raises her head toward the treetop and sees the two Kings perched near the summit.  She beckons them to come down, threatening them otherwise to wake up the Ifrit.   So, being afraid, they come down to her, and "she rose before them and said, 'Stroke me a strong stroke, without stay or delay, otherwise will I arouse and set upon you this Ifrit, who shall slay you straightaway.'"  They hesitate but in the long run, succumb to the young lady's demands as the Jinni sleeps. Then the young lady tells them that she was abducted on her wedding night and the Jinni keeps her beneath the sea. The young lady inquires about their seal rings, and she includes them as ‘a jewellery of five hundred and seventy seal rings' belonging to the other men she has loved without the Jinni knowing.  She bids them farewell saying, "But I have lain under as many of my kind as I please, and this wretched Jinni wotteth, not that Destiny may not be averted nor hindered by aught, and that whatso woman willeth, the same she fulfilleth however man nilleth."  The kings decide that if a powerful Jinni can be made a cuckold (and indeed he is described as having mighty horns) then their lot is not so bad, and they decide to go home.  When Shahriar enters his palace, he causes his wife’s head to be cut off at the neck, and in the same way the heads of the slaves, both men and women. Then the embittered misogynist orders the Vizier to bring him a young virgin girl every night, whom he ravishes and, when the night has passed, causes her to be slain the very next morning so that she will not have the opportunity to bring dishonour upon him.

Ghouls were largely unknown to Europe, and it was not until Antoine Galland translated the Arabian Nights into French that the western idea of the ghoul was introduced.  The writings were corrupted because of Galland’s free translation of the Nights.  In truth, he is thought to have made a few characters and included them in stories that were not initially part of the work.  One of these characters was Amina, who figures in the story featuring the ghoul.  This is a story within a story which is narrated by Sidi Nouman to Caliph Haroun Rashid:  Sidi-Nouman is happy with his new wife, Amina, except for one thing: her strange way of eating just a few grains of rice at each meal. One night, hearing her slip out of the house, Sidi-Nouman follows her to a cemetery and hides behind a wall.  He sees his wife devouring a corpse in the company of a ghoul.  When he confronts her, Sidi-Nouman becomes the victim of her magic and is changed into a dog.  Sidi-Nouman is now living the life of a dog.   He roams the streets until a baker takes him in. One day a lady comes in with fake money to buy bread and again Sidi-Nouman points out the bad money.  The baker is astonished by the dog's talent.  Another lady comes in with fake money and Sidi-Nouman points it out, but this time the lady takes the fake money back and pays it with real money. The lady then signals the dog to follow her. So he does. The lady takes Sidi-Nouman to her daughter.  The daughter says that she knows his real identity as he is actually a man inside a dog's body.  She turns Sidi-Nouman back into a human.  The lady’s daughter then gives Sidi-Nouman some water and tells him to return home.  She also instructs him to recite a

mantra on the water and then sprinkle the water on his wife.  Sidi-Nouman does everything the lady´s daughter says.  Once he does it his wife is transformed into a horse.  It was on seeing this horse being beaten most severely by Sidi-Nouman that the Caliph Haroun al-Rashid wanted to know the reason for such cruelty.  It was then that the above tale was narrated before him.  

The other ghoul in Galland's text is also a female, and the mother of a brood of little ghouls as found in the tale of The Vizier who was Punished.  Shortly stated, there was once upon a time a king who had a son who was very fond of hunting. He often allowed him to indulge in this pastime, but he had ordered his grand-vizier always to go with him, and never to lose sight of him.  To come to the point, one day the prince rode so hard while chasing a stag he lost his way back, with the grand-vizier nowhere in sight.  He chanced upon a beautiful lady who was bitterly crying.  She said she was an Indian princess and in the state of sleep, she had fallen off a horse.  The prince took pity on her and offered to take her behind him on the horse.  As they passed by a dilapidated building the lady dismounted and went in.     The prince also dismounted and followed her. To his great surprise, he heard her saying to someone inside, "Rejoice my children. I am bringing you a nice fat youth." And other voices replied, "Where is he, mamma, that we may eat him at once, as we are very hungry?"  The prince at once saw the danger he was in. He now knew that the lady was in fact a female ghoul who lured passersby and made a meal of them.  He was terrified and threw himself on his horse.  The fake princess appeared at this moment, and seeing that she had lost her prey, she said to him, "Do not be afraid. What do you want?"   "I am lost," he answered, "and I am looking for the road."  "Keep straight on," said the female ghoul, "and you will find it."  The prince could hardly believe his ears and rode off as hard as he could. He found his way and arrived safe and sound at his father's house, where he told him of the danger he had run into because of the grand vizier's carelessness. The king was very angry and had him strangled immediately. This brief story continues the longer legend of King Yunan and the Sage Duban, which is narrated by the Fisherman to the Jinni which story is narrated by Scheherazade to Shahriyar. 

The History of Gharib and His Brother Agib is one of the original stories in ‘The Thousand and One Nights’ that highlights ghouls that remained unaltered by Antoine Galland.  Gharib is sent on an errand to get the hand of  Mahdiyyaa in marriage. On the way, he faces the Sa’dan the Ghoul – the master of a castle.  In order to continue with his quest, he must overcome him.   He vanquishes the Ghoul and his sons who accept Islam at his hand.

Literature on the ghouls is too vast to be discussed here.   In spite of the fact that ghouls were now and then related to rummaging hyenas, Arabic writings did not recognize them as grave raiders who feasted on the dead.  According to Researcher, Ahmed Al-Rawi, this detail appears to have risen with the French translation of "The Thousand and One Nights" by Antoine Galland within the early 18th century.  In short, tales of the ghoul circulated throughout the Middle East long before the seventh-century spread of Islam through the region. In fact, the Arabic ghul may stem from gallu, the name of an Akkadian demon in ancient Mesopotamian mythology [source: Al-Rawi]. Arabic scholars of the eighth, ninth and 10th centuries compiled various Bedouin folktales involving ghouls, many of which found their way into the collection "The Thousand and One Nights." Translations of this book travelled to Europe in the 18th century -- as did the notion of the ghoul. Such creative stories from the Middle East and surroundings, that date back past the medieval period have regularly highlighted ghouls as violators of the graves.  Baring-Gould depicts the scene: On a moonlit night, odd shapes are seen stealing among the tombs and digging into them with their long nails in order to reach the bodies of the dead before daybreak when they relinquish their cravings. These ghouls are mainly thought to require the flesh of the dead for magical spells and incantations.  More often though, they desire to disturb the repose of the dead body by just tearing into it.

European depictions of ghouls show that since ghouls are able to acquire the shape of any human whose flesh they have eaten, those who are cautious to conceal their eating propensities can work in human society. Indeed in the event that they are caught, ghouls are mistakenly taken for human cannibals. Their true nature is revealed when they are denied human flesh.  In addition to being pale, these progressed ghouls are shown to have in fact more unmistakable shapeshifting capacities than the early ghouls. It has been suggested that these ghouls can also get to the memories of the person they have eaten up by eating their brain so that it reasonably allows them to blend into society without being found out. Ghouls tend to live in limited zones that are isolated from human society.

Some people who are acquainted with the traditions believe that offspring of this interbreeding between a ghoul and a human occurs only if a human has been buried alive or detained in a tomb for at slightest 24 hours prior to mating. It isn't known if there's any truth to this superstition.  In the extremely popular anime Tokyo Ghoul and the sequel series Tokyo Ghoul, ghouls live among humans and are seen as carnivorous monsters that resemble humans in every way, except for an extreme craving for human flesh and a predatory organ weapon called a "Kagune" unique to each ghoul with special abilities.

 Ghouls can move faster than humans on all fours or on their feet.  Despite their immense speed and massive strength, the Ghouls have a couple of weaknesses that are: decapitation, fire, and concentrated acid. With decapitation, which involves the whole elimination of their head, is rather fatal, while any exposure to concentrated acid would cause the death of a Ghoul.  Fire can kill them if it is sufficiently hot to burn them to a crisp. Since Ghouls have very sensitive eyes, exposure to light can cause them pain. 

To sum up the Ghouls, Professor Rawi says:  “According to Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), ghouls can hurt human beings by eating or spoiling their food or by frightening travellers when they are in the wilderness.  In order to avoid harm, one can recite a verse from the Holy Quran or call for prayer since they hate any reference to God.  Ismâ‘īl bin ‘Umar Abū al-Fidâ’ (?- c. 1372)* mentioned in Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr that ghouls were the ‘demons of genies’, and cited the following famous incident:  According to a prophetic tradition when the Prophet (Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam)  met his companion Abū Dharr in a mosque, the Prophet advised Abū Dharr to pray in order to be saved from the mischief of the devils of humans and genies. Abū Dharr was surprised to hear the Prophet confirmed the existence of creatures such as these, which the Prophet identified as ghouls.  In brief, Islam tried to direct the people's way of thinking to the one omnipresent God as the creator and mover of all things and did not acknowledge that there were other forces involved in controlling the universe.” 


*(1300-1372)

To Continue...

NASIR ALI.

Thursday, April 28, 2022

JINN OF THE UNSEEN WORLD, EXPLORING SOME BASICS, PART 8.

 From the Desk of a Layman, Nasir Ali:  

JINN OF THE UNSEEN WORLD, EXPLORING SOME BASICS, PART 8:



Islamic scholar Ibn Abd al Barr (d.1071 CE) said the jinn have several names and are of various types:  a jinni who lives among people is called Aamir, the type of jinni that attaches itself to a child is called Arwaah, an evil jinni is often called Shaitaan (devil) when the Jinn are demonic, they are called Marid, and the evilest and strong Jinn are called Ifrit (plural afaareet). It may be stated here, that most of the exegetes disregard the different jinn known in Islamic folklore.  Marid and Ifrit are the only kinds of sub-species mentioned in the Qur'an. Al-Jinn is mentioned 32 times in 31 verses of the Holy Qur’an, while the word "Ghul" appears once in Surah 37:47 to mean “There will neither be any harm in it for their body nor will it intoxicate their mind,” i.e., in the wine of Paradise.  Tabari, however, is one of the earliest commentators through whom several Jinn have been made known, though he denied its theological significance.  Besides, commonly associated with Jinn in human form are the Ghoul and the Si’lah. 

The Ghoul is an inferior but fiendish type of Jinn who is opposed to travels and assumes different forms and appearances.  In ancient Arabian folklore, the Ghūl, anglicized as a ghoul, literally means demon in Arabic.  In Arabic, the female form is given as ghouleh and the plural is ghilan.  The term, ghūl, is often used by modern Arabs to frighten disobedient children or to describe a greedy or gluttonous individual, or a cannibal.  This fiendish type of jinni is believed to be sired by the Shaytan Iblis.  It dwells in burial grounds and other uninhabited places such as wastelands and deserts.  

THE GHOUL: 

Ghouls were mostly encountered by the desert Bedouins and travellers.    It may be noted that before the advent of Islam, Hazrat 'Umar Bin al-Khattab (caliph 586-644), was known as the man who had killed a ghoul in the desert when he was travelling to Syria.  However, in this case, it was a female ghulah who had accosted him and wanted to know where he was heading for. Upon his refusal to disclose his destination, she even tried to frighten him by turning her head completely around (Ibn Manzur vol. xxvii, 269-70).  This  360° head-spinning reminds us of the scene from the famous movie Exorcist.  Hazrat Umar struck off her head with one blow of a sword between the neck and shoulders.  By the time he returned to the same place later, the body had disappeared! And it boded well for him.  For, according to Arabian folklore, if a second blow is dealt then it would resurrect the Ghoul or ghulah, and he or she would not die unless further 1000 blows are given! Because only one strike can be used to kill a ghoul, decapitation is the preferred method to ensure that the beast dies quickly. 

Ta’abbata Sharran, the famous pre-Islamic poet, mentions in his poem How I met the Ghoul his experience of encountering a female Ghul one night.  After having killed her, but not knowing who had been his attacker, he lay atop the jinniyah through the night only to behold in the morning, “Two-eyes set in a hideous head, like the head of a cat, split-tongued, legs like a deformed foetus, the back of a dog.”  No doubt, the people before Islam described them as having a cat-like face, canine teeth, and a forked tongue, and who appeared and disappeared suddenly.  

Abu Asid al-Sa'di mentioned the story of Arqam Bin Abu al-Arqam in which a ghoul appeared and kidnapped al-Arqam's, son who was on a desert journey. The ghoul, disguised in the form of a woman, carried the boy on its back. When they saw al-Arqam's friend, the woman pretended to be the boy's attendant (al-Waqidl 1984, 104). This story emphasizes the well-known deceitful and wicked character of the ghoul.

Other Muslim authors, such as Abi al-Sheikh al-Aşbahâni (c.887 - c.979), defined the ghoul or si'lwah as a female demon that could change shape and appear to travellers in the desert in order to deceive and harm them. He told the story of Ahmed al-Dabbâgh's father who once while going on a journey traversed a dangerous road notorious for being frequented by ghouls. Ahmed al-Dabbâgh's father observed a woman in shabby clothing laying on a bed above which hung lanterns used to brighten the space.  When she saw him approaching, the woman started calling on the man to entice him.  But he recognized she was a ghoul and recited the Surah Yaasin from the Qur'an instead.  As a result, the woman put out her lantern lights and said: 'Oh man, what did you do to me?' Hence, he was saved from her harm (1987, vol. v, 1652).

According to Al-Jahiz (775-868 CE) the author of Al-Haywan, Ghoul is the name for every jinni that the traveller comes across, appearing in different forms and shapes, both male and female.  He mentioned that the common people believed that genies, devils, and ghouls, had the ability to transform themselves into whatever forms they liked. However, even though the ghoul could change into the shape of a beautiful woman, its legs would remain like those of an ass.  

Al-Qazwini (1208-1283 c.e.), the author of Ajaib al-Makhluqat Wa Gharaib al-Mawjudat, states that al-Ghul (the Ghoul) is one of the most famous and common among the Jinn.  He describes the ghoul as a demonical animal resembling both man and brute. While relying on some older Arabic source he says:  The ghouls are among the inferior type of Jinn who while eavesdropping on the heaven to gather intelligence for soothsayers were struck by meteorites or shooting stars so that they plummeted back to earth, hugely burnt and deformed into ghouls.  As for those who fell into the sea, they later became crocodiles. According to others, all the demons who were struck changed into ghouls no matter where they fell, and some being driven insane, they roam the deserts as such.  However, this description is not found in Islamic texts.  He pointed out that Arabs emphasized the ghoul's ugly features even if they did not see a ghoul, and that mentioning its name in poetry and tales brought fear to listeners.  

Hafiz Ibn Kathir (1300-1373 c.e.) in his Tafsir, says "Ghoul" is used for the genie when it appears at night. 


In Arabic culture, there is no specific description of ghouls.  Researcher, Ahmed K. Al-Rawi, states that a ghoul within the Arabic dialect can be defined “as a kind of female sorcerer, a devil of genies, or the Satan itself” since there's no accord on its specific nature.  Arabic texts did not identify them as grave robbers who dined on the dead or who did not mind having a fresh supply of human flesh.   But for Abu’l-Wafa (940-998 C.E.), who considered the devil to be a male genie, most dictionaries concur that ghouls were noxious, ugly male creatures—or female creatures, as in the case of si‘alwah —with teeth and cloven feet. To travellers in the desert, they were thought to appear in several shapes in order to beguile them and to lead them off track in order to kill them.  E.W. Lane’s Arabic-English Lexicon states that the Ghul “is a ‘kind of goblin, demon, devil” and that it is “terrible in appearance, having tusks or fangs.”  Inea Bushnaq, the translator of the Arabic The folktales on Pearls on a Branch, describes ghouls as “the wildest and most repulsive-looking of the jinn, hairy, filthy and long of the tooth with a sharp nose for the scent of human flesh.” 

    

A ghoul is capable of constantly changing form and can assume the guise of an animal, especially a hyena to lure the travellers to a secluded place so that other ghouls would also appear and devour the victim quickly. Often, especially in the hours between twilight and dawn, the ghoul takes on an appearance of a human being to lull the victims into a false sense of security and to lure them away from their path and into its trap.  Another ruse is to stalk the desert in the guise of an attractive woman to seduce the unwary travellers with a view to killing and devouring them. Sometimes the female ghoul may strike a conversation and yield herself to men in order to cross-breed with them, realising that plain inbreeding can lead to a weakness in their bloodlines.  In fact, one of the most common ghouls is the result of this demon and human cross-breeding. It is said that if the human women have been impregnated by male ghouls they will be killed and eaten only after the child is born.  Till such time, they are held captive.  As for the human men who mate with female ghouls, their fate is decided much earlier. 

  

A female ghoul will be lenified by some kind words and politeness and some personal service offered by her male victim.  If treated well, according to Inea Bushnaq in Arabian tales, the ghoulah may even prove to be sentimentally good-natured enough to carry him to any place he desires to go after he has forged a foster relationship with her by suckling from her pendulous breasts. This happens when the Ghoulah sits at her hand-mill, and to grind the hand-mill unhindered, she flings her huge breasts over her shoulders.  This offers an opportunity for the man to silently sneak up from behind and suckle from those breasts.  Upon this, she treats him as her own bosom child and protects him even from her own ghoul children who by virtue of suckling milk from her breasts automatically become brothers and sisters of the newcomer.  This suckling alludes to the Islamic law on the foster relationship which we need not delve into apart from mentioning that according to a prophetic tradition, foster-ship is only valid if it takes place in the suckling period (before two years of age)," in which case the suckling children come within the prohibited degree that restrains marriage between them.

 

In earlier Parts of our Article, we have already gone through a similar story recorded from Abu Hurairah ® who was guarding the Ramadan Zakah when someone came and grabbed some food but was caught. This happened three times. Here also, on the third occasion, he said, 'Let me go, I will teach you some words by which Allah will give you some benefit.' I asked, 'What are they?' He said, 'Whenever you go to bed, recite Aayat al-kursi- Allaahu laa ilaha illaa huwa al-hayyul-qayyum - until the end of the aayah. Then Allah will appoint a guard to remain with you, and no shaitan will come near you until the morning.'  The next morning Abu Hurairah, when enquired upon, related the incident to the Prophet (Sall Allahu 'Alaihi Wasallam) who said, ‘he told you the truth, though he is a liar.  Do you know who it was that spoke to you these past three nights Abu Hurairah?’ He (Abu Hurairah) said, ‘No’. "That was a shaitan."   

[You will find the full version in the Sahih and Tarikh of Imam Bukhari, which has also been cited by Imam Baghawi.  Ibn Hajar has traced the various routes of this Hadith’s chain.] 


'Abdurrahmaan Bin Abu Laylaa reported: "Once a ghoul came into Abu Ayyub's shed and he caught her. He told the Prophet (Sallallahu 'Alaihi Wasallam) about the incident, so he said; ‘When you see her, then say, "In the name of Allah, come and answer to Allah's Messenger."’ So she came back, and he said that to her and grabbed her, then she said to him, 'I will not return.' So he released her. He came back and the Prophet (Sall Allahu 'Alaihi Wasallam) said to him, ‘What did your captive do?’ He said, 'I grabbed her, but she said she would not return, so I released her.' He (Sall Allahu 'Alaihi wa Sallam) said, ‘She will return.’ 'I caught her a second time and a third, each time she said she would not return. So I went to the Prophet (Sall Allahu 'Alaihi Wasallam) and He said, ‘What did your captive do?’ 'He said, 'I caught her, but she said she would not return.' He (Sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam) said, ‘She will return.’ So he caught her again, and she said, 'Release me and I will teach you something to say and nothing will come near you. It is Aayat al-Kursi.' So he came to the Prophet (Sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam) to tell him. He said, ‘She told the truth, and she is a liar.’" [This hadith is recorded by Ahmad, at-Tirmidhi and others.]


Abdullaah Bin Ubayy narrated that his father had a storage space that contained some dates. He went into it and found that some were missing. So he kept watching over it. Later he found a beast that resembled an adolescent boy in it. He said, "So I gave him salaams, and he returned salaams. So I said, 'What are you, a jinn or a human?' He said, 'Jinn.' I said, 'Show me your hand.' He showed me his hand, it was the hand of a dog with hair like a dog's. I said, 'Is this the way that jinns are?' He said, 'I know of the jinn what is worse than me.' Ubayy said to him, 'What made you do as you have?' He said, 'We have learned that you are a man who likes to give sadaqah, so we like to get some of your food.' Ubayy said, 'Is there something that will protect us from you?' He said, 'This aayah, is Aayat al-Kursi.' The next day Ubayy went to the Prophet (Sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam) and informed him about what happened. He (Sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam) said: The evil one told the truth. [This hadith is recorded by an-Nasa'i in 'Aml al-Yawm wal-Laylah, al-Baghawee in Sharh as-Sunnah, al-Bukhari in at-Taarikh al-Kabeer, and Ibn Hibbaan in his Saheeh as well as others.]


There are other similar hadiths, with varying degrees of authenticity, and in some of them, the narrators call the creature a ghoul, sometimes the creature is a male, sometimes a female. Among the other similar narrations are the narrations of Mu'aath, Buraydah, and Abu Usayd, the last two of which mention the ghoul.


The Prophet (Sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam) said, “No 'adwaa, no tiyarah, and no ghoul.” (Muslim)


There are a number of hadiths like this that mention the statement, Laa (no) ghoul, such are found with al-Bukhari and Muslim as well as others. In light of the discussion above confirming the ghoul, the following is the explanation of the scholars rectifying the apparent contradiction between these two types of texts.


The statement "No ghoul" does not negate the actual existence of the ghoul, but it negates the superstitions commonly held in jahiliyyah about ghouls, i.e, that they are assassins, that they hijack travellers from the road, and that they eat people, etc. Additionally, when the Prophet said, Laa (no) ghoul he said the same about other things, like 'adwaa for example, yet he commanded a form of 'adwaa on other occasions, like fleeing from the area of plague if you hear about it before you reach it. And in one variation of the hadith mentioning 'adwaa, he (Sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam) said: “But stay away from the leper like you would stay away from a lion.”


Imam an-Nawawi said, "...And the meaning of Laa (no) ghoul is they are not able to mislead anyone..."


According to Islamic scholars, all of these hadiths support the existence of the ghoul due to their multiple routes of transmission - this is the saying of Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Baari, al-Bayhaqi in Dala'il an-Nubuwah, Ibn Kathir in his Tafsir, and al-Mubarakpuri in Tuhfat al-Ahwathee. After the narration of Abu Ayyub, al-Haakim said, "These chains of narration, when combined together, make the hadiths' level Mashhoor (well known), and Allah knows best."


The Prophet (Sall Allahu 'Alayhi Wasallam) rejected and denied this idea altogether about what the Arabs thought about the ghoul. However, this was not denying that ghouls exist, rather it was a denial of the Arabs’ belief that they could change shape and colour and make people lose their way, hence the meaning of “no ghoul” is that they cannot make people lose their way. This is borne out by another hadith, “There is no ghoul but there is Sa’ali” This is in Muslim and elsewhere. Sa’ali is a magician among the jinn, but among them, there are magicians who base their magic on confusion and illusions…


Next, we need to briefly examine the European versions of the Ghouls.



To continue...


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