Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Jinn in Folk Islam (Pt. 1)
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 about, live with, and understand Jinn.
Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Jinn in Folk Islam (Pt. 1)
Now it’s on to gin. And, I think an interesting more interesting topic, it is meaning spirits. Jin is a very, you know, it’s a common belief to believe in spirits in the Muslim world, certainly was where I was, in Pakistan, but it seemed to be a subject that sometimes the Muslims and the Christians too would be sort of would joke about. In other words, I think they were a little bit afraid and embarrassed about, the the topic. The the one of the expressions was to be hit by a jinn, struck by a jinn as if the person was a little bit, you know, crazy or off his rocker.
It’s interesting to think about how Muslims, you know, talk about it or don’t talk about this topic, gin and similar spirits, and how sometimes they avoid it. Several years ago when I was, in fact, quite a few years ago now, when I was doing my PhD in, California, I, was invited to speak at a mosque where a famous mosque in, in the southern part of California near not too far from Los Angeles and, it was not a debate, but it was a discussion and the imam there was going to tell why he was a Muslim and I was to speak on the topic of why I was a Christian. And, so, students from a Bible college came down from the north and they were there in the audience, I don’t know if any Muslims were there or not besides, there might have been a few Muslims there, I don’t know, besides the imam. I spoke first on why I’m a Christian and then he spoke, a very educated fellow, a doctor, in fact a couple of 2 brothers there who run that mosque are both medical doctors, I believe, and I’ve written about Islam. One of them, I think, the book is the mindset of Muslims.
But I remember that after we spoke and, by the way, my article, Why I’m a Christian, is still in print, you can Google it, Warren Larson, Why I’m a Christian, and, I gave three reasons, because of who God is, because of who, Jesus is, and because of who I am, and, it’s on the on the website, www.warrenlarsen.com. And, a couple of days ago, a Muslim or 2 found that article and wrote into me wrote in to, he wasn’t very happy with it. He he said, you know, you really haven’t read the Quran, and I bet you you haven’t read the Bible either. So I haven’t responded to him yet, but I probably will and do it as graciously as I can. In fact, I tell him that I do read the Bible once a year, but what I was going to say is that in the QUEST q and a time after we had spoken, both of us had spoke, I presented my paper and he had spoken too.
One of the students, said to him, sir, I just wanted to ask a little bit off the topic, what, what about jinn in Islam? You know, what about it? What about jinn? And he did this. He just sort of took shook his hand and shook it like this, which I’m still puzzled that he would do that.
Either he was saying that, he didn’t wanna talk about it, because it didn’t, you know, it wasn’t, the Islam, the Orthodox thing to do or he had a sort of lapse of memory. But but the fact is is that as as we know, that jinn is very much part of Islam and in one chapter in the Quran, 72, is called, the jinn. And in fact, I think it’s fair to say that in Islam, in the Quran, Al Jin, the topic is much more prominent, you know, the the devils and spirits and stuff like that, than it is in Christianity when you look at the Bible. One of my students several years ago, when he took this course, he’s now a missionary in in Europe, and he said, out of curiosity, he wrote, I did a word search, in on biblegateway.com to compare the number of times evil spirits, the devil, and Satan are mentioned in the Bible versus, Ataluz Ataluz, this is a Muslim writer, summary of the Quran. So this, Ataula does the summary of the Quran.
The Bible, NIV, has 44 references of evil spirit and 14 to evil spirits compared to 33 and 26 respectively in the Quran. It refers to Satan 47 times and the devil 35 times compared to 65 and and 17, respectively, in the Quran. It strikes me. Now this is the important thing, that the numbers are very similar in spite of the fact the Quran being significantly shorter than the Bible. However, I must note that all but 23 of the total references in the Bible are in the New Testament.
In any event, it is evident how prominent of a role the jinn is assumed in in Mohammed’s revelation, and he refers to one verse in particular. 7 and 179, he says the reference to the jinn and men destined for hell, who have hearts that do not understand, eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear, reminded me, he said, of Matthew 13 verses 14 through 16 when Jesus quoted Isaiah 6. He says, again, I have to wonder how much Mohammed was borrowing from Christianity in his religion. And then he, goes on and talks about some of the things we’ve been talking about in this course, you know, and washing your nose out and mentioning all his name repeatedly to drive away Satan, warning a snake 3 times, standing shoulder to shoulder prevents Satan from getting in, in between, covering utensils, tying water skins and water skins and closing doors at night, sat Satan circulating in the blood, no eating with the left hand, and, so on and on and on. So, that is, was an interesting, I think, thing that happened.
So I’ve already mentioned the fact that you do have jinn, in the Quran. Lots of lots of it is there and, we need to keep in mind that there is a variety of jinn, in the in Islam or this folk stuff. There is the div, who is a demon. You have Afrit, who’s a female div, a ghawl, a pari, which is a fairy. Dogs in solid color are generally understood to be the djinn.
In other words, black, all black, all white, or something like that. Spotted, could be those expelled from the Jin tribe. Note too, interestingly enough, the Jin can be good or bad. They can be good or bad. They can be Muslim or they can be infidel.
A Shi’ite jinn in Iran is holy, and, everyone in Iran has a twin. This is another word for, that we’ve we’ll talk about a little bit more in the future, but another word for it is hamzad, ham meaning, the same. Jinn, according to the Koran, are they are free from smoke. They’re created free from smoke. So this is 55 and verse 15.
And he, it says, created gins from fire free of smoke. Now we’ll look at some other verses as well, as as we go along here. But before Islam, Arabs held orthodox, held old beliefs. I’m sorry. They held, you know, pagan beliefs.
And, here’s a verse here that we’ll be looking at in a minute, particularly because of Ali’s commentary. But, jinn are thick in in pre Islam, and kissing the black stone, some of the stuff, in animistic influence, Interestingly enough, whistling is sometimes thought to be calling the djinn. This is what Zwemer one of the points Zwemer makes. I myself, like to whistle, but I realized that it wasn’t always the thing to do in Pakistan, so I had to cut down on it because, especially when, you know, the Muslims had some suspicions about you whistling, so I decided not to do very much of that. Here is the context of suitors 113 and 114.
I think I mentioned before that I was gonna talk about that. This is an interesting context of how these 2 suitors came to be. These are very short short suitors at the end of the Quran, and here’s what happened. According to the hadith, that somebody, induced to make a charm against Mohammed. In other words, they sort of put a, you know, a a curse on Mohammed, and Mohammed got sick.
So he has a dream and in his dream, he hears 2 angels discussing that a curse has been put on him. So what does he do? He empties the well, that he had there, his own well, and then came these verses 113 and 114. They’re very few. I mean, you know, it’s 1 it’s it’s 5 in 113 and 5 and, I think, 6 and 114.
Say I seek refuge with the lord of the dawn from the mischief of created things, from the mischief of darkness as it overspreads, from the mischief of those who practice secret arts, and from the mischief of the curious one as he practices enmity. And in 114, I seek refuge with the lord and cherisher of mankind, the king or ruler of mankind, the god or judge of mankind, from the mischief of the whisperer of evil who withdraws after his whispers, the same who whispers into the hearts of mankind among jinns and among men. Those 2 surahs are used very much in, dealing with evil spirits and curses and stuff like that. Well, how does high Islam, if there you know, if there’s a such thing, deal with this? Well, high Islam basically, embraces it, and, I wanted to read this verse to you, and it’s 6 and 100 in the Quran.
6 and 100. I hope that you are able to follow in the Quran. It’s true that we are, you know, making these references, quite quickly, but it says that, in the Quran 6 and 100, yet they make the jinns equal with Allah, though Allah did create the jinns. What it says? And they falsely, having no knowledge, attribute to him sons and daughters.
Praise and glory be to him for he is above, all of that. In other words, what they attribute to him. Wanted to read the, commentary here too, jinns. That’s, 929 in Yusuf Ali, a commentary note. Who are they?
In 18/50, that’s chapter 18 verse 50, we are told that Iblis was one of the jinns. Suggested that that is was why he disobeyed the command of Allah. See, in the in the bible, he wasn’t a jinn in the beginning. He was an angel. But in the passage, another similar passage, we are told that Allah commanded the angels to bow down to Adam, and they obeyed except Iblis.
That implies that Iblis had been one of the company of the angels. In many passages, jinns and men are spoken of together. Man is stated to have been created from clay and jinns from a flame of fire. So, yes, I do not wanna be dogmatic, he says, but I think from a collation and study of the chronic passage that the that the meaning simply is a spirit or an invisible or hidden force. In folklore stories and romantic romances like the Arabian Nights, they became personified into fantastic forms, but with them, we are not concerned.
Both the Quran and the Hadith describe the jinn in a definite species of living beings. They are created out of fire and are like man. They may believe, listen to this, or disbelieve, accept, or reject guidance. The authoritative Islamic text show that they are not merely a hidden force of spirit. They are personalized beings who enjoy a certain amount of free will and thus will to be called to account.
Alright. That’s, 6 and 100. Now, I wanted to ask you something. I want I wanted to read something here that is in 37 and verse 158. Here’s what it says.
And they have invented a blood relationship between him and the gins. But the gins know quite well that they have indeed to appear before his judgment seat. Well, that’s quite a a verse, isn’t it? They have in and, they have invented a blood relationship. So, you know that, the the the question that I really wanted to ask here is is is really I think we’ll get to it in a minute, but it has to do with this last part here.
But let’s just read, a little bit, ahead of time too here in high Islam. The fact that jinn can be good or bad, and, God says or the Quran says that he will fill hell with men and jinn. Another verse here that’s quite interesting is 4629 and that is that jinn listened to the Koran, some jinn. Muhammad is preaching away and, preaching in the sense of reciting the Koran and it says that the jinn gathered around and they listened to it. I want to close with this question here, and it it sort of comes up from what we just read here a couple of minutes ago from 6137158, and they have invented a blood relationship between him and the jinns.
And it sort of strikes me that, when we speak of Son of God, that Muslims are totally misunderstanding what we’re talking about and, you know, they, I think, are conjuring up all kinds of thoughts of God having a wife or, perhaps back to pre Islam days of paganism where, you know, the belief is that people can, you know, procreate, jinn will procreate, and so when you say son of God, they are, thinking all kinds of evil things that we do not believe by the term, and I think that’s one of the reasons why Muslims are so upset by the term son of God that you some Muslims would say that you’re you’re cursed and you’re damned to hell when you mention the son of God. So what a challenge we have to, to, explain to Muslims that this is not what we mean at all. But I just wanted to point out to you too that, it it is folk Islam, but in high Islam, somehow the, in high Islam, orthodox Islam, they do, you know, live within and admit the activity of these jinn, and as Ibn Sina said, only god knows. There is some indication that they, get some of this stuff from, Jewish mythology.
There is this, Jewish this Lilith here, this word that, that is a female demon of night. Amulets are used to protect, and they have the idea there too, that, one is united, you know, that that you have this united, one that was born the same time as as, we were. So what I’m saying is that the idea of a familiar spirit is not unique to Islam. There is also the term incubus, which is a spirit demon in medieval times who lie on a sleeping person for sexual purposes. But in pre Islam, Egypt, Arabia, Sudan, there is this idea too of a ka or sometimes, even among the cops, a ko, a double person who moves freely and unites with the body at will.
As I’ve been suggesting, it sounds like that the jinn procreate. And, you know, that’s paganism. That is really pre Islam, but Mohammed never changes his mind. He doesn’t his worldview is not changed. It is not affected, through his, through this Islam stuff.
In other words, he’s really animistic at heart when you think about it. Again, more about high Islam, al Badawi, and Maududi too. They also believe in the qurina, a lifetime mate who goes to hell at judgment, tries to ruin a person. God saves the believer, but it’s a blessing to see one’s Corinna in hell. Al Tabri, the king of the commentaries, says that, Kareena is everyone’s personal devil.
Aisha said, that’s Muhammad’s favorite wife, and, his sparkly, feisty little wife says that the devil is with all, including Muhammad. In the hadith, ibn Hanbal, Mohammed said Mohammed’s Kareena only did good. Tradition says Mohammed said he’s superior to Adam in 2 ways, His devil, his that Kareena became a Muslim, and his wives helped him. While Adam’s, devil remained infant, and his wife misled him according to Zweymer in page his book, The Influence of the Animism, page 112. They procreate.
Iblis is a hermaphrodite. He lays eggs lays eggs out of each comes 70 male, female devils. So, we’ve talked a lot about, high Islam and low Islam. High Islam Al Ghazali writes in the revival, sorry, of the, revival of the religious sciences, he who forgets the name of God for even an instant has for that moment no mate but Satan. For god said, whoever turns in remembrance of me, remembrance of the merciful, we shall chain a devil to him who will be his karena.
And this, verse I wanted to read here is 43 and verse 36. It says, if anyone withdraws himself from remembrance, and this is basically what the Quran says. For of Allah, most gracious, we appoint for him, an evil one, to be an intimate companion to him, and that is the word.