Djinn

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A Djinn ( audio sample ? / I ; ArabicAudio file / audio sample  جن, DMG ǧinn , singular male Djinnī  /جني / ǧinnī , singular female Jinnīya  /جنية / Ǧinnīya , plural jinn or jinn ) in the Islamic idea about a sensual being, which is created from smokeless fire, has reason and next to humans devils and angels the world as with other jinn spirits populated. Jinn only become visible to people in exceptional situations. Although not mentioned in the Qur'an , there is a widespread belief that the jinn can enter people's bodies and drive them crazy. The jinn came from ancient Arabic pre- Islamic beliefs to Islamic beliefs and are mentioned several times in the Koran. With Islam, the belief in jinn spread beyond the Arab-Oriental cultural area.

Djinn illustration from the 16th century. In: Ahsan-ol-Kobar. Golestan Palace , Tehran

etymology

The word jinn comes from the Semitic root GNN (جَنّ / جُنّ / ǧann ) for "invisible", "hide" or "crazy" and denotes a kind of spirit , demon or protective deity . Some linguists see the origin in the Latin word genius (' genius '), others in the Aramaic word ginnaya , which means something like deity . In Islamic usage, the word has multiple meanings, and can also generally designate disembodied beings that are hidden from the sense organs of people; including angels or satans.

The Djinn Belief in Pre-Islamic Arabia

Winged genius from the palace of King Sargon II 713–716 BC Chr., Represents an inter-divine figure , which is probably a forerunner of the pre-Islamic protective gods.

In pre-Islamic Arabia , people believed in nature spirits and demons that lived next to people. They are responsible for natural phenomena and diseases, but also for protecting people when they pray to them. For example, they should be able to protect a caravan . Djinns prefer deserts, forests, bush and shrub landscapes, ruins, graves and snake pits as places to stay. They also love places that are dark or damp, such as holes in the ground or a hammam , especially at night. During the day they generally move in the air above the human sphere. They have families (the vernacular knows many stories from people who were married to jinn - Rafik Schami even dedicated a story to such a connection), religious affiliations, likes and dislikes.

The Jinn Belief in Islam

Statements in the Koran and interpretation

The 72nd sura of the Koran called Al-Jinn ( The Jinns ).

In the Koran djinn are frequently mentioned. A separate sura is dedicated to them ( sura 72 ). The proclamation of the Prophet Mohammed is explicitly valid not only for the people, but also for the jinn. Djinn were created in the Qur'anic creation story from “smokeless fire” ( Sura 55 : 14f). Like humans, the jinn are said to be "created to serve God" ( Sura 51 : 56). In addition, there are believing and unbelieving jinn, whereby the unbelieving jinn are supposed to go to hell ( Sura 6 : 128; Sura 11 : 119; Sura 32 : 13; Sura 41 : 25). In the days of the Prophet, some jinn found at a meeting that they could no longer hear the angels speak. They went out to find out why. They found Mohammed when he was reading the Koran. This happened precisely because the Prophet revealed the Qur'an for jinn as well as for people. These jinn converted to Islam because they had now learned everything they needed to know ( Sura 72 : 1-19; Sura 46 : 29-32). In contrast to popular belief, the jinn mentioned in the Koran are not eerie demonic beings, but are morally indifferent.

Al-Baidāwī , a thirteenth-century Islamic scholar , recorded various statements in his tafsir , the notions of the identity of the jinn that were common at the time. On the one hand, the jinns could be invisible bodies in which the fire and air nature predominates. On the other hand, the jinn could be purely spiritual beings or the disembodied souls of the deceased who stay in Barzakh until the day of resurrection . According to the Koranic interpretation, the jinn once lived before man on earth, and when God announced to the angels in sura 2:30 that he wanted to create a successor, the people were the successors of those jinn. The original Djinn were therefore driven out by an army of angels under the command of Iblis . Because of the anciency of the jinn, their relationship with humans would usually be strained.

Djinn ideas in popular belief

According to popular Islamic belief, jinn are divided into different classes, which are differentiated according to their actions and motivation. They are commonly divided into three types of jinn and different subgroups:

  • Demons who cause harm and terror to people. The mighty ones are the Ghoul , the very mighty ones the Sila (mostly a female demon who seduces men), the even more powerful ones with a dedicated destructive instinct the Ifrit and the very strongest the Marid
  • Middle beings who, like humans, populate creation and do not particularly appear and
  • Qarin (doppelganger) of the people.

A fundamental characteristic of the Djinn is their lack of individuality. There are also some special jinns who have their own name and act as jinn saints or as sick spirits. The latter includes Aisha Qandisha, who is revered and feared in northern Morocco . Djinn are considered to be living beings that populate creation like humans, animals and plants. But they have their own will and can also consciously turn against divine laws and, like these, can strive for their soul's salvation (through alms, prayer, fasting, etc.). And just as there are among humans, there are also those with a good character and others with a bad character - but mostly with a bit of both. In addition, the jinn are considered pre-Adamites because it is believed that they were created before Adam . There are different traditions regarding their time before humans.

Entire jinn peoples live, among other things, under the surface of the oceans, organized in feudal hierarchies. According to popular Arab belief, there are kingdoms and principalities of the Djinn on areas of the sea floor. If they want to or if they are forced by spells, which is rather rare, they can get out of the water on the seashore, go ashore and there, among other things, poor fishermen who meet them there with rich finds of precious corals, jewels , Pearls and all sorts of other gems that the seabed has to offer.

The djinn's places of residence on earth are predominantly on special landforms outside of civilization. These include certain mountain tops, rocks, caves or springs in valleys. Forests are also one of their favorite places to live. Such places in the wilderness are often referred to simply as maskun ("inhabited") in the Middle East and are avoided.

The belief is widespread that a person who is invited by a jinn in a dream or in reality and follows him, disappears into his world and is never seen again. The Nordic belief in souls and Marians reports something similar about fairies . But many return to the world again after strangely long times and, if they behave awkwardly, cause all kinds of sensations - mostly of a negative kind. Other stories tell that you have to be silent when you meet a jinn or you would lose your tongue ( figuratively: the language).

Djinn should be able to transform themselves into animals or objects, or also be able to take possession of other living beings. There are also quite different opinions about how old a Djinn can get. For example, it is said that life force only runs dry when magic or power, such as B. to be able to transform are used up. Usually, however, a lifespan of several hundred years is reported (according to the Solomonic tradition, several thousand years). Other traditions speak of relative immortality , that is, they do not die of natural causes, but they could very well be killed.

The jinn also play an important role in the beliefs of the Muslims of Southeast Asia . In the Malay Chronicle of Bima (Sumbawa) it is described that the sultans of this city themselves descended in a direct line from the forefather of the jinn. So they are not assigned any human descent, but a descent from spirit beings. This clearly sets them apart from their subjects, who are described as descendants of Adam . The chronicle describes not only the descent of the ruling house, but also that of all other beings who populate the visible and invisible world. Hence its title "The story about the origin of the people of the Djinn and the entire Dewas " ( Ceritera asal bangsa jin dan segala dewa-dewa ).

Precautions against Djinn

A Ta'wiz , with an Islamic prayer inscribed on a piece of paper inside the block, which is supposed to ward off magic, the evil eye and conjured jinns.

According to the legend, the jinns have a great aversion to all kinds of metals. The timid takes advantage of this. Silver is the most frequently mentioned metal, which is said to help him against Djinn; it's supposed to burn their skin. Turkish folk belief advises against the influences of the Djinn to wear cevşen , a mostly leather amulet in which Koran verses and prayers are integrated. Depending on the interpretation, the jinn (if he was evil) shrinks back from the holy words or the words of God restore order by bringing the jinn back into his world. Amulets, the hand of Fatima and the blessing power of baraka , which emanates from pilgrimage sites where Islamic saints are venerated, offer protection from the jinn . Sometimes people say Destur to warn the Djinn that they could be injured or insulted with the subsequent activity, for example when entering the toilet or before pouring hot water, since humans cannot see whether there is a Djinn at the destination of the activity is located.

Djinn incantations

Conjuring is forbidden in the Islamic faith, but the practice of necromancy and magic is widespread, especially in Africa. Summoning jinns is said to cause them terrible torment, which leads them to rebel against the summoner and grant not his wishes but his fears. They sometimes achieve this through a somewhat subtle interpretation of these - mostly very selfish and material - wishes.

By incantation (e.g. by quoting or incorrectly quoting verses from the Koran over a medium such as water, fire, earth, air, wood, paper, etc.), meetings with jinns can also be forced. However, this conjuring causes the jinn tremendous pain, which is why they are reluctant to cooperate with humans, but rather thwart their wishes, interpret them to their disadvantage or, in the worst case, even take revenge on the conjurer.

With the Swahili in East Africa there is the idea that certain people have the ability to create "magic jinn" ( majini ya uchawi ) themselves in order to bewitch other people at the request of clients. These ritual specialists (magical healers) are called waganga (singular mganga ).

In the Comoros , special magical-religious ceremonies are held for the jinn on the evenings of the month of Shābān , which are accompanied by music, song and dance and are called ngoma za madjini ("dance of the jinn"). By satisfying the jinn in this way one tries to get them to stay away from the people in the following month of Ramadan so that they are not disturbed while they are fasting.

Inner Islamic criticism of belief in the jinn

The extent to which belief in the jinn is compatible with Islam is regularly discussed even in traditionalist circles. Jahiz already formulated doubts about the credibility of the jinn's existence. Proponents of belief in the jinn argued that the frequency of their mention in the Qur'an and in the hadiths confirms belief in their existence, and sometimes refer to the existence of demons in other religions. For the Hanbali theologian Ibn Taimiya , the belief in the jinn was considered binding and he equated it with other dogmas such as the existence of angels and the embassy of Muhammad , which led opponents of the jinn belief to claim that other beings were equated with divine revelation would be equivalent to the "addition" ( Schirk ). The mentions of 'Djinn' in the Koranic context are sometimes interpreted by opponents of belief in ghosts as a paraphrase for “impetuous people”, but also generally as “forces hidden from man”.

Another aspect is the opinion that jinns are only hallucinations and projections of their own desires and feelings. The philosopher Al-Masʿūdī emphasized that the existence of invisible beings should not necessarily be rejected, but a psychological explanation would be more appropriate. He pointed out that jinn mostly encounter people in solitude and seclusion, and if a person has to roam a secluded landscape alone, he is afraid. The appearances of demonic beings could therefore be caused by feelings. Likewise, the lack of interlocutors makes it easier to hear voices that do not come from any real person. Wishful thinking causes people to indulge in fantasies. Because such stories are passed on without reflection from generation to generation, children would already grow up believing in spirits, and when they are in such a situation themselves they would remember the stories of spirits and demons and also imagine wrong things . If the person is prone to lying, he would even tell fictional stories such as reporting that he had married the Si'lah or killed a ghoul . A similar representation of the belief in the jinn can also be found in Gahiz and Ibn Qutaiba .

Muhammad Abduh interpreted the bacteria found under the microscope as jinn. The interpretation is sometimes justified by the fact that humans cannot see them with the naked eye, they multiply in heat, which is interpreted as being made of fire , and can cause diseases.

Djinn belief in modern times

Many modernist Islamic thinkers of the first half of the 20th century rejected belief in jinn as a form of superstition . Instead, they generally related the occurrences of the term jinn in the ambiguous Arabic meaning to something invisible, like angels or undefined invisible forces. Salafist scholars, on the other hand, reject such metaphorical interpretations, arguing that the existence of the Djinn as concrete and real beings emerges from the Koran and the Sunnah. The Salafist doctrine of Djins, however, again differs from the conventional ideas of Muslims. Many characteristics that have been accepted in Islam in the past are discarded, instead limiting questions about the jinn to individual repetitive quotations that are repeated on various websites . The original idea of ​​the jinn still exists among Muslims in the Middle East . According to a 2012 survey by the Pew Research Center , at least 86% of Muslims in Morocco , 63% in Bangladesh , 55% in Iraq , 53% in Indonesia , 47% in Thailand and 15% in Central Asia believe in the existence of Djinn. The low number in Central Asia may be due to influence from the Soviet Union .

Djinn in literature

In the “Letters of the Lighter Brothers ” ( Rasa'il ichwan as-safa 'wa chillan al-wafa ) the jinn also play an important role. A court hearing described here about the problem of whether humans are allowed to behave as rulers over animals contains a lot of revealing information about the jinn.

Djinn also appear in large numbers in the stories from the Arabian Nights . The story of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp is one of the best-known fairy tales that are passed down in Europe as the “fairy tales from 1001 nights”. With the help of a djinnis, a good spirit from the oil lamp, Aladin survives his adventures.

See also

reception

literature

The jinn gave among other things

Movies

art

  • The ceramicist and tile painter Abdullah (19th century), who decorated several UNESCO World Heritage buildings in Khiva (Uzbekistan), was nicknamed the Djinn because of his special skills .

literature

  • Djinn. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition . Vol. II, 1965, pp. 546b-550a. (Various authors)
  • Gebhard Fartacek: Disaster through demons? Stories and discourses about the work of the Jinn. A social anthropological search for traces in Syria . Böhlau, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-205-78485-2 . (books.google.de)
  • Aly Abd-el-Gaphar Fatoum: The Jinn Faith as an Islamic Legal Question according to the teachings of the orthodox schools of law . Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1999.
  • Caleb Chul-Soo Kim: Islam among the Swahili in East Africa . Acton Publishers, Nairobi 2004, pp. 78-199.
  • Marco Schöller: "His Master's Voice: Conversations with Djinns in Egypt today." In: The world of Islam. New Series, Vol. 41, No. 1, March 2001, pp. 32-71.
  • Ernst Zbinden: The Djinn of Islam and the ancient oriental belief in spirits. Paul Haupt, Bern 1953.
  • Samuel Marinus Zwemer: The Influence of Animism on Islam. An Account of Popular Superstitions. Cape. 7: Jinn. The Macmillan Company, New York 1920. (From Answering Islam . Alternatively, from Sufi Texts ( Memento from March 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ))

Web links

Wiktionary: Jinn  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Djinn. In: Hans-Michael Haußig: Religions and Weltanschauungen. Volume 3: Islam. BWV Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8305-1596-8 , p. 103.
  2. ↑ Tobias Nünlist: Belief in demons in Islam. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-033154-7 , p. 23 ff.
  3. ↑ Robert Lebling: Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar. 2010, ISBN 978-0-85773-063-3 , Appendix.
  4. ↑ Christopher R. Fee, Jeffrey B. Webb: American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore. 3 volumes. ABC-CLIO, 2016, ISBN 978-1-61069-568-8 , p. 527.
  5. ↑ Javier Teixidor: The Pantheon of Palmyra . Brill, Leiden 1979, ISBN 90-04-05987-3 , p. 77.
  6. ↑ Hans-Michael Haußig: religions and beliefs. Volume 3: Islam. BWV Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8305-1596-8 , p. 103.
  7. ↑ Hans-Michael Haußig: religions and beliefs. Volume 3: Islam. BWV Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8305-1596-8 , p. 103.
  8. ^ DB MacDonald, W. Madelung: Malāʾika. In: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, CE Bosworth, E. van Donzel, WP Heinrichs (eds.): Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2nd Edition. 2012. doi: 10.1163 / 1573-3912_islam_COM_0642.2
  9. ↑ Patrick Hughes: Thomas Patrick Hughes Dictionary of Islam. Asian Educational Services, 1995, ISBN 81-206-0672-8 , p. 134.
  10. ↑ Fritz Schulze: Descent and Islamization as motives for legitimizing rule in traditional Malay historiography. Wiesbaden 2004, p. 53.
  11. ↑ Robert Lebling: Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar. IB Tauris, 2010, ISBN 978-0-85773-063-3 , pp. 149-150.
  12. ↑ Caleb Chul-Soo Kim: Islam among the Swahili in East Africa . Acton Publishers, Nairobi 2004, p. 110.
  13. ↑ Abdallah Chanfi Ahmed: Ngoma et mission islamique ( Daʿwa ) aux Comores et en Afrique orientale. Une approche anthropologique . Paris 2002, pp. 62f., 166f.
  14. ↑ Tobias Nünlist: Belief in demons in Islam . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2015, p. 28.
  15. ↑ Genii. In: Thomas Patrick Hughes: Dictionary of Islam. 1885, p. 134.
  16. ↑ Tobias Nünlist: Belief in demons in Islam . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2015, p. 34 ff.
  17. ↑ Celia E. Rothenberg: Islam on the Internet: the Jinn and the objectification of Islam . In: Journal of Religion and Popular Culture . vol. 23, no. 3 ,. Gale Academic, 2011, pp. 355-358 .
  18. ↑ G. Hussein Rassool: Evil Eye, Jinn Possession, and Mental Health Issues: An Islamic Perspective . Routledge, 2018, ISBN 978-1-317-22698-7 .
  19. ↑ Alma Giese (ed.): People and animals before the king of the djinn. From the writings of the Louder Brothers of Basra . (around 10th century). Felix Meiner, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-7873-0981-0 .