Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Jinn in Folk Islam (Pt. 2)
Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on Jinn among Folk Islam during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents the Folk Islamic views of the Jinn (or spirits) and discusses how Folk Muslims think, live, and understand Jinn.
Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Jinn in Folk Islam (Pt. 2)
We introduced, in the last lecture the topic of Corina and now we’re going to carry on with it in, lecture 18 of the carina. And we’re going to note that the carina, varies a bit in different contexts, karena and familiar spirits. They are definitely harmful. There are really different versions of the jinnia. The jinnia is a female term of of jinn.
They are malignant, this jinn doesn’t want you to marry, but you can protect yourself through the use of magic. And here are some of the variety. In Morocco, this, Karina is called Ayesha Kadisha. Ayesha from, you know, that that name that one of Muhammad’s, wives, 16 or ever whatever he had in in, Morocco. They’ve given this this name, Ayesha Kadisha.
In Algeria, Bint Jalal, meaning a lady of splendor, beautiful lady, and that tells you a little bit of the thinking. In other words, this carina or this, mate is attractive and can be used for, you know, for sexual purposes. But as we’ve said before, there is this this danger, this risk. In other words, this need for protection. And the 7 covenants of Solomon, a very powerful amulet.
Al Subyan, is what is sometimes used. In Turkey, the name of that double is Alkrisi. And, also among the kabil, there is another term called tabah. In Egypt, the karena is often jealous and, seeks to kill children, so you must appease the jinn, mate. And so the midwife goes to the home.
She has the husband and wife stand in front of each other, join hands, by a thread, and then the midwife kills a fowl, plucks and embowels that chicken, cuts the thread, and buries the remains of the fowl under the room. And this comes out of a book that Cynthia Nelson has written, the late, I should say, Cynthia Nelson, who was an anthropologist in Cairo, taught at the American University in Cairo. She, has written articles, and I’m I’m sorry that I don’t have her listed in the bibliography, but, spirit possessions, so she’s done some good study on, on on that among the, Muslims in Egypt. What is the relation of the karena to animals? And, as we’ve suggested before, sometimes this karena takes the, form of a cat, especially an all black or a white cat or dog household animals.
Now that’s one of the reasons why many Muslims do not warm to the idea of having an animal in the house. You know, we think nothing of it and we hug our dogs and and then we kiss them and all kinds of things. This is reprehensible to Muslims, not just because dogs are dirty, but, one reason here, probably the major reason is the, the idea that, that they can be a a form of gin. Now the, the one who worked on my PowerPoint here, she substitutes some very prim and proper looking dogs. I I I wouldn’t have put that in myself.
So, you know, they’re they’re not thinking of dogs who were manicured like this, but but you get the idea, don’t you? All black or all white particularly would be dangerous in reference to, the you know, in on this topic. In Hausa I’m sorry. In, the Hausa of Nigeria say that the jinn of the opposite sex generally live underground. They don’t want your mate don’t want the mate to marry, sleeps with the mate, has relations, you know, in the dreams, and, they think that donkeys and dogs see the djinn before we do.
So a donkey bring, a dog barking means that they’ve come across this jinn. There is a book out, Al Asghar, and, he has written a lot about the jinn. So, there you have it. Now what do you do for protection? What do you do for protection against, against the jinn?
Well, of course, there are verses, you know, there’s a verse here like there’s no other god but god, and another very popular verse is to use in all type of, protection against the jinn or anything else, really, that is threatening Muslims is the throne verse. 7 verse 54, your guardian, lord, is Allah who created the heaven and earth in 6 days when he established himself on the throne. So the fact that God is sovereign sitting on the throne, and that is a verse that is used for protection. Also, you know, the zikr, saying over and over and over, naming God’s names, with a taspee, although that in itself, some Muslims would consider to be, unorthodox, yet it’s done. It’s done quite often and just just, you know, just as common as as day and night.
And and and and you wear the Quran as well. In other words, verses the the best amulet in the world, according to Muslim are verses where the Quran is written, verses of the Quran. And various and sundry verses are used, 23, for example, 97 through 98. And say, oh my lord, I seek refuge with thee from the suggestions of the evil one, and I seek refuge with thee, oh my lord, lest they should come near me. You know, refuge, I think of, the Psalms and the comfort they are to me, but it’s not a magical thing.
You know, when David said, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. I’m not thinking of magic and neither was the psalmist, but I’m thinking of him, God’s personal presence and my relationship to him. For Muslims, this is a, a magical thing as if, you know, these verses worn around your neck or, can can protect you. 16 and verse 98 is another one. We’re thumbing our way here quickly, back and forth in the Quran.
16 in verse 98, then thou dost read the Quran, or when you did read the Quran, seek Allah’s protection from Satan, the rejected one. And as we’ve said before, maybe too often during a coalition, say Bismillah, so the child doesn’t become an infidel or the devil, and you have charms, charms to protect yourself from the kurina. There are scratches on a 6 day child old 6 day old child, sometimes on the baby’s stomach to let out the jinn, causing fever. A little baby is extremely vulnerable to the jinn in much of the Muslim world, so, that’s really when, you know, protection is important. Interestingly enough, there’s no exorcism.
None. So what do you do? You try harmony. You know you have to live with it. Or you can’t live within with them, you can’t live without them.
But you can take precautions, and so you don’t, pour hot water on them. You a frail person may have, you know, have an infidel jinn, and so you change, the name or something like that. Children like to pray play with human kids. The Jin children like to play with human kids. One of the things you do is keep pigeons and roosters in the house for them.
If a child cries without reason, it must have hurt the baby jinn. So the mother puts her own milk on the spot and says Bismillah. Interesting, isn’t it, the things that Muslims will do to, try to protect themselves from these miserable jinn. But, as we’ve said before that it’s not all miserable, there is some, protection out of it. Here is the 7 covenants of Solomon and we’ve talked about that before, this comes right out of the, of the Musk book and, it’s all kinds of things there.
You know, here’s Mohammed down here in the corner and Allah up here in this corner and, all kinds of things in between. But, specifically, put it in English, 7 covenants of Solomon. On one corner is Abu Bakr, who was the first actually, the the the caliph after Muhammad, the first caliph. And then, along the side there, Hassan Gabriel and Israfil. Hassan was, also one of the sons, grandsons of Muhammad, sons of Ali.
In the middle, God and Muhammad, Umer, Hussein, Michael, Israel. So you’ve got angels there, you’ve got God there, you’ve got cay Caliphs there, everything and anything. Mix it all together and, hope that you can gain and that’s a very expensive amulet, A favorite in the Arabic speaking world, Amman, Beirut, Cairo, to protect from that lone and dis woman who destroys by her mere presence causes childbirth, barrenness, infertility, impotence. Notice that, these are the causes. A verse in the Quran says this, Solomon, soon shall we see whether thou hast told the truth or lied.
And that’s, you know, an amulet too. So so Solomon, he grabs her and forces her to make a covenant for man’s protection. Excuse me. She never comes near anyone who wears that amulet and, the, the amulet ends with this, from 20 in other words, the verse from 24 verse 34 that Allah is the light and there is no other god but but god. Musk talks about this in his book.
So, lots of stuff, isn’t there? Now here is a I’m sorry. There is a case study, and we’re going to end with this, just for a little bit of missiological implication, a little bit of of thought, and this really happened. A woman’s husband in the Philippines suffered an enlarged heart. So she went to the witch doctor, and the witch doctor said she was possessed by a woman of the clouds and that the spirit wanted the sick man as her spouse.
So the practitioner said that the spirit was clutching his heart in effort. So in an effort to please the spirit, the family did several things. You see, they’re doing all kinds of things. They, of course, did sacrifices, went to the hospital. The sick man went into a trance.
He spoke in a woman’s voice and said that she had and and and and that this woman said that she’d return in 3 days for him. 3 days later, he dies. Now the spirit woman now had him, and the woman has no fear, no sense of offending Allah. This is pure pragmatism. This comes out of the book that you, I think, might have seen, Bridges to Islam by Phil Parshall.
So, it’s a pretty good illustration of some of the, I guess, amoral stuff that goes on because really, you know, it’s pragmatic, isn’t it? It’s it’s you you do whatever you have to do to get by, to live with the spirit world, to cope, and, there is really no right and wrong in particular. It’s just you do whatever you have to do to manipulate and to, please the spirits and to survive.