Written by Arubiyyah Qadir Balouch
People in the western world often wonder what the term “Jinn” actually means. Jinns (also known as al-jinn or djinn) are mentioned in the Quran as creatures being born out of “smokeless fire” which is the purest form of fire with no smoke and no ash flying around. Jinn means, the one that the eyes cannot see!
Adam and Eve were created by God and were expelled from heaven to reproduce once they ate the fruit from the forbidden tree. The reason they were expelled was because of the Jinn that took the form of a serpent!
Two theories of the existence of Jinn
The Angel Theory
However, one must note here that when God created Adam, his most loved archangel who was also the keeper of the heavens refused to bow down in front of “Man” (Adam). Hence, that angered God and so he banished his archangel who is known as Satan, Iblis, Devil, Azazil, Shaitan, Rakshash, Dajjal or Anti-Christ. Satan, came back again to heaven in the shape of a snake/serpent and fooled Adam and Eve by persuading them to eat the forbidden fruit. Once they did, Satan was happy that he would have the opportunity to destroy mankind by taking their souls. So, he recruited Jinns.
However, this theory may not be that true, as angels are created to follow the commands of God and they are not created like humans and jinns who have “free will,” given by God.
As a Creature created by fire
God has created all kinds of creatures. Humans were made from clay, Angels were made from light and Jinns were made from smokeless fire. Long time ago before man was created, the Jinns lived on earth, however many Jinns were causing a lot of mischief, so Satan (also known as Iblis) who was also a Jinn of a higher rank, asked God to help him bring order to the world of Jinns. God sent his angles to help Satan (Iblis) curve the violence on earth. So, there was a war between the Angels and the bad Jinns, and the bad Jinns lost to the Angels. Satan (Iblis) was hence one of the most loved Jinn who was in heaven with the angels and God Himself.
However, God (Allah) knew the intentions of Satan, so when God (Allah) created Man, he asked all his angels as well as Satan (Iblis) to bow down before Adam, which they all did except “Satan.” The Jinns are created similar to humans where they are given “free will.” So, Satan exercised his free will and refused to prostrate to Adam. According to him, Man was created from clay or dirt while Jinns or Satan was created from smokeless fire which was pure, and so Satan felt that Jinns should be of a higher rank than mankind. Satan then asked Allah (God) to be allowed to live till the day of judgement so that he can prove how wrong it was to create Man who God (Allah) thinks will believe in Him. He further went on to say that even if God (Allah) wants them to obey and believe in Him, he (Satan) will do the opposite and approach mankind from all sides to pursuade them to not beleive in God (Allah) and bring them on the wrong path. This would show God (Allah) how mankind is ungrateful, and thankless and they (mankind) would forget the existence of God (Allah).
Thus, he (Satan) was cursed and banished from heaven to hell after which Satan returned back to the heavens in the form of a serpent where he persuaded Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. This resulted in Adam and Eve both being banished from the heavens for eating the forbidden fruit. This was the first victory of Satan (Iblis).
The Bad Jinn
The world of the demons exist and the Jinns (demons) are exactly like their human counterparts. They follow different religions, live in communities, eat, sleep, reproduce and worship God or Satan, depending on what they want but they are amorphous (having no defined shape). They live in a matrix like parallel world to humans. They live near filthy areas like dirty bathrooms, near garbage pits and mostly in very old trees or vacant homes. However, they are not visible to the human eye! The Jinns can live in dual dimensional worlds where they can interact with humans as well as live in their own communities. Jinns eat, drink, sleep, fall in love, get married, procreate and die and their mortal lives can extend for thousands of years unlike humans.
There are good Jinns and then, there are the bad Jinns. The bad Jinns swear allegiance to Satan and are powerful and malicious creatures. The good Jinns help humans, and are in the quest to help God fight Satan. Whereas the bad Jinns, follow Satan and do everything to make humans miserable. Islam means submitting your will to Allah, whereas the bad jinns want humans to submit their will to Satan(Shaitaan). The humans who do follow Satan through the bad Jinns, will give-up their souls and in return end up getting worldly pleasures. It is also believed that fortune tellers, magicians both white and black, use the bad jinns to help them. A very famous magician in the USA, David Copperfield, who performs every night in Los Angeles makes all the audiences do a particular sign with their hands every night. Many fans of the magician, end up making a satanic sign with their hands every night in the city as it is a form of a ritual before he begins his magic shows. It is heard of in the entertainment world that many artists have already submitted their will to Satan (Devil) and have got worldly pleasures in billions. Many a time, the bad jinns only want humans to stop following God, and that is their only aim as promised by their leader, Satan (Iblis)(Devil)(Shaitaan).
The Good Jinn
Jinns are mentioned in the Holy Quran 29 times, and the prophets were sent on earth for both the humans and the jinns to follow. Thousands of years ago, the pagan (idol worshipping) Arabs called Jinns for help instead of God. There were dieties made of the Jinns amongst the pagan worshippers and so when the prophets came to bring people on the right path of believing in one God rather than the worshiping of dieties of the Jinns. This can be seen in mythological religions like Hinduism, where 33 millions dieties are worshipped. There were 300 dieties taken out of Mecca (present day Saudi Arabia) by Prophet Muhammad (SAW)(PBUH) where he preached for one God, a God with no images or shape.
There are other ways to be with the Jinns and get them to work for you in a good way. “Pir” and “Pirni” are terms used for male and female “religious sorcerers” who control the Jinns to make them work for humans as Jinns have supernatural powers. These “Pirs and Pirnis” charge people a certain fee and get their Jinns to work by getting those people’s work completed. However, doing this has not been attested in the Quran, so it is still not considered right by many Muslims around the world.
In Pakistan, such Pirs or Pirnis are many in numbers and mostly 99% are fake, with just less than 1% being able to control the Jinns. When controlled these Jinns will do anything in return for hearing a human voice reciting the Quran. So, if you want your work completed then you will be told by the Pir or Pirni to recite a certain “Sura” (Verse) out of the Quran for maybe 100-200 times. Many times, the Pir or Pirni also chip in to recite the verse out of the Quran many times. Hence the way it works is that Jinns who are not blessed with a beautiful voices like the humans are always in awe of the beautiful human race created by God. They are very hideous looking creatures resembling the Goblins (a creature from European Folklore), which in reality was the Jinn but was called a Goblin by the Europeans. Jinns also resemble “Rakshasha” a creature from the Indian mythological religion which again were the Jinns as per their description.
Possessions & Marrying Jinns
The beliefs in Jinns is of considerable importance in the Muslim World, as far as there have been stories from the past about Jinns falling in love with humans and hence getting inside their bodies. The Quran has explained them as merely spirits that live parallel to human beings. Also, one thing to keep in mind is that there are three types of Jinns. One type, especially of a higher rank are shape-shifting creatures which means that they can change their shape into any creature whenever. The second type is the one that can travel long distances in a matter of seconds, and the other kind is the kind of jinn that lives in our world amongst us humans.
When humans have a very weak will-power and their belief in God (Allah) is very weak then any evil spirits (Jinns)(Demons) can enter their bodies and control them. The evil Jinn’s agenda is always to make that human do evil things and turn them completely against the commandments of God. That’s why people have heard of exorcisms happening around the world in both Christianity and Islam.
There are stories of Jinns (the good ones) who sometimes fall in love with humans. Physically the Jinns are created in a very disfigured way, totally oppositie to humans. From their skin to their voices, everything is opposite to how humans were created. Jinns in general can travel in time, change shapes and can change minds of humans. Hence, they change shapes to marry women or men. One must note here that there are no proof of such incidents of marriages between a Jinn and a human, but there are stories that have such mentions.
Think of the devil and he shall appear
Jinns are always searching for any human who believes in them and looks for them. As it must be frustrating living in a parallel dimension and not being able to talk to humans. So, it is only when the will of humans allow them to crossover to either talk to them or become part of them. There was a documentary made on Satan worshippers, called, “Hail Satan.” One must watch this documentary to understand how Satan works, and what Satan worshippers do. Satanism, now has become a religion that people follow, in order to worship the Jinn (Satan)(Iblis). Lucien Greaves is the founder of the Satanic Temple.
There was a funny incident that happened on an airplane, where a Pakistani man was travelling with his mother and during the flight, he drank a few too many drinks. He lost control of his speech and was not able to walk and was almost falling down. At that time the mother got worried and started screaming. When the air hostess came by, she franticly said that a Jinn has got into her son! Such is the belief in the Muslim world. Since the Jinns are mentioned in the Quran, and the Prophet would always see the Jinns as his sixth sense was strong enough to break through the parallel world.
The Business of Jinn
Many people who believe in the existence of the Jinns, will always avoid talking about them out loud. Talking about them or even writing about them, may attract them. Whatever the reasons are the belief of Jinns existing in the parallel world created by smokeless fire is alive. One can always ask a Pir or a Pirni (White Magic Practitioner or Jinn Controlling Sorcerer) to help them out with getting their work done. People in Pakistan use them for helping them get their wives to listen, or husbands to fulfill their wishes, or children to obey or even the odd daughter-in-law to do all the chores of the house and many-a-times, to get married to a certain person. So, these Jinn controlling sorcerers enjoy the benefits of earning easily for life while getting the work done for many.
Jinns are known to travel in seconds and minutes, to their destinations, so it is believed that the Jinns can travel to the gates of the heavens and hear the future. So that information is then transmitted back to the White Magic Practitioner.
The Fake
Just like in India, astrologers are high in demand, as almost 1 billion people believe in the study of astrology to get married, have children, start certain jobs, start a project on the right dates as far as changing their names in order to keep the stars working for them in a positive manner.
Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and the rest of the Muslim world rely on the Pirs and Pirnis (also known as holy people) to help them get through life. This leads to blind-belief and hence, thousands of fake Pirs and Pirnis roam around preying on the vulnerabilities & emotions of people. The law in those countries are very weak in capturing the culprit who con people in spending thousands to sometimes millions on such scams. Another issue is that such con artists are still seen as holy people who can control that parallel world, and that leads to people backing off in the fear that the same Pirs and Pirnis can do harm to them with the very element of the parallel world. Only a few are caught and seldom punished for their crimes of fraud.
Muslims all around the world believe firmly in the existence of jinn, black magic and the evil eye. “Having a Jinn on you,” is considered to be a sign of illnesses like schizophrenia, hallucinations and epilepsy. Historically, Jinns are projected as menacing creatures that can harm humans, or drive them mad. People in Muslim societies as well as Christian societies have traditionally seen jinn as the cause of mental illness and neurological diseases. But belief in such supernatural beings may prevent people from seeking help from medical professionals as they would prefer going to an Imam or a Priest rather than a doctor.
Conclusion
Whatever may the stories be, one strong belief is that the Jinns exist and were always existing before religions began as well as before the prophets were sent on earth. They are very powerful but not as powerful as the creation of Man in God’s form. Man has the will power to stop anything at any time, as long as fear does not take control of his body and as long as he beleives in the higher power God(Allah).