The Jinn and Causality in the Modern Middle East

By Glenn M Stewart

This article examines the role that the Jinn play in modern Middle Eastern society with special emphasis on the GCC states. It examines the way in which the continued belief and acceptance of the reality of the Jinn exists in the culture at all levels of society and how the acceptance of that reality informs and at times guides personal, social and political actions in the region.

In terms of the continuing belief in the influence of Jinn in the modern Middle East emphasis will be given to the way in which contemporary Arab society still uses the Jinn as a means to explain causality. The use of the Jinn to explain phenomena for which many people have no other explanation or as a means to evade responsibility for personal actions is deeply ingrained in these societies and numerous contemporary examples of this will be put forward.

The article will also examine the roots of belief in the Jinn within Islam as found in the Qur’an and ahadith literature and the way in which this belief is so deeply ingrained in contemporary society as a result. This will include an examination of the role and interaction that individual prophets such as Muhammad (pbuh) had in relation to the Jinn and especially Sulaiman, who was granted dominion over the Jinn.

The article will also look at scholarly studies on the Jinn by leading members of the ulema’ such as Ibn Taymiyyah’s essay on the Jinn, Al Furqan bayna awliya’ Ar Rahman wa awliya’ Ash Shaytan and more contemporary works such as Shaikh Abd al Aziz ibn Baz’s Refutation of Those Who Deny Demonic Possession.

The article will also touch on the interplay in contemporary society between sorcery (al sihr) and the Jinn and the role of the Kahin in the modern world. Once again this will be based on evidence in the Qur’an and ahadith as well as the sunnah of the prophets and scholarly works such as Raqa’iq al-Hilafi Daqaiq al-Hiyal and the writings of contemporary scholars such as Sheikh Ali bin Abdel Rahman al Hudhafi.

Finally I will look at the role that the Jinn play in conflicts in the region such as Afghanistan where according to contemporary testimony they have been playing a very prominent role in the continuing turbulence and warfare gripping that nation.

This is an area of contemporary culture that has not, to the best of my knowledge been examined but which is very much alive in the hearts and minds of every person that I interviewed on the subject during my years in the region. I met no one in the region from the best educated modern businessmen to illiterate villagers who either had not had an encounter with the Jinn personally or knew of someone who did. One of the most fascinating cultural aspects of local attitudes I encountered during my time in Arabia was that of the relationship that existed there between human beings and the Jinn.

In Islamic cosmology there are three kinds of beings; humans created from earth, jinn created from fire and angels created from air. I always joked that the Arabs didn’t have enough familiarity with water to have had a race of beings created from that element.

The Jinn live in the world alongside mankind and are usually not seen by us. However, they are capable of manifesting themselves to humans and can interact with us in all ways if they so choose. That includes having sexual relations as well.

Some Jinn are malevolent, some are neutral and some are benign. They are divided into tribes and have their own rulers and kings. Some are pagans and some are Muslims, some Christian and there are even Jewish Jinn.

The Qur’an was revealed to both mankind and Jinn and it is well established that the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) preached to both men and Jinn and converted a number of Jinn to Islam. The Jinn will also be judged on the Day of Judgment for their acts and disbelievers amongst them will be sent to hell just as the good amongst them will go to heaven.

What fascinated me about the relationship between men and Jinn in the contemporary world was how real it was. Everyone I ever met in the Arabian Peninsula that I asked about the Jinn had a story to tell about them. I met a number of educated people who claimed not to believe in them but when you scratched the surface and probed, every one of them had a story involving some kind of interaction with the Jinn.

In my opinion the Arabs used the Jinn as a means of explaining causality of phenomena that they didn’t understand or as a means of excusing behavior they didn’t wish to understand or take responsibility for.

A good example of the former is contained in St John Philby’s book Arabia Of The Wahabis. A Bedouin woman went deaf in one ear. This was the result of her having poured hot coffee on the ground one day. Unwittingly, she had poured the coffee into the ear of a sleeping Jinni who was lying on the ground and in retaliation the Jinni made her deaf in one ear.

In respect of excusing behavior or avoiding responsibility I encountered numerous examples of this. There was a Saudi we knew who was in love with an English girl. Various incidents kept occurring in their relationship. He crashed his car with her in it one night and on another occasion when they were having a fight an ashtray flew across the room. After some examination it turned out that he was possessed by a female Jinni, a Jinnah and that the Jinnah was jealous of the English girl and was the source of all the trouble. If you are a man, one way that you can be sure that you are possessed by a jealous Jinnah is that she will send severed heads to you in a dream. They will usually come in sevens.

Another Bahraini I knew was concerned that his wife might have been having an affair as she would frequently disappear for a couple of hours in the afternoons. After some time he discovered that she was having sexual relations with a Jinni so there wasn’t anything that could be done to prevent this. Interestingly this particular Jinni was Jewish. I heard a number of stories involving sex between Jinn and humans. These involved both sexes. It is well known that nocturnal emissions are caused by a Jinnah having sex with a young man.

Jinn occasionally did random things that did not make sense to the people affected. For example the sister of one of my Bahraini employees was possessed by a Jinni from time to time. On these occasions it would make demands on the other people in the household. One time it wanted a blue chicken. On another occasion it wanted a gold bracelet.

Jinn also affected commercial business. For example there was a businessman in Bahrain named Syed Luti who had a couple of buildings around town that were always empty. I don’t know why people had it in for him but I was told that the reason that no one would rent in his buildings was because they were inhabited by Jinn. During the Gulf War in 1990 his apartment building overlooking the Andalus roundabout was rented to US military personnel. The locals told me that the Jinn in the building must have been Christian Jinn and therefore didn’t mind having the US soldiers living amongst them.

It was possible for foreigners to enhance their status in the eyes of some local people through involvement with the Jinn. An English friend of mine was living in Ras Ruman, a Shi’i part of Manama. One evening a group of men from the neighborhood came by and demanded to know what he was doing there. He invited them in for drinks and told them he was a Jinni. He then left the room and started throwing his voice and manipulating the lighting in the flat. They all fled. An hour or so later the police showed up on his doorstep and said that they had received a complaint that he was practicing witchcraft.

I was accused of having influence over the Jinn on one occasion. I was in a business meeting to discuss investments in Lebanon. My boss had recently met with Rafik Harriri, the then Lebanese Prime Minister who was soliciting investors for the country. My boss felt it was premature and that there needed to be a more stable peace before he would consider investing. I said that there could be no comprehensive peace in the Levant until Hafez Al Assad died. I repeated this assertion again later in the meeting. Assad died that afternoon and I was told that clearly a Jinni had heard me. On other occasions I asserted to contacts of mine that I had influence over the Jinn. I think that I was believed.

Of all the countries in the Arabian Peninsula Oman seemed to have the most Jinn. Everywhere I went in Oman my guides would point out places where the Jinn lived. In one of the old forts I asked the guard if there were any Jinn in the fort. He said possibly under the ground but that there were no Jinn in the fort itself as his father who had also been a guard there was buried under the threshold and kept them out.

To learn more about the Jinn I thoroughly reccomend Ibn Taymiyyah’s essay on the Jinn, titled in Arabic Al Furqan bayna awliya’ Al-Rahman wa awliya’ Al-Shaytan. Ibn Taymiyyah was a leading Hanbali scholar who lived from 1263–1328 CE. His essay has been translated into English by Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips and is published by Tawheed Publications in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

At the end of this book there is a refutation of those who deny demonic possession by the late Shaikh Abdul Aziz ibn Abdullah Bin Baz, one of the leading clerics in Sa’udi Arabia who once famously remarked that it was impossible for the Americans to have landed on the moon as everyone knows the moon is guarded by angels and they would not have allowed non-Muslims to go there.

This essay is highly instructive on more than one level. I include an extract from it here:

In the month of Sha’baan of this year (i.e. 1407 AH/1987) local and national newspapers have published brief as well as detailed articles on the events surrounding the declaration of Islaam by a Jinn which had possessed a Muslim woman in Riyadh. The Jinn had previously declared its Islaam to brother ‘Abdullah ibn Mushrif al-’Amree of Riyadh who had recited the Qur’aan over the possessed young woman and communicated with the possessing Jinn. In the course of his communication, al-’Amree reminded the Jinn of Allaah, preached to it and informed it that oppression is a major sin which is Haraam (forbidden). When the Jinn informed him (al-’Amree) that it was a Buddhist, he invited it to accept Islaam and leave the young woman. The Jinn was apparently convinced by his (al-’Amree’s) invitation and declared its Islaam in his presence. ‘Abdullah and the young lady’s relatives then rushed to bring her to me to hear the Jinn’s declaration of its Islaam. When they did so, I asked the Jinn about its reason for possessing the woman and it informed me by speaking with the young woman’s tongue, but with a man’s voice, not that of a female. This took place while the woman was sitting in a chair beside me in the presence of her brother, her sister, ‘Abdullaah ibn Mushrif and some Shaykhs who witnessed it and heard the Jinn’s statements. It openly declared its acceptance of Islaam and informed us that it was of Indian origin and that it followed the Buddhist religion. I advised it to fear Allaah, to leave the young woman and to avoid oppressing her. It consented saying: “I am convinced about Islaam”. I then advised it to invite its people to Islaam, as Allaah had guided it, and it promised to do so. Its final words before leave the woman were, “As-Salaamu ‘Alaykum (Peace be with you)”. The young woman then spoke with her own voice expressing feelings of well being and relief from her difficulties. She came back to see me a month or so later along with her two brothers, her maternal uncle and her sister, and informed me that she was well and in good health and that the Jinn had not returned to her — may Allaah be praised. I then asked her how she used to feel when it was present in her and she replied that she would experience bad, anti-Islamic thoughts and a leaning towards Buddhism and books written on it. However, after Allaah saved her from it, these thoughts disappeared and she returned to her original state, which was far away from deviant inclinations.

It was subsequently reported to me that the honorable Shaykh ‘Alee at-Tantaawee has denied the occurrence of such incidents and claimed that such reports are quackery and lies. He was also reported to have said that perhaps the woman had carried with her a concealed tape recorded conversation and that she did not really say those things herself. I requested a copy of the tape from his TV program in which these statements of his were made, and after listening, the accuracy of the reports which reached me was confirmed. I was very surprised at his suggestion that (the statements of the girl in a man’s voice) were tape recorded prior to her arrival, even though I asked the Jinn many questions to all of which it replied. How could any intelligent person think that a tape recording could be made in such a way as to answer a variety of unrehearsed questions? This is a gross mistake and a very false supposition on his part. He also claimed in his program that the acceptance of Islaam by a Jinn at the hands of a human contradicts Almighty Allaah’s statement in Sulaymaan’s (Prophet Solomon) story, “And grant me a dominion not allowed to anyone after me”. There is no doubt that this claim is also another grave error and a great misunderstanding — may Allaah guide him — as there is nothing which contradicts Sulaymaan’s supplication in the acceptance of Islaam by a Jinn at the hands of a human. A large number of Jinns accepted Islaam at the hands of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Allaah clarified this fact in Soorah-alAhqaaf and Soorah al-Jinn and it is also confirmed in the two most accurate books of Hadeeths.

In an authentic narration collected in the two books of Saheeh Hadeeths (i.e. Saheeh al-Bukhaaree and Saheeh Muslim) on the authority of Safeeyah — may Allaah be pleased with her — the Prophet (PBUH) said, “Verily Satan flows in man’s veins” Immam Ahmad in his Musnad, (vol.4, p.216) collected an authentic narration from ‘Uthmaan ibn Abil-’Aas — may Allaah be pleased with him — in which he said, “O messenger of Allaah, the devil came between me and my recitation of in Salaah.”. The Prophet (pbuh) said, “That is a devil called Khinzab. So if you feel its presence, seek refuge in Allaah from it and spit thrice to your left side”. Uthmaan said, “I did that and Allaah most great and glorious, removed it from me”. It also confirmed in authentic narrations from the Prophet (PBUH) that he said, “Everyone of you has been assigned a companion from the Jinn.” When the Sahaabah asked, “Even you, O Messenger of Allaah?” The Prophet replied, “Even me, except that Allaah has helped me against him and he has submitted. Now he only tells me to do good.”

Allaah — most great and glorious –, the Sunnah of His Messenger (PBUH) and the consensus of the Muslim nation acknowledge the possibility of a Jinn entering a human and possessing him. How then could one affiliated with scholarship allow himself to deny this fact without knowledge or guidance, nay blindly following the opinions of the heretics who contradict mainstream Islaam. May Allaah help us — there is no might or power except as Allaah wills. . .

As it pertains to the contemporary political situation in the Middle East it is worth asking whether the Jinn will interfere with the process. Many people I have spoken to in the region think as much. A number of Arabs I know believe that the Afghans in particular are pretty much universally possessed by malevolent Jinn and that therein lies the root cause of the never ending turbulence in that part of the world. So we have to ask ourselves, is it possible for the United States and the other Western powers truly to influence the course of events there when we are fighting an enemy that does not physically manifest itself to us and has fully possessed the minds, hearts and bodies of the people?

In learning about the Jinn from scholarly sources I am indebted to Dr. Umar Sulaiman al-Ashqar, Professor at the College of Shariah at the University of Jordan who has assembled all of the texts that discuss the subject of the Jinn and devils as well as the statements of leading scholars in this area. These can be found in his book The World of the Jinn and Devils translated by Jamaal al-Din M. Zarabozo and published by Al-Basheer Company for Publications and translations in Boulder, Colorado.

As discussed previously, the Jinn are a race of beings distinct from humans and angels that were created by God from fire. Their creation predates that of mankind. This is confirmed in the Qur’an in Al-Hijr 26–27. The Jinn are intelligent and capable of understanding. They live in communities of their own, possess animals and marry and procreate. Ibn Abu Hatim and Abu al-Shaikh on the authority of Qatada relate in the hadith that “The Jinn have children in the same way that the sons of Adam have children but theirs are more in number.”

Despite the fact that it was widely asserted in the region by people I spoke to on this matter there is some controversy among the ulema’ about whether Jinn can marry or have sexual relations with humans. In popular culture the occurrence of these kinds of relations are widely accepted to take place and are the cause of a number of problems particularly if a jealous jinni or jinnah is involved. The great Hanbali scholar Ibn Taimiya in his work Majmua Fatawa asserted that ” humans and Jinn have gotten married and have had children, this has happened often and is well known.” Imam Malik could not find any text that prohibited it but he was of the opinion that much evil would result from such a union. However, it is clear from Surah Al-Rahman 56 that the female companions of paradise are equally suitable for both men and Jinn and therefore these unions are also possible in this world.

Jinn are both strong and weak. When they are malevolent such as Satan himself they are still weaker than men, particularly in their plotting against men. This is confirmed in the Qur’an in Surah Al Nisa 76 that states “Verily the plot of Satan is weak.” This essential weakness of Satan over man is also amplified in Surah al-Isra’ 65 which confirms that God did not give Satan the ability to compel mankind or force us to misguidance and disbelief.

Unlike in Christian cosmology Satan is a Jinn and not a fallen angel. He used to worship God and lived among the angels in heaven and entered paradise. However, when God created man, Satan out of pride, arrogance and envy refused to prostrate before Adam when commanded so to do by God. Therefore God cast him out. God has thus named him Iblis which means he has no good in him. That Iblis was a Jinn and not an angel should be undisputed based on Surah al-Kahf 20 which states: “And remember when we said unto the angels: Fall prostrate before Adam, and they fell prostrate, all save Iblis. He was of the Jinn so he rebelled against his Lord’s command.” Ibn Taimiya was of the opinion that Satan was the origin of all the Jinn in the same way that Adam is the origin of all mankind but there are no texts that clearly support this view.

The Jinn can take different shapes and manifest themselves to humans but they are incapable of taking the form of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) though this does not stop them from taking a form other than the Prophet (pbuh) and claiming that they are the Prophet (pbuh). In one of the sound (sahih) hadith the Prophet Muhammad said “There are three types of Jinn: one that flies through the air, one that are snakes and dogs, and one which stays in places and travel about.” When I lived in Bahrain many of the stray cats that inhabit that country were thought to be possessed by Jinn, which is not the same as actually being Jinn. However, Jinn can manifest themselves as camels, donkeys, cows, dogs or cats so it is possible that some of the cats may have been Jinn.

Because the Jinn take the form of snakes and can appear to humans in this form the Prophet (pbuh) has forbidden the killing of snakes found in houses, out of fear they may be Jinn that have embraced Islam. However, this only applies to snakes found in the house and not to snakes outside of the house. This is attested to by Abu Saeed al-Khudri in Sahih Muslim.

According to Ibn Abdul Barr there are different kinds of Jinn. When they are purely themselves they are jinni. The feminine is jinnah. The ones that live among mankind are called a’mar. Ones that antagonize the young are called arwah. Evil ones that antagonize humans are called shaitan. The plural is shayateen. If they cause even more harm and are strong they are called ‘afreet. It was one of the latter that promised King (and Prophet) Solomon (may salvation be unto him) to bring the throne of Sheba to Jerusalem in what was effectively the blink of an eye. This ‘afreet claimed that he could do so before Solomon was able to stand up. This episode is recounted in the Qur’an in Surah al-Naml 39–40.

Interestingly enough even the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) could not control the Jinn. This ability was reserved only to Solomon. God made all the Jinn and devils subservient to Solomon in response to a prayer of Solomon’s. “He said: My Lord! Forgive me and bestow on me sovereignty such as shall not belong to any after me. Lo! You are the bestower.” (Saad 35). As a result of God bestowing this power on Solomon Muhammad (pbuh) was prevented from keeping and showing a Jinn that he had captured.

This incident is recounted in a hadith recounted by Abu Al-Darda that can be found in Sahih Muslim: the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) stood (to pray) and he could be heard saying, “I seek refuge in Allah from you.” After which he said, “I curse you with the curse of Allah.” He stated that three times and then stretched out his arm, looking as if he was about to grab something. When he finished the prayer, he was asked, “Oh Messenger of Allah, during the prayer we heard you say something that we have not heard you say before in prayer, and we saw you stretch out your arm.” The Prophet (peace be upon him) told them, “The enemy of Allah, Iblis came to me with a flame of fire to put in my face, therefore I said three times, ‘I curse you with Allah’s curse.’ Afterwards, I said three times, ‘I seek refuge in Allah from you.’ But he did not leave after any of these. Then I attempted to seize him. I swear by Allah, that had it not been for the supplication of my brother Solomon, he would have been fettered and made an object of sport for the children of Medina.” Abu Huraira also attests to this occurrence.

Also of interest in regard to activities of the Jinn is that despite the fact that Solomon — may salvation be unto him — had dominion over the Jinn, the Jinn tricked him and as a result his books of magic were disseminated to the world which is the basis for the practise of sorcery.

The story of how this came about can be found in a book written in the late 13th or early 14th century, Raqa’iq al-Hilal fi Daqaiq al-Hiyal.

The jinn played a trick on Solomon- may salvation be unto him- in connection with the books of witchcraft. Al-Tha’labi- may the Most high God have mercy upon him- told of the following in his commentary on the Word of God-May he be exalted and glorified!-in the Koran: ‘He who was deeply versed in the Scriptures said: “I will bring it to you” ‘ (Koran XXVII, 39), meaning- I will bring the throne of Bilqis.

When Asaf brought the throne of Bilqis, the jinn considered his actions. They wrote books of magic, spells and incantations to the dictation of Asaf, son of Barkhiya’ , It is said that Solomon-may salvation be unto him-was his cousin on his mother’s side. So they wrote down what Asaf, son of Barkhiya’ , had taught King Solomon. Then they buried these documents in the place where the King was in the habit of praying. When God-May He be exalted and glorified!- took away his power, Solomon did not notice anything amiss. After Solomon’s death-may salvation be unto him- they took out the documents and said to the people:

“Your King Solomon used them.”

From then onwards the people thought these documents should be studied. The Most High God has said this about them in the Koran: ‘They accept what the devils tell of Solomon’s kingdom’ (Koran II 96).

Indeed the demons were in the habit of going up to Heaven and sat listening to what the angels said about what was happening on Earth. Then they told the priests of Israel. So the people gained something from these writings even in Solomon’s lifetime-may salvation be unto him. The rumor then spread among the children of Israel that the jinn knew about hidden things. Solomon -may salvation be unto him- sent for the books and put them in a chest and buried them under his royal seat, saying:

“If I hear anyone say that the jinn know about hidden things, I will cut his throat.”

When Solomon died and the wise men who knew about Solomon and the books he had buried were gone, as the Most High God said in the Koran, Satan appeared to the Children of Israel in the guise of a man, saying:

“Will I show you a treasure that will always guarantee you a livelihood?”

“Yes”, they replied.

“Dig under Solomon’s royal seat.”

He pointed out the place where they were to dig and sat down some distance away from them.

“Come closer”, they said.

“No, but bring me what you find, even if it is of no great importance.”

He did this because none of the demons and jinn could approach Solomon’s royal seat without being burned to a cinder.

So they proceeded to dig and found the books. Then Satan declared:

“Solomon used jinn, men, birds, wild beasts and the winds to serve him with the help of these books.”

So the rumor was spread among the people that Solomon was a sorcerer. The Children of Israel took possession of the books and learned witchcraft from them. They were the sorcerers of Pharaoh. That explains how they came to be the only people to practice witchcraft.

The Arabic for a sorcerer or soothsayer is Kahin. The Hebrew is Cohen which later became the priestly caste within Judaism. They are the descendants of Zadok founder of the first priesthood of Jerusalem when the fist temple was built by Solomon — may salvation be unto him.

There was a Kahin in Bahrain who was especially adept at exorcising Jinn from the people who had been possessed by them. In fact he was so good at exorcism that the Jinn became angry with him and burnt his house down in revenge. Besides the use of sorcery that I encountered in the villages in Bahrain, the belief and use of it in fact extends to the highest levels of those societies. For example for many years it was extremely difficult for a single western woman to get a visa to the Oman as a Kahin had told Sultan Qaboos that he would be killed by an Englishwoman.

Also King Fahd spent a significant amount of time in Jeddah late in his life as a Kahin had prophesied that he would die in Riyadh.

That sorcery still takes place on a regular basis and the attitudes towards it among the religious establishment is well illustrated by the example made in December 2012 of a Saudi woman, Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser who was beheaded in the northern province of Jawf in Saudi Arabia for practicing sorcery and witchcraft.

In Islamic law sorcery (sihr) is equated with shirk, which means, among other things associating a partner with God. This is a grievous crime under Islamic Shari’a and is a capital offense. The capital nature of the crime is well established in Islamic jurisprudence from the earliest days.

It is important to bear in mind that the J

inn were created for the same purpose as mankind; to worship God. Thus they are responsible for their acts and will also be judged for them. Like humans they possess the ability to do good or to succumb to evil. God has also sent messengers to them although it is not clear if these were humans or Jinn. It is known that the Prophet Muhammad preached to the Jinn and recited the Qur’an to them and as a result some of them accepted Islam. Some Jinn are good and righteous, others are less so. Some are heedless but the majority are disbelievers. Surah al-Jinn 11 states “And among us there are righteous folk and among us there are some that are far from that. We are sects having differences.”

Finally in order to know whether one is dealing with a Jinn or not there is a simple way to determine it. In Sahih Muslim Ibn Umar narrates that the Prophet (pbuh) said: “Verily Satan eats with his left hand and drinks with his left hand.”