Loading ...Jinn in the Arab World--What Do You Know About Them?
By John Mason,/Arab America Contributing Writer
What are Jinn, anyway?
Jinn is an Arabic word for supernatural creatures that are part of the spirit world, not the world as we usually understand it. (Jinn is plural, jinni, singular.) They are spirits or demons that are part of religion. Their name comes from a word meaning ‘to hide or conceal,’ which denotes that they can be hidden from our senses but nevertheless still affect us. The jinni is mentioned in the Qur’an as a creation of God.
We are told that a jinni is supposed to be intelligent but is nowhere close to the holiness of an angel. It can appear as a human or animal and the ‘bad’ ones can lead humans astray, into behaving badly. Some people believe a jinni can take control of a person and her or his mind and body. Also, like believing human beings, jinn have to face eventual salvation or damnation.
A jinni, especially an evil one, as depicted here, can frighten humans
How do Jinn interact with Humans?
Jinn can communicate with and touch some humans and, like us, they like eating, having children and sleeping. A common view of the jinni is that it was created by God from a mixture of fire, but fire with little or no smoke. Because of the fire and heat, some jinn are believed to be in league with Satan, the Devil.
The jinni can’t be seen or felt by most humans. They are known to have roamed the world for thousands of years, long before the world’s religions appeared. Jinn are known to try to tempt believers away from God, so people feel they need to be on guard against any temptation to stray from the righteous path.
An image of the Underworld, where some jinn are up to no good
It is believed that jinn can affect humans since they are believed to be real creatures. They are believed to be able to cause physical damage, as well as mental harm to human beings.
A depiction of the underground life of jinn and the unfortunate humans who are placed there
Visiting an Exorcism in Cairo
This experience was in Cairo but it doesn’t mean that it happens in all Arab cities. Cairo is known for its active religious life of both Muslims and Christians. Both of these religions practice the exorcism of jinn. I visited an exorcism in Imbaba, a poor neighborhood on the edge of central Cairo. It involved the extraction from a young Muslim man, Ahmed, of a bad jinni.
Entering a small, roughly-built, two-room house, I first met the local ‘exorcist,’ Sheik Mahmoud. The exorcism was not performed by someone trained in the mosque, but rather by a man who had learned the traditional, folk practice. Thus, his techniques were not approved by the higher religious leaders. I would, therefore, witness some practices these leaders would not approve of.
The sheik-exorcist began by explaining to Ahmed’s family and friends,
“When Ahmed was first sent to me, he seemed to be looking at the ground, and then suddenly he raised his head and walked around, unable to stay in one place for very long. Ahmed would then smile eerily or laugh in an abnormal way. He said he could see things we couldn’t see.”
Now, as I watched the exorcism unfold, Ahmed was writhing on the floor, the sheik beginning to read Quranic verses over him, as he lightly pressed the veins of his Ahmed’s throat. He demanded of the spirit possessing him,
“What is your name, why have you taken over our Ahmed’s soul?”
The offending jinni did not respond, so the sheik lightly slapped Ahmed’s face, in an attempt to get the jinni to talk. Then he blew oil on Ahmed’s body and told the jinni,
“If you refuse to leave, I will have to tie Ahmed’s fingers and toes and then light them on fire, so you cannot escape, and then you’ll burn like you’re in hell.”
An Egyptian Muslim exorcism, with a partial translation in English of the possessed’ individual’s words
This threat, along with a reading of the Qur’an, should have done the trick, burning the jinni before it could find its way out.
The sheik, at that point, announced,
“This jinni seems to have completely overtaken Ahmed.”
But, then, unexpectedly, the jinni revealed itself, blurting,
“They poured hot water into my hiding spot, angering me. We detest anything hot. I knew Ahmed was afraid of me, which allowed me to enter him.”
Then another voice, Ahmed’s, retorted,
“He’s a ‘black dog,’ he entered me by my big toe, but moved up into my chest, and now I can’t breathe.”
To control the jinni, the sheik sat on Ahmed’s stomach as some visitors held down his arms and legs. Ahmed now seemed to be more awake, but with a contorted look on his face, as if in the last throes of purging the jinni. The sheik asked the jinni,
“Who are you and why did you take over Ahmed? If you don’t reveal yourself, you will burn!” the sheik pronounced.
Now, I’d heard from others experienced in the exorcism that if an exorcism doesn’t work the first time, it might be repeated for several days on end, until there is a rejection of the evil spirit. Here, however, the jinni inhabiting Ahmed finally capitulated, after several hours of agonizing back-and-forth between it, the sheik, and Ahmed. As the jinni escaped, it uttered,
“I’m burning and I have to get the ‘hell’ out of here,” at which point it seemed to disappear.
His family and friends were all relieved when it ended since Ahmed’s possession seemed protracted; but it could have gone on and on, even longer.
While there are all sorts of mental health and cultural reasons for why Ahmed became possessed and how he was successfully exorcised, I decided, for the reader’s sake, to leave it where it ended on this evening, in the outskirts of Cairo.
Many theories abound on the place of exorcisms in religious life. As I noted earlier, Both Christianity and Islam accept the belief in jinni spirits, though each treats them very differently, based on their variant theologies. At this point, we won’t enter into that arena to try to sort out these distinctions. But, I also have experience in Coptic Christian exorcisms, which I can perhaps write about another time, Insha’Allah.
John Mason, an anthropologist specializing in Arab culture and society, is the author of recently-published LEFT-HANDED IN AN ISLAMIC WORLD: An Anthropologist’s Journey into the Middle East, 2017, New Academia Publishing.