Good Muslims Should Believe in Jinn

PopHistorian

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
Here's a fascinating article about modern jinn (djinn, genie) belief among Muslims.

(http:/)/www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8401289

Makes me wonder what the source of this belief really is.

The Koran states that Allah fashioned angels from light and then made jinn from smokeless fire. Man was formed later, out of clay. Jinn disappointed Allah, not least by climbing to the highest vaults of the sky and eavesdropping on the angels. Yet Allah did not annihilate them. No flood closed over their heads. Jinn were willed into existence, like man, to worship Allah and were preserved on earth for that purpose, living in a parallel world, set at such an angle that jinn can see men, but men cannot see jinn.

[...]

A parallel universe

Although Somalia and Afghanistan have different religious traditions (Somalia being more relaxed), jinn belief is strong in both countries. War-ravaged, with similarly rudimentary education systems, both have a tradition of shrines venerating local saints where women can pray. Women are supposed to be more open to jinn, particularly illiterate rural women: by some accounts education is a noise, a roaring of thought, which jinn cannot bear. Sometimes women turn supposed jinn possession to their own advantage and become fortune-tellers. Among the most popular questions asked of such women is: "Will my husband take a second wife?" The shrines are often little more than a carved niche in a rock, with colourful prayer flags tied to nearby trees. Jinn are said to be attracted to the ancient geography of shrines, many of which predate Islam; as some have it, the shrines were attracted to the jinn.

Islam teaches that jinn resemble men in many ways: they have free will, are mortal, face judgment and fill hell together. Jinn and men marry, have children, eat, play, sleep and husband their own animals. Islamic scholars are in disagreement over whether jinn are physical or insubstantial in their bodies. Some clerics have described jinn as bestial, giant, hideous, hairy, ursine. Supposed yeti sightings in Pakistan's Chitral are believed by locals to be of jinn. These kinds of jinn can be killed with date or plum stones fired from a sling.

Hardly a week passes in the Muslim world without a strange story concerning them. Often the tales are foolish and melancholy

But to more scholarly clerics jinn are little more than an energy, a pulse form of quantum physics perhaps, alive at the margins of sleep or madness, and more often in the whispering of a single unwelcome thought. An extension of this electric description of jinn is that they are not beings at all but thoughts that were in the world before the existence of man. Jinn reflect the sensibilities of those imagining them, just as in Assyrian times they were taken to be the spirits responsible for manias, who melted into the light at dawn.
 
yes, Djins are omnipresent in the collective conciousness of people around african and muslim countries. Are remember that when I read first about the 4 density STS and their interaction with us I remembered all the djin stories I heard about during my childhood. Possession, sexual brutality, hypnotism, manipulation, and a sort of natural tendency to be attracted by negative emotions. Coran does demand to muslims to believe in : God (yhwh, allah in arabic which means "The god" with other interresting ethymologies), his angels, his books (yhwh in the coran has published many books, amoung them a "zabour" for David, Torat for Moïses, an "Engil" for Jesus, and the Qoran for Mohamed), his prophets (among the most famous Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moïses, Joseph, Jacob, Issaq, Jesus and many others) and in destiny (or the last day (linear time) in some versions). Believing here is also meant Trusting. Djins are described in the Qoran but there are no precise descriptions of them apart being made of fire and many interpret that they are fallen angels because it is said somewhere in the Qoran that Ibliss (the grand devil) was a djin. Well, all this in very far in my memory but I know that in the popular beliefs djins are very real and that most informations come from outside the qoran. for example, from where I live there is a belief that sorts of gates between our dimension and that of djins opens at certain times at certain places, usually near water sources or near big vertical stones. In northern africa whan people talk about djins (spirits) they say "those people" in order to not attract their attention. oh, yes, djins also live in caves and sometimes come from the sea. IMHO the djin stories may sound crazy and many of them are just inventions but I think that many of them reflect a pattern of multidimintionnal entities interacting with people.
 
Oh I remember a story :D . It was in the 90s. Traditionnally the 27th night of Ramadan month (lunar calendar) is thaught to be the anniversary of the first revelation of the Qoran to mohammed (in cave who's name is HERA!!). This night is believed to be one of miracles :) . So that year it was reported (somewhere next to where I was livingin northern africa) that people saw "dancing lights" in the sky and that many young boys have been "miraculously" circoncised (muslims circoncise like jews and like.. ancient egyptians). Well, it was a miracle in a sens, but it remembered me something else... dancing lights in the sky? (I dont know if I should post this story in the "tickle me" section instead, but I know it is not that funny)
 
AdPop said:
Makes me wonder what the source of this belief really is.
I remember having a discussion about 4D STS with a good friend of mine whose a refugee from Afghanistan, and her reply was that she thought it sounded a lot like Jinn. She remains my only personal friend I can discuss such matters with.

Although Somalia and Afghanistan have different religious traditions (Somalia being more relaxed), jinn belief is strong in both countries.
 
Yes, indeed! And consider this verse about the Jinns:

(God said:) "O ye Children of Adam!
Let not Satan seduce and deceive you...
...for he and his tribe watch you,
from where ye cannot see them..." Sura 7:27

Most definitely sounds like STS, to me. And quantum!
 
Funny that this thread got active again right at this particular moment in time. I was just reading "Haunted People: The Story of the Poltergeist Down The Centuries" by Hereward Carrington and Nandor Fodor, and had just read a letter from Everard Feilding to Carrington where he writes:

My lawyer has a Jinn. No less. A friendly, sportive hobgoblin.....
There are some curious things about the case, but I'll recommend the book rather than transcribe. Fascinating reading!

Imagine my surprise - one doesn't read about Jinn every day, I haven't encountered the word in over a year, or perhaps more, I'm sure - to click on the "recent posts" list to see this one top, front and center!!!
 
But there's no such thing as coincidence...(cue spooky music!)

The Qur'an certainly doesn't consider the Jinns to be 'friendly and sportive' - unless we are the sport! It warns Muslims over and over to have no truck with them. The lawyer's 'jinn' sounds like something else.

Unless, of course, somewhere down the line when he is least expecting it, it turns nasty on him...!
 
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