Who are Jinn?

Imam Ali Conquers Jinn,
unknown artist, Ahsan-ol-Kobar (1568) Golestan Palace

Jinn (Arabic: الجن‎‎, al-jinn), also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the more broad meaning of demons), are supernatural creatures in early Arabian and later Islamic mythology and theology. An individual member of the jinn is known as a jinni, djinni, or genie (الجني, al-jinnī). They are mentioned frequently in the Quran (the 72nd sura is titled Sūrat al-Jinn) and other Islamic texts. The Quran says that the jinn were created from a smokeless and "scorching fire", but are also physical in nature, being able to interact in a tactile manner with people and objects and likewise be acted upon. The jinn, humans, and angels make up the three known sapient creations of God. Like human beings, the jinn can be good, evil, or neutrally benevolent and hence have free will like humans.

The shaytan jinn are akin to demons in Christian tradition and are classified into three groups:

• Satans
• unbelievers among the jinn
• pagan deities (such as the deity Pazuzu)

Etymology

The earliest evidence of the word, can be found in Persian, for the singular Jinni is the Avestic "Jaini", a wicked (female) spirit. Jaini were among various creatures believe among pre-Zoroastrian peoples of Persia.

Jinn is an Arabic collective noun deriving from the Semitic root jnn (Arabic: جَنّ / جُنّ‎‎, jann), whose primary meaning is "to hide". Some authors interpret the word to mean, literally, "beings that are concealed from the senses". Cognates include the Arabic majnūn ("possessed", or generally "insane"), jannah ("garden"), and janīn ("embryo"). Jinn is properly treated as a plural, with the singular being jinni.

The anglicized form genie is a borrowing of the French génie, from the Latin genius, a guardian spirit of people and places in Roman religion. It first appeared in 18th-century translations of the Thousand and One Nights from the French, where it had been used owing to its rough similarity in sound and sense.

Pre-Islamic Arabia

Archeological evidence found in Northwestern Arabia seems to indicate the worship of jinn, or at least their tributary status, hundreds of years before Islam: an Aramaic inscription from Beth Fasi'el near Palmyra pays tribute to the "ginnaye", the "good and rewarding gods", and it has been argued that the term is related to the Arabic jinn. Numerous mentions of jinn in the Quran and testimony of both pre-Islamic and Islamic literature indicate that the belief in spirits was prominent in pre-Islamic Bedouin religion. However, there is evidence that the word jinn is derived from Aramaic, where it was used by Christians to designate pagan gods reduced to the status of demons, and was introduced into Arabic folklore only late in the pre-Islamic era. Julius Wellhausen has observed that such spirits were thought to inhabit desolate, dingy, and dark places and that they were feared. One had to protect oneself from them, but they were not the objects of a true cult.

Islam

Prophet Idris visits Heaven (Paradise) and Hell, 

Persian miniature

In Islamic theology jinn are said to be creatures with free will, made from smokeless fire by God (Arabic: Allah) as humans were made of clay, among other things. When jinns are called "fire spirits" it does not refer to their current nature, rather to their origin. Jinn (and varies of the word) are mentioned 29 times in the Quran: Surah 72 (named Sūrat al-Jinn) is named after the jinn, and has a passage about them. Another surah (Sūrat al-Nās) mentions jinn in the last verse. The Quran also mentions that Muhammad was sent as a prophet to both "humanity and the jinn", and that prophets and messengers were sent to both communities. Like humans, jinn will also be judged on the Day of Judgment and will be sent to Paradise or Hell according to their deeds.

In Sūrat al-Raḥmān, verse 33, God reminds jinn as well as mankind that they would possess the ability to pass beyond the furthest reaches of space only by His authority, followed by the question: "Then which of the favors of your Lord will you deny?" In Sūrat Al-Jinn, verses 8–10, Allah narrates concerning the jinn how they touched or "sought the limits" of the sky and found it full of stern guards and shooting stars, as a warning to man. It goes on further to say how the jinn used to take stations in the skies to listen to divine decrees passed down through the ranks of the angels (Sura al Jinn verse 9), but those who attempt to listen now (during and after the revelation of the Qurʾan) shall find fiery sentinels awaiting them. The Quran forbids their association with God, and advises men not to worship jinns instead of Him, the Quran says "And they (Pagan Arabs) imagine kinship between Him and the jinn, whereas the jinn know well that they will be brought before (Him)", Quran Surah 37, Verse 158.

Classifications and characteristics


The black king of the djinns, Al-Malik al-Aswad, in the late 14th century Book of Wonders

The social organization of the jinn community resembles that of humans; e.g., they have kings, courts of law, weddings, mourning rituals and practise religion (in addition to Islam, it can also be Christianity or Judaism). One common belief in Muslim belief lists five distinct orders of jinn — the Marid (the strongest type), the Ifrit, the Shaitan (while Shaitan is also used to signify other evil jinn including Ghul and Ifrit), the Jinn, and the Jann (the weakest type). A few traditions (hadith), divide jinn into three classes: those who have wings and fly in the air, those who resemble snakes and dogs, and those who travel about ceaselessly. described them as creatures of different forms; some resembling vultures and snakes, others tall men in white garb. They may even appear as dragons, onagers, or any number of other animals. In addition to their animal forms, the jinn occasionally assume human form to mislead and destroy their human victims. Certain hadiths have also claimed that the jinn may subsist on bones, which will grow flesh again as soon as they touch them, and that their animals may live on dung, which will revert to grain or grass for the use of the jinn flocks. Jinn are also quite willing to have amorous affairs with humans.

Jinn may also have an affinity with the imaginal realm. This is the place there the unseen takes on visible forms. As a world where emotions become predominant, it affects our world through dreams and psychological functions. Therefore jinn may be less entities and more thoughts, that were in the world before the existence of the men, but may take physical shapes in certain conditions.

Ibn Taymiyyah, an influential late medieval theologian whose writings would later become the source of Wahhabism, believed the jinn to be generally "ignorant, untruthful, oppressive and treacherous." He held that the jinn account for much of the "magic" perceived by humans, cooperating with magicians to lift items in the air unseen, delivering hidden truths to fortune tellers, and mimicking the voices of deceased humans during seances.

Seven kings of the Jinn are traditionally associated with days of the week.

Sunday: Al-Mudhib (Abu 'Abdallah Sa'id)
Monday: Murrah al-Abyad Abu al-Harith (Abu al-Nur)
Tuesday: Abu Mihriz (or Abu Ya'qub) Al-Ahmar
Wednesday: Barqan Abu al-'Adja'yb
Thursday: Shamhurish (al-Tayyar)
Friday: Abu Hasan Zoba'ah (al-Abyad)
Saturday: Abu Nuh Maimun

Pre-Adamite Jinn

According to a tradition from Ibn Abbas the Jinn are said to be created thousands of years (in some accounts much earlier) before humans, as terrestrial creatures. They inhabited and ruled the earth, said to be governed by 72 kings. Over time, they caused corruption, fought each other, shed blood and became infidels, so God sent admonishers, but they opposed the prophets. Then they became more impious, God decided to create humans as a successor on earth, replacing the jinn. Therefore God sent either the angels to fight the corrupted Jinn or in other accounts a fire that consumed the most of them. These narration is also recorded by Tabari and Muqatil ibn Sulayman

Solomon and the Jinn

According to tradition, the jinn stood behind the learned humans in Solomon's court, who in turn, sat behind the prophets. The jinn remained in the service of Solomon, who had placed them in bondage, and had ordered them to perform a number of tasks, like building the first temple.

And before Solomon were marshalled his hosts, of jinn and men and birds, and they were all kept in order and ranks. (Quran 27:17)

The Qurʾan relates that Solomon died while he was leaning on his staff. As he remained upright, propped on his staff, the jinn thought he was still alive and supervising them, so they continued to work. They realized the truth only when Allah sent a creature to crawl out of the ground and gnaw at Solomon's staff until his body collapsed. The Qurʾan then comments that if they had known the unseen, they would not have stayed in the humiliating torment of being enslaved.

Then, when We decreed (Solomon's) death, nothing showed them his death except a little worm of the earth, which kept (slowly) gnawing away at his staff: so when he fell down, the jinn saw plainly that if they had known the unseen, they would not have tarried in the humiliating penalty (of their task). (Qurʾan 34:14)

Ibn al-Nadim, in his Kitāb al-Fihrist, describes a book that lists 70 Jinn led by Fuqtus, including several Jinn appointed over each day of the week Bayard Dodge, who translated al-Fihrist into English, notes that most of these names appear in the Testament of Solomon. A collection of late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century magico-medical manuscripts from Ocaña, Spain describes a different set of 72 Jinn (termed "Tayaliq") again under Fuqtus (here named "Fayqayțūš" or Fiqitush), blaming them for various ailments. According to these manuscripts each Jinn was brought before King Solomon and ordered to divulge their "corruption" and "residence" while the Jinn King Fiqitush gave Solomon a recipe for curing the ailments associated with each Jinn as they confessed their transgressions.

Qarīn

A related belief is that every person is assigned one's own special jinni, as a counterpart in the spiritual realm to the person in humans realm, also called a qarīn, and if the qarin is evil it could whisper to people's souls and tell them to submit to evil desires. The notion of a qarin is not universally accepted among all Muslims, but it is generally accepted that Shayṭān whispers in human minds, and he is assigned to each human being.

In a hadith recorded by Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, the companion Abdullah, son of Masud reported: 'The Prophet Muhammad said: 'There is not one of you who does not have a jinnī appointed to be his constant companion (qarīn).' They said, 'And you too, O Messenger of Allah?' He said, 'Me too, but Allah has helped me and he has submitted, so that he only helps me to do good.'

In Muslim cultures

A manuscript of the One Thousand and One Nights

The stories of the jinn can be found in various Muslim cultures around the world. In Sindh the concept of the Jinni was introduced during the Abbasid Era and has become a common part of the local folklore which also includes stories of both male jinn called "jinn" and female jinn called "jiniri". Folk stories of female jinn include stories such as the Jejhal Jiniri.

Other acclaimed stories of the jinn can be found in the One Thousand and One Nights story of "The Fisherman and the Jinni"; more than three different types of jinn are described in the story of Ma‘ruf the Cobbler; two jinn help young Aladdin in the story of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp; as Ḥasan Badr al-Dīn weeps over the grave of his father until sleep overcomes him, and he is awoken by a large group of sympathetic jinn in the Tale of ‘Alī Nūr al-Dīn and his son Badr ad-Dīn Ḥasan. In some stories, jinn are credited with the ability of instantaneous travel (from China to Morocco in a single instant); in others, they need to fly from one place to another, though quite fast (From Baghdad to Cairo in a few hours). Nevertheless, jinn figments from such stories are generally considered to be fictional, while jinn are considered to be part of the concrete world.

During the Rwandan genocide, both Hutus and Tutsis avoided searching local Rwandan Muslim neighborhoods because they widely believed the myth that local Muslims and Mosques were protected by the power of Islamic magic and the efficacious jinn. In Cyangugu, arsonists ran away instead of destroying the mosque because they believed that jinn were guarding the mosque and they feared their wrath.

Other cultures


In Guanche mythology from Tenerife in the Canary Islands, there existed the belief in beings that were similar to genies, such as the maxios or dioses paredros ('attendant gods', domestic and nature spirits) and tibicenas (evil genies), as well as the demon Guayota (aboriginal god of evil) that, like the Arabic Iblīs, is sometimes identified with a genie. The Guanches were the Berber autochthones of the Canary Islands.

Besides angels, Jewish lore notices other types of supernatural creatures including Shedim, which are akin to the islamic concept of Jinn. They are said to eat, drink, procreate and die, are also mostly invisible and in some accounts, they inhabited the earth before mankind until human beings replaced them, similar to the Jinn in Islam. In addition the Shedim are also mentioned helping Solomon building the first temple. Their king Asmodeus appears both in islamic lore and in the Talmud as a rebel against Solomon.