Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Regional Jinn Influences (Pt. 1)
Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on the influence of Jinn among certain regions around the world of Islam during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents the Asia Minor regional Jinn influences, how Muslims defend against the Jinn daily, and the missiological implication of it.
Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Regional Jinn Influences (Pt. 1)
Going great guns here on lecture 20, and it has to do with, regional jinn. In other words, jinn influences in various parts of the Muslim world. You know, the Muslim world is so broad, isn’t it? All the way from Morocco to Malaysia. Some years ago when I was doing my PhD dissertation called Islamic Ideology and Fundamentalism in Pakistan, colon, climate for conversion to Christianity, question mark, I remember, thinking, wow.
You know, over 50 every con over 50 countries in the world, in the Muslim world, not not Muslim world, in the world are have a majority of Muslim, not to mention those who have, you know, a minority, Muslims. So, there is a lot of variety, and there’s variety in this, variety in folk practices. By that, we mean different names and some, you know, different spirits and stuff. But by and large, it’s the same. You know, whether it’s a Sufi cult or it’s a, some kind of practice, It’s very sounding very, very familiar.
In fact, my friend Dudley Woodbury used to say that, that, he were having worked in Pakistan when he was giving lectures on folk Islam, that his friend, Paul Hiebert, who had been working with Hindus in India, could step in and give a lecture about, folk religion among the Hindus, and it was very much the same as folk religion among Muslims. So we’re talking about, the, you know, regional gin influence and, the varieties, we talk first of all about Turkey. And, you know, you’d think that, because Turkey is, well, it’s a modern Muslim country. It’s making progress. It’s, secular.
In other words, in in so many ways, it it seems different. Nevertheless, folk practices is are very, very common there. And in Turkey, the the djinn, are very active, and the locations, unsurprisingly, are in, the baths. Now I don’t see unless this is supposed to be represent a bath, it’s possible, but, you know, the Turkish bath is is famous, and, anyone who’s been there, I guess, it’s it’s quite the experience. But, it’s understood that jinn are also present, and, they’re, of course, there in at the cemetery, at the foot of big trees, and, also in toilets or garbage dumps.
I don’t see any toilets here, but there you have it. Often, again, understood that a black cat or a black dog represent a jinn. So, when you’re in the Muslim world, keeping a an animal, especially in the house is not the thing to do. Where we were in Pakistan, we had a dog for some of these quite a few of our years, but the dog was always outside, and he was a what they called a chokidar, a guard or she, and, you know, roamed around the roof or something like that. That was okay because a lot of Muslims see the need, for for that, but not certainly to keep them inside.
Also notice that, dwarves or giants are suspect, you know, as far as the djinn are concerned. Maybe that’s a djinn. So you can see how difficult it would be if you were a dwarf or or a giant in, in Muslim culture that is heavy into this, popular stuff. What about harm and pre precaution? In other words, well, the harm is, from a jinn could be, you know, many, many things, but often paralysis is considered to be caused by a jinn.
If you read Musk, you get this, from the stories he tells of of, paralysis, and it’s believed to be caused by an evil spirit. So what do you do? Well, you have to take precaution. You have to, to do something to prevent it and from being attacked or being harmed by a jinn. And one of the things as we’ve talked about before, several times, probably you’re sick of my me saying it, this bismillah stuff.
In the name of god, you do this and that and everything else, bismillah this and bismillah that. But it’s also understood to the the felt needs. In other words, what are the felt needs? What do people feel? Obviously, there’s a lot of fear.
How could you not be afraid? Well, you know, if I go here or do this, without doing the right thing, take the precaution, or if my baby comes in contact with this person or that place, maybe harm will become, or perhaps, that’s what’s happened already. Just imagine the fear. Just try to walk in their shoes if you can. There’s also a lot of suspicion, about one another.
Well, maybe that person has put a curse on me or wants to put a curse on me. If she doesn’t like me, maybe she’s jealous of me, jealous of my beautiful daughter who, who who’s gonna get married very easily when her own daughter, if I might say not so attractive, won’t find a husband so easily. And then there’s this fear of being unclean, isn’t there? An, you know, unclean. And women in particular, I think, sense this and feel this, particularly, because of the, during the, you know, certain type of the time of the month, unclean, and and Islam too.
We can understand this, I think, from the old testament and, and and references there to, that that for women. And and and so there is this this in Islam that seems to be, dare I say it, condemns women for being women, how troubling this is. So what do you do? In other words, what are the amulets? What are what are done?
Well, amulets are understandably, they’re Koranic, that are used against the evil eye. And here’s a famous one. Here, right in the center of this amulet, in other words, right here is, a famous verse or all famous, but more famous than others. Some 68, surah 68 in verse, 51 and 52. This sounds very foolish, and the unbelievers would almost trip thee up, see, with their eyes when they hear the message, and they say, surely, he’s possessed.
Now this is, this is quite a verse. The eyes of evil men look at a good man as if they would eat him up or trip him, says the commentator 5633. But, really, this suggests to me some, spirit stuff. In other words, that the unbelievers would trip you up with their eyes. You see, the eye is the eye of envy.
And, well, that’s in the center. But on the margins, that’s out here and here and here and here is the 2 and 256, which is the famous old verse. Actually, it’s 2 I think 255. Although there is no God but he, the living, the self sustaining one, eternal. But then in the middle of that verse, 2 and 50 255, chapter 2, his throne doth extend over the heavens.
So that’s the throne verse. You know? This is the verse really that’s often used in the amulet, right out of the Quran. Around the corners here, by the way, when I said, thrown on the margins, I I hope I didn’t point. I might have pointed at the at the corners, but on the, in the corners itself, in other words, up here, you can see that, the chapters there are 112, 113, 114, and I’ve referred before.
This, you can see, by the way, was, done by one of my, you you don’t know, but it was done by one of my students who was very artistic because you can’t just take a picture, because of copyright laws, so she reproduced it. And there, believe it or not, is Ali right at the top. Ali. Who’s Ali? Ali is the he’s a hero of the Shiites, the son-in-law of Mohammed, who married Mohammed’s daughter, of course, Fatima Fatima.
And, then, Ali’s sons, Hassan and Hassan, took over, but Hussein is the one who suffered a great deal, and Shiites remember him. But Ali is the one, really. Ali is the one that, Muslims love, a great deal. I think in some way, you can say that they love Ali more than they love Mohammed. If you go to certain areas like Mazar e Sharif, where there are lots of Shiites in Afghanistan, that’s what you would understand.
So amulets, all over the Muslim world to to help you, and the silver necklace with plaques and tubes to hold small amulet squares with Quranic verses, maybe sometime in your travels. If you travel here and there in the Muslim world or wherever you might go, keep your eye open for these kind of of, of necklaces. And it would be great if you could have one if I, keep my eyes open, too for these kind of things as I like to take them to and then to class or whenever and show them, show and tell to students. Quran amulets. Always Quran.
You know, Quran amulets. Here is one that’s sold in the mosque of Shanghai. Where Shanghai? In China. You see, you have Muslims in China as well.
And it’s used to defend against the jinn or other evils and produce health. You know, you this is really what you want. You want health. You want good fortune. And so, that’s what Muslims are, you know, hoping for and depending on to get them through.
I could have mentioned there, under the last point, felt needs. The in your notes, you’ll notice gospel for shame cultures in the evangelical missionary quarterly, July 1994. I don’t know if you read the AMQ or not, but that’s an interesting article because it talks about how important, you know, shame is and, how you get rid of it and free of it. So, let me just mention that in passing, that the the desire for cleanness is is very, very important. And and, let’s think a little bit about missiological implications and this clean or unclean thing.
You know, we we we did mention the, the fact that often, women feel unclean, and we, we don’t like that. In other words, we want, women to feel accepted. We want them to feel part of the group. We don’t want them to feel left out or excluded for any reason. So what do we do?
Well, I think that we should remind ourselves that there’s no harm in being unclean. In other words, you remember the book of Leviticus and how that talks over and over again of of, you know, how to get clean from this. It’s just not women. It’s it’s everyone, really. If you do this and you’re unclean, you do this, you’re unclean, and you have to do you know?
And so and then it gives you the you know, you get the idea that it’s there’s no harm in being unclean, but just don’t think that it it doesn’t matter. And, of course, then, the idea is to, you know, to the understanding is that God is holy, and, we need to be holy too, and we are holy through Christ. We are cleansed through the blood of Christ. And, this is, this was this introduction, perfect introduction in Leviticus to the gospel and in testament references of how Christ comes, and he cleanses the leper. He does this and that, and his blood cleanses from from all sin.
If we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteous. Isn’t isn’t it a a blessing, really, to to experience that, that we are clean through the blood of Christ? Remember, that Psalm in, 24, Psalm 24, who may ascend the hill of the Lord, who may stand in his holy place, he who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift to be sold to an idol, or swear by what is false, he will receive blessing from the lord. This is a, a psalm that is the favorite psalm sung by the Punjabi Christians in Pakistan. They love to sing the songs psalms.
And this is the favorite my favorite one. And they sing it over and over and over again. It’s a great song. They sing the Zebulos, the Psalms, of David. Who is this king of glory?
The lord, strong and mighty. The lord, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, oh you gates, and lift them up, you ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in. You know, Jesus is king, and, this is our this is our witness. This is our belief that, that through his, through him, we, can, be ready, to meet God.
He helps us. I wanted to, end with this question. Why might the handicap be more receptive? One of my former students from Germany, whose name is Sabine, works in North Africa. She is, in a wheelchair herself, and she went out there and she helps work with, Muslims.
She, imports wheelchairs through, Joni Eareckson TADA. And, I personally think that she has a great ministry. It it’s difficult for her, though. But I I sometimes think of the fact that the handicapped in Muslim countries are more receptive to the gospel. Why?
Because they’ve been rejected, for various and sundry reasons, and I think that’s probably true here as well. So we need to remember those, remember even, you know, the the deaf and people like that, people who are challenged, how how we need to be sensitive to them and the fact that, god loves them and god cares for them. And there are many of these people in the Muslim world, just roaming around, oftentimes totally neglected, and so they need to be reached with the gospel as well.