Monday, September 1, 2008

The Genie Djinn

Most of us will remember the Djinn, or sometimes known as the Genie, as the big, blue spirit that lived in an oil lamp from Disney’s Aladdin. Once the lamp was rubbed, the Genie would appear and grant its master three wishes.

In Islam, the Djinn are a race of free spirits that can be good or evil. Just like how Christians believe that demons can possess people, Djinn can possess human beings too. According to versus in the Quran, Djinns were created out of fire without smoke. It may be interpreted as “the end of the flame”. Because they were created out of fire, they have a constitution utterly different from us human beings. Djinns cannot be seen by the human eye and were created before the time of man.

In Islamic literature, Djinns have a preference for remote areas where they are far away from human civilization. They may live in cemeteries, dustbins where they can consume leftovers. Djinns are shapeshifters and can take the forms of other animals. According to Islam, the black dog is the devil of dogs and the Djinn tend to take this particular form. Djinns can also shapeshift into scorpions, birds, cows or snakes. After shapeshifting, Djinns will have to abide to the laws of their physical form, which means that they will now be visible to human eyes. This may not be a good thing, as this would make them more vulnerable. It is believe that if the animal the Djinn shapeshift into is killed, than the Djinn too will die. The Djinn can be killed with a gunshot or wounded with a knife.

Djinns are not asexual. There are male and female Djinns and they can even come together in order to procreate and produce offspring. In Islam, it is believed that there are three main creations. The first being Angels, who never commit sins and never disobey God. The second being human beings who are given freewill and are accountable for their choice in life. By the end of the day, only those who follow the righteous path will go to paradise. Lastly, you have the Djinns. They are very much like human beings, apary from the fact that they cannot be seen. They are given freewill and choose their religion. Like human beings, they will be judged according to the lives they have led when Judgement Day arrives. In some literature, it is believed that every human being has a Djinn who whispers evil desires into his/her mind.

Djinn and human beings fear each other mutually. However, Djinns seem to instill more fear onto human beings. This is partly because Djinns are not visible and they are rarely understood. Djinns are said to be able to experience the same emotions such as human beings such as anger and sadness. Djinns benefit from this as they are able to instill more fear into the human hearts just like how a dog may attack when he sense fear in a man.

4 comments:

blog-girl said...

So are they harmful to human beings?

Anonymous said...

If tou cannot see them, are you able to communicate with them?
why or why not?

Jops said...

Able to be good or evil, but always whispering evil thoughts into their humans? Sounds pretty clear cut if that's the case.

Islamic witch doctors communicate with Jinn through meditation...so I've been told. But less equal to humans more same fabric as God. Power over reality through being part of the grand soup, able to change ones luck.

The evil whispers idea is probably due to older practices (shaman, witch doctors etc) being illegal in Muslim countries. So a big label of 'devils work' for communicating with Jinn is comparable to traditional beliefs in Christian countries getting the same treatment when the church moved in.

yok said...

actually djinn and devil are different beings coming from same race. devils are dark and always bad, trying to make people bad things, disobey god. djinn may be good or bad; or sometimes good sometimes bad like human beings. very bad djinns become devil but there are very good djinns too. djinns have free will to make good or bad and they will be questioned after their death. devils will live until judgement day but djinns were born, live long and die like human beings. human being lives like 70-100 years, djinns live a couple of thousand years!