Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn

167 Pages·2009·1.66 MB·English

by  Amira El-Zein

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Copyright © 2009 by Syracuse University Press Syracuse, New York 13244-5290
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ISBN: 978-0-8156-3200-9 (hardcover) 978-0-8156-3514-7 (paperback) 978-0-8156-5070-6 (e-book)
Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: El-Zein, Amira.
Islam, Arabs, and the intelligent world of the jinn / Amira El-Zein.
p. cm. — (Contemporary issues in the Middle East) Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8156-3200-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Jinn. 2. Demonology, Islamic I. Title.
BP166.89.E49 2009
297.2'17—dc22
2009026745
Manufactured in the United States of America
TO MUNIR,
husband and dearest friend
AMIRA EL-ZEIN is a scholar, poet, and translator. She was the director of the
Arabic Program at Tufts University from 2002 to 2008. She holds an M.A. in
French Literature from Lebanese University, an M.A. in Arabic and Islamic
studies from La Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris, and a Ph.D. in Arabic
language and literature from Georgetown University. She is currently a visiting
associate professor at Georgetown University in Doha, Qatar. The range of her
scholarly interest in comparative literature, medieval and modern Arabic
thought, Islamic studies, and comparative folklore has resulted in numerous and
multilingual lectures, articles, and book and encyclopedia chapters, in addition to
editions of her own poetry and translations of other poets. Her latest book of
poetry, The Jinn and Other Poems, is published by Arrowsmith.
Contents
INTRODUCTION
1. The Poetics of the Invisible: Muslim Imagination and the Jinn
2. Correspondences Between Jinn and Humans
3. Beings of Light and of Fire
4. Divination, Revelation, and the Jinn
5. Magic, Possession, Diseases, and the Jinn
6. Jinn in Animal Shapes
7. Love Between Humans and Jinn
8. Jinn Inspiring Poets
Conclusion: The Sentience of Inside Out/Outside In
APPENDIX: The Different Classes of the Jinn
NOTES
GLOSSARY OF ARABIC WORDS AND NAMES
REFERENCES
INDEX
Introduction
He created the jinn from a fusion of fire
So which of your Lord’s blessings do you both deny?
—QUR’AN 55:15
T
his book is long overdue. After years of painstaking investigation, this
thorough work is based on an extensive and intricate research in Arabic and
several European languages. I have attempted to present an all-embracing
examination of the jinn’s concept in classical Islam including most types of
supposed interactions of the jinn with humans, angels, and animals.
I was often confronted with, on one hand, Western sources simply
dismissing the whole concept of the jinn as superstitions, primitivism, animism,
and the like; and on the other hand, contemporary Arab and Muslim sources,
1
which, in general, expand on the predecessors’ work, but rarely innovate. I
would read thousands of pages to finally fall upon some original ideas on the
topic. Western scholars in general concentrate on the political and social
manifestations of Islam, totally neglecting this concept, while Arab and Muslim
contemporary scholars find it enough to reiterate what the Qur’an and prophetic
tradition Hadith mention, or try to apply a Western methodology that would lead
them to maintain that these “spiritual beings” simply pertain to the domain of
fantasy.
This book deals with the concept of the jinn in classical Islam only,
corresponding to Islam’s golden age, which witnessed an extraordinary
flourishing of intellectual and spiritual debates. No other era has known such a
thriving of the mind, the heart, and the spirit. It is during this time theologians,
Sufis, Qur’an commentators, poets, literary critics, historians, and geographers
mused and deliberated on the concept of the jinn among other things.
But why write a book on the jinn? People in the West currently are more
interested to learn about jihad, the veil, the status of women in Islam, and the
various fundamentalist movements. For them Islam is solely all of the above.
They assume the jinn is a topic better left to Disney and popular culture, or at
best to anthropologists. Broadly speaking, many would argue this subject matter
is very marginal, and would not add anything to the understanding of a religion
such as Islam, while others assert its significance, but acknowledge at the same
time it is a particularly thorny topic to address. For how would one classify the
jinn mentioned in the Qur’an? Are they psychic powers? Are they spiritual
powers? Are they the product of the imagination? Do they really exist? And if
so, how to prove their existence to the skeptics, how to be in contact with them,
and how to describe them?
For all of the above reasons, scholars on both sides prefer not to embark on
this venture. It was clear there was an urgent need for a serious academic work
that goes beyond the Western bias, the Arab/Muslim redundancy, and the
folkloric simplification of the jinn in Disney, while attempting as much as
possible to describe the phenomenon from within the culture.
I argue, on the contrary, examining such a concept is essential to
understanding Islam inasmuch as it is a concept at the heart of the religion. It is,
first, an important constituent of the hierarchical view of the world Islam
espouses because jinn are thought to be “intermediary” or “imaginal” beings,
above our terrestrial realm but below the celestial realm, as shall be seen in the
first chapter. In other terms, one has to deeply grasp the concept of the jinn to
understand Islamic cosmology.
Second, although belief in the jinn is not one of the five pillars of Islam, one
can’t be Muslim if he/she doesn’t have faith in their existence because they are
mentioned in the Qur’an and the prophetic tradition. Indeed, the Qur’anic
message itself is addressed to both humans and jinn, considered the only two
intelligent species on Earth. The prophetic tradition mentions them in several
instances. Therefore, exploring the concept of the jinn in classical Islam would
shed light on the complexity of a religion that has long been overshadowed in
the West and misinterpreted. It would unravel the originality of a religious
system that systematically takes into consideration the impact of the
intermediary realm on humans.
Third, although there exists a prolific literature on angels in Islam, there is
still very little serious academic work devoted solely to the investigation of the
jinn’s concept in Islam. Analyzing angels is always easier and thought to be
more rewarding in the sense that these spiritual entities are good, beautiful,
universal, and eternally obedient to God. There is no paradox, no contradiction
in their nature. Simply put, these “divine messengers” and beings of light are
bringers of peace and quietude. Intermediary beings such as the jinn, on the
other hand, are more complex, multifarious, intricate, and hesitant between
obscurity and glow. They are go-between beings. Like humans, they could at