Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
They had consensus in Iman that the Shaytan causes the children of Adam, touches them, possesses them, causes them to have insanity. As from the Sultan of Allah, from the authority of Allah, as he wills and however he wills. Ibn al-Munayya also mentioned, وَاعْتِقَادُ السَّلَفِ وَأَهْلِ السُّنَّةِ أَنَّ هَذِي الْأُمُورَ عَلَى حَقَائِقِهَا وَاقِعَةٌ كَمَا أَخْبَرَ الشَّرْعُ عَنْهَا These matters that the Salaf and Ahlul Sunnah, they had consensus that these are real things that happen.
And they happen the way that the Shari'ah, the way that Allah Azawajal and the Shari'ah tells us they happen. وَمِن ذَلِكَ السِّحْرِ وَخَبْطَةُ الشَّيْطَانِ From that is magic and the possession of the Shaytan. Shaykh al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah he said, وَجُودَ الْجِنِّ ثَابِتٌ بِكِتَابِ اللَّهِ وَسُنَّةِ الرَّسُولِهِ وَاتِّفَاقِ سَلَفِ الْأُمَّةِ وَأَئِمَّتِهَا كَذَلِكَ دُخُولَ الْجِنِّ فِي بَدَنَ الْإِنسَانِ ثَابِتٌ بِاتِّفَاقِ أَئِمَّةِ أَهْلِ السُّنَّةِ وَالْجَمَاعِ He said, the existence of the jinn is proven by the book of Allah and the Sunnah and the agreement of the Salaf of the Ummah and their Imams.
And likewise, the jinn entering into the body of the person is proven by the agreement of Ahlul Sunnah wal-Jama'ah. He also said, وَلَيْسَ فِي أَئِمَّةِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ مِن يُنكِرِ دُخُولَ الْجِنِّ فِي بَدَنَ الْمُصْرُوعِ وَمَنْ أَنْكَرَ ذَلِكَ وَادْدَعَ أَنَّ الشَّرَعُ يُكَذِّبُ ذَلِكَ فَقَدْ كَذَبَ عَلَى الشَّرَعِ وَلَيْسَ فِي الْأَدِلَّةِ الشَّرْعِيَ مَا يَنْفِي ذَلِكَ He said, that there is none of the Imams of the Muslims who deny that the jinn enter the body of the person who is afflicted. And whoever denies this and claims that the Sharia denies this has lied against the Sharia.
Because there is nothing in the evidences of the Sharia that deny this. He also said, وَقَدِ اتَّفَقَ عَلَيْهِ أَئِمَّةُ الْإِسْلَامِ كَمَا اتَّفَقُ عَلَى وُجُودِ الْجِنِّ He said that Imams of Islam agreed upon this like they agreed upon the existence of the jinn. He then said, وَلِهَذَا أَنْكَرَ طَائِفَ مِنَ الْمُعْتَزِلَ He said, there is a group of the Mu'tazila who denied this.
And he mentioned Juba'i and he mentioned Abu Bakr Ar-Razi. And that's why I have a doubt about Fakhr al-Din Ar-Razi. Because Fakhr al-Din Ar-Razi, his Madhhab, his Madhhab al-Aqadi is well known.
And it's very surprising to see him deny this. And I wonder whether there, and I would have to go back to that court. But I wonder whether the court was supposed to be from Abu Bakr Ar-Razi.
Which is who Shaykh al-Islam al-Taymiyyah mentions. وَغَيْرِهِمَا دُخُولَ الْجِنِّ فِي بَدَنَ الْمَصْرُوعِ Then he said, وَلِهَذَا ذَكَرَ الْعَشَرِي فِي مِقَالَاتَ أَهْلِ السُّنَّةِ He mentions the court of al-Ashari. وَقَالَ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بِنْ أَحْمَدِ بِنْ حَمْضَلِ قُلْتُ لِي أَبِي And Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal said, I said to my father, إِنَّ قَوْمًا يَزْعُمُونَ أَنَّ الْجِنِّ لَا يَدْخُلُ فِي بَدَنَ الْإِنسِ There are some people who have the false impression that the jinn doesn't enter the body of a man.
فَقَالَ يَا بُنَي يَكْذِبُونَ He said, oh my son they are lying. هو ذا يَتَكَلِّمُ عَلَى يَسَانِ He is the one who speaks upon that person. Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal.
We still have more. Just one point I just want to mention here as well. It's a side benefit.
Some people, they might bring this as a contention. They might say that Imam Ahmad's quote was mentioned by Ibn Taymiyyah. Okay, that's a bias of you guys to do that.
No, it's actually been transmitted by Ibn Hajar al-Haythi, may Allah have mercy on him, as well. Who doesn't necessarily agree with Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah on many issues. So he transmitted the statement of Imam Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him.
I think you might have the quote of what he said. He said that this is the Madhab of Ahlul Sunnah. After he put the statement of Imam Ahmad.
He said, فَدُخُولُهُ فِي بَدَنِهِ وَمَذْهَبُ أَهْلِ السُّنَّةِ وَالجَمَعَةِ This is Ibn Hajar al-Haythi, he is in Al-Fatawa al-Hadithiyya. مُحِدِّين شيخ زاد, he said, إِنَّ أَهْلِ السُّنَّةِ يَعْتَقِدُونَ بِأَنَّ الشَّيْطَانِ يَمُسَّ الْإِنسَانُ وَيَتَخَبَّطُهُ وَيُسَبِّبُ لَهُ الْجُنُونَ وَأَنَّ لَهُ تَأْثِيرًا فِي بَعْضِ أَجْسَامِ النَّسِ He said, أَهْلِ السُّنَّةِ believe, they have the aqeedah that the Shaytan touches a person and causes him insanity, and makes him to go crazy, makes him go insane, and that he has an effect on some people's bodies. We mentioned Ibn Hajar al-Haythami.
Al-Alusi also mentions, وَإِعْتِقَاتُ السَّلَفُ وَأَهْلِ السُّنَّةِ أَنَّمَا دَلَّتْ عَلَيْهِ أُمُورٌ حَقِيقَةٌ وَاقِعَةٌ He said, the belief of the Salaf and Ahlul Sunnah is that what this indicates, this ayah indicates, is a reality which actually happens. And then he mentions the people who make ta'weel of it. He said that nobody made ta'weel of it, إِلَّا الْمُعْتَزِلَ وَمَنْ هَذَا هَذْوَهُمْ The people who followed them.
وَبِذَلِكَ وَنَحْنُ خَرَجُوا عَنْ قَوَاعِدِ الشَّرَعِ الْقَوِيمِ فَاحْظَرُوا قَاتَلَهُمُ اللَّهُ أَنَّا يُؤْثَكُونَ He said nobody take this false interpretation except the Mu'tazila and those who followed them. And by this they went out of the principles of the Sharia. So be careful of them.
قَاتَلَهُمُ اللَّهُ أَنَّا يُؤْثَكُونَ قَاتَلَهُمُ اللَّهُ أَنَّا يُؤْثَكُونَ May Allah fight them. How they were deceived. And Siddiq Hasan Khan, he also narrated with regard to this, he said وَمِنْ خَلْقِ اللَّهِ الشَّيَاطِينِ وَلَهُمْ لَمَّةُ شَرٍّ لِبْنِ آدَمٍ They have a possession that they cause to the children of Adam.
وَتَصَرُّوا فِيهِمْ وَتَجْرِي مِنْ إِبْنِ آدَمٍ مَجْرَ الدَّمِ And that they flow through the person like the blood. وَنَقَلَ غَيْرُ وَاحِدِ اتِّفَاقُ أَهْلِ الْعِلْمِ عَلَىٰ ذَلِكِ And more than one person narrated the agreement of all of the people of knowledge on this. These are quotes after quotes after quotes bringing us consensus on the issue.
There's one point I want us to really focus on. Is that the ijma' here is that the jinn can enter the human body. And there's also an ijma' on the ayah of أَلَّذِينَ يَأْكُلُونَ الرِّبَىٰ لَا يَقُومُونَ إِلَّا كَمَا يَقُومُونَ لَذِي اتْخَبَّطُوا الشَّيْطَانُ مِنَ الْمَسْرِ So we have that this ayah, this is what it means.
You can't give me any other interpretation. And also the aqwal of the immatu of Islam of different backgrounds. It's not just Ibn Taymiyyah and his madhab that some may try to say.
It's actually something that Ibn Taymiyyah was preceded in. And Imam Ahmed said it. مُفَسِّرِينَ of the Qur'an.
The scholars who've done tasteer of the Qur'an. The exegesis of the Qur'an. The scholars who explained Bukhari and Muslim and Abu Dawood and Tirmidhi and Ibn Umar and Nasa'i.
If we sat down to really read the course of all of the ulema and some Sheikh Muhammad has. It's enough to make the whole halaqa just based on quotes. Finish next quote, next quote.
But there is something I wanted to bring to the table. Just to get this issue a bit going to another direction as well. That is the ayah الذين يأكلون الربع لا يقومون إلا كما يقوم الذين يتخططوا الشيطان من المس An i'tirad was brought by a group of people of course.
They said that this ayah can be opposed by. What are you trying to say? Are you trying to say that the person who's possessed in this dunya is equivalent. I mean the way that the person who the jinn enters him in his dunya.
And the way that the jinn possesses him. That's similar to how it's going to be for the one who eats riba. The day of judgment.
So we're saying that this ayah is talking about something which is seen. Which is the jinn possession in this world. It's something which is seen.
And the one who eats riba or takes riba is going to be like that the day of judgment. They put an i'tirad of the ayah and surahs of that of course. Probably known to you sheikh.
That Allah Ta'ala he says طَلْعُهَا كَأَنَّهُ رُؤُسُ الشَّيَاطِينَ That the jahannam when Allah is talking about إِنَّهَا شَجَرَةٌ تَخْلُجُ فِي أَصْلِ الْجَحِيمِ طَلْعُهَا كَأَنَّهُ رُؤُسُ الشَّيَاطِينَ When Allah is talking about the tree in jahannam. He mentions that the tamara The branches and the seeds that come from this tree. It's like the head of the shayateen.
And no one has actually seen a shayateen. It's not something we've seen. So the jinn possession also is something that's not seen.
It doesn't exist. We've not seen it. How do we respond to that ayah in this particular issue? I'm taking your role.
Here though, I think what you said was very profound. Something not seen and something that doesn't exist are two different things. That's in one valley and that's in another.
Something that's not seen versus something that doesn't exist. To me here, رُؤُسُ الشَّيَاطِينَ shayateen exist. شَيَاطِينَ لَهُمْ رُؤُسُ They have heads.
It's something that exists. Likewise, the scholars of tafsir is enough to finish the argument. But before that, the whole issue of this تَخَبُّطْ مِنَ الْمَسْ is something which exists.
It's not something which doesn't exist. Something that has an existence as we've proven from the statements of the scholars of tafsir, from the ahadith that came, confirming that and approving that and then some of the other ayat which indicate it as well. So here, the fact that it is something that exists and the fact that it's something that is known to people, it's not a comparison you're making of something that nobody has any idea what it is.
Even to the point that people described it. Even to the point when we quoted Ibn Hazm with that issue of المُشَاهَدَة is something that people see with their own eyes. And the shari'ah doesn't require us to deny what our own eyes see, especially when it's supported by ijma'at.
Perhaps you have more to add to that. Yeah, I mean we have to understand this Qur'an and the sunnah is in the Arabic language. Allah says وَإِنَّهُ لَتَنْزِيلُ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ نَزَلَ بِهِ الرُّوحُ الْأَمِينُ عَلَىٰ قَلْبِكَ لِتَكُونَ مِنَ الْمُنذِرِينَ بِرِسَانٍ عَرَبِيٍّ مُبِينٍ The Qur'an is in the Arabic language.
And so when an ayah comes like that, we have to go back to, of course, the akhwal of the mufassireen and what they said and also be deeply rooted in understanding the Arabic language. What has taken place here الَّذِينَ يَأْكُلُونَ الْرِبَىٰ لَا يَقُومُونَ إِلَّا كَمَا يَقُومُوا الَّذِي يَتَخَبَّطُوا الشَّيَطَانِ The ayah, sorry, not the ayah. The ayah طَلْعُوهَا كَأَنَّهُ رُؤُسُ الشَّيَاطِينِ This ayah.
What's taking place here is something known as tashbih. Allah Ta'ala is comparing two things. And there's a science referred to as علم البلاغة which is eloquency.
And that science, they say it breaks into three branches. It breaks into علم البيان علم البديع and علم المعاني And great scholars have written books on it. One of the greatest books that are written in it is the كتاب عقود الجرمان by جلال الدين السورطي A Thousand-Line Poetry on بلاغة This issue of tashbih, comparing two things with one another falls under علم البيان علم البيان is broken into three as well.
It's التشبيه, الاستعارة, and الكناية تشبيه is one of the three in علم البيان which is comparing two things together. And there's four pillars that has مشبه والمشبه بي وادات التشبيه ووجه الشبه These are the four things in summary. Anyways, Allah Ta'ala here is comparing شجرة الزقوم as comparing it to رؤوس الشياطين So the اعتراض here, the opposition, the contention here is that رؤوس الشياطين is something which is not seen.
Sheikh Muhammad mentioned it. Not seen doesn't mean it doesn't exist. That's a very strong point.
That's one. Secondly, is this something that was known by the Arabs? Is this something they did? Is this a way they used to talk? Or is this randomly the Quran is the only one that uses it like this? But the way he describes it with the fangs of a ghul A ghul is not something the Arabs have actually seen. So the تشبيه here, the ayahs using Here I just want to mention that the ghul is one of the types of the jinn.
One of the things we didn't cover earlier on which I just had a few notes on The names are different The different names of the jinn But just very briefly Ibn Abdul Bar mentions some of the names of the jinn. He said وَالْجِنُ عِنْدَ أَهْلِ الْكَلَامِ وَأَهْلِ الْعِلْمِ بِاللِّسَانِ يَنسِلُونَ عَلَى مَرَاتِبٍ There's different levels of the jinn. فَإِذَا ذَكَرُوا وَاحِبُ مِنَ الْجِنِّ خَالِسًا قَالُوا جِنِّي If they just mention one of them They would say it's a jinn.
وَإِذَا رَادُوا أَنَّهُ مِمَّن يَسْكُنُ مَعَ النَّاسِ قَالُوا عَامِرٍ If they say he's one of the jinn that live with people, they call him Aamir. Then he said وَإِنْ كَانَ مِمَّن يَعْرِضُ لِلصِّبْيَانِ قَالُوا أَرْوَاحٍ That if he's one of the ones that displays himself in front of children and makes the children scared They used to call him Arwah. فَإِنْ خَبُثَ وَتَعَرَّمَ فَهُوَ شَيْطَانٍ If he becomes obstructive and evil and filthy, then they call it Shaytan.
فَإِنْ زَادَ عَلَى ذَلِكَ فَهُوَ مَارِدٍ Anything more than that, they would call it Marid. Shaytanun Marid. And anything more than that, they would call it Ifrit.فَإِنْ زَادَ عَلَى ذَلِكَ وَقَوِيَ أَمْرُهُ قَالُوا عِفْرِتٍ They would say they're Ifrit. And from the Marasil of Al-Hassan ibn Muhammad is that he mentioned here: وَلَا صَفَرَ وَلَا غُول وَلَكِنِ السَّعَالِ So, from the other three names that we had is Al-Ghul, The Ghul, and they believe that it takes people away from the road and causes people to become lost and die in the desert. And Al-Sa'ali, which Al-Khattabi said about Al-Sa'ali: سَحَرَةُ الْجِنِّ The jinn that perform sihr (magic). So, these are all names of the jinn that existed. But do you know that the jinns do snatch people? That’s authentically transmitted in our texts. Snatch in what sense? What do you mean by snatch? Bayhaqi narrated in his Sunan in the time of Umar (R.A.) with an authentic chain, that during the time of Umar (R.A.), a man was away from his wife for four years. The woman kept waiting, waiting, waiting, and asking, "Where is my husband? Where is my husband? Where is my husband?" And he never came. Umar (R.A.) said, "Wait, wait!" Four years passed, and when it reached that time, he said, "Now you can go and get married." Soon as she got married, after a while her husband came back and said, "Where were you? Where did you go?" He said, "I got snatched by a group of jinns. They snatched me and took me. I was arrested and kept by a group of them. Allah made them fight one another. They fought among themselves, and I was saved by the ones who took over, and they let me go." This is even transmitted in the texts of the Kutub al-Sunnah. For example, the jinns that came to the Prophet (S.A.W.), Jinnat al-Nasibin—they're the best jinns, the most honorable jinns mentioned by the Prophet (S.A.W.). When they came to the Prophet (S.A.W.), the Sahabahs first said, "The Prophet (S.A.W.) went missing, we couldn't find him." We thought to ourselves that he got snatched by the ghul and the jinns. They snatched him. Then the Prophet (S.A.W.) returned and said, "I had a constitution with Jinnat al-Nasibin." And the ayah I'm thinking of is the narration: إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ يَنْتَشِرُ وَيَخْتَفِ The shaytan spreads out at the time of Maghrib and snatches people. I do have a question on the line of poetry you mentioned because you said, "When we were talking about the ayah Tala'uha kainnahu ru'usu shayateen," it still exists. And again, you said the ghul is something that exists. Do the fangs of the ghul exist? That's my question. I mean, first of all, there were those people who, when they commented on this, said that the ghul here is comparing it to the fangs of a snake because, in the first place, that's the appearance they believed it took. The ghul takes the appearance of a snake. Not only did many of them claim to have seen the ghul—whether that be true or not—but it was something well-known among them, among the Jahili Arabs. They had an understanding of it. Like ru'usu shayateen, it was an image that was not unknown to people. It's something that they had an understanding of. Ibn Abd al-Hamani mentions they saw the jinn, which is right—they did. They saw it, not in its original form. But the ghul they're referring to is what we believe: the jinn can change form. It can become a wasp, a snake, or other creatures. So, what they saw—and Sheikh may we mention from the Sunnah, from the hadith of Abu Hurayra, for example, regarding the sadaqa when the Prophet said: This is the shaytan—we have other hadith, we have the ayat in Surah al-Anfal, in the battle of Suraqa ibn Malik in Jurshan. When he started to yell out and pretend to be him, there are many nusus. And this Suraqa ibn Malik coming in the form. We have the hadith regarding the snakes in Medina: Indeed, in Medina, there are jinn among them. So, if you want, give them three days of warning. These are all from the evidences that it's not something we're just coming up with. The jinn have the ability to change forms. Sorry, Sheikh, I interrupted you. I just wanted to make that clear. It's not something you just came up with right now. It's the concept that now Masha'Allah points you out. But I was very concerned because I thought people might think right now that this idea of coming into a form—subhanAllah—some scholars actually believe that it’s actually a tree that they believed existed. The tree was called... The tree was called... The point is, Allah is talking to them by telling them: The way that people perceive shaytan is something ugly. If you told somebody, "Draw a picture of shaytan right now," they'd draw the ugliest thing ever. And people think of angels as beautiful creations. Allah says in the Qur'an: مَا لِهَذَا بَشَرٌ إِنْ هَذَا إِلَّا مَلَكٌ كَرِيمٌ This is not a human being; this is an angel—not just any angel, by the way: ملَكٌ كَرِيمٌ. So, this is an idea that's stuck in people's minds: that the shayatin are ugly, and the jinn are beautiful. When Allah says: طَلْعُوهَا كَأَنَّهُ رُؤُوسُ الشَّيَاطِين The angels, Allah Ta'ala here is trying to tell them that the ugliness of Shajarat al-Zaqqum—how ugly it is and the way it looks. I want to move away from the evidences now and start talking about the implications of that. Did you get the point about the fangs of the wolf? If they compare it to the fangs of a snake— Even in the hadith in Sahih Muslim from the hadith of Abu Sa'id Khudri regarding the jinn of Medina: Give him a warning for three days. If it appears to you after that, then kill it, for it is a shaytan. So, this is also not something that was imaginary. What Ibn Khaith is mentioning is something that they had a clear idea of what it meant—even though I do think that that argument in the first place is not really needed to prove the point because the point can be proved through the ijma' (consensus), through the ahadith, the ayat, and through the scholars of tafsir and their ijma' on the meaning of the ayat. But just as a sort of point of benefit or a secondary point, just to further clarify... It’s not known in the Arabic language at that time, in the Qur'an, or outside the Qur'an, that ever would a comparison be made for something that doesn’t exist. I think it's a big statement to say never in the Arabic language, and I don't think we need to say that. I think we can simply say that it’s not in Surah al-Baqarah or Surah As-Safa. It's very clear what the intended meaning is, and that has been explained very clearly. Even in the example that we gave of Ibn Khaith and his poetry, it's also extremely clear what it's meant to be. And it's clear that it's something that exists and not something that doesn't. But the entire Arabic language—that's a big statement to make. And also, I just wanted to add on that: If we say that, for example, it’s something that's not known, Allah is just talking, but it doesn’t—there is just nothing we don’t know.
Then a concept that goes against what we believe is that the Quran can't just have words that have no meaning, words that we can't connect to or understand. The Quran has every word, and everything in the Quran has a meaning. Some meanings we know, and some we don't, but that doesn't mean it has no meaning. وَمَا بِهِ اسْتَأْثَرَ عِلْمُ الْخَالِقِ فَذَا تَشَابُونَ عَلَيْهِ أَقْلَقِ There are some things in the Quran that we look at and say, "You know, مِمَّا اسْتَأْثَرَ اللَّهُ بِعِلْمِ" (Allah kept this knowledge for Himself). But the other remaining verses in the Quran are of the category of تَشَابُهِيَة. It's تَشَابُهُ نِسْبِي — a group of people know, and a group of people don't know. So the word is known to us, and we understand what it means.
And the poet said, they can't come in the revelation as حَشْو (something that has no meaning, something that's just tossed away or abandoned). We don't have that in the text. Everything has a meaning.
And that's very relevant when we talk about the ayah in Surah Al-Baqarah. It's not just تَقَبَّطُوا الشَّيْطَانُ مِنَ الْمَسْرِ. It's not something that has no meaning — it's something real. It has meaning to us. We understand it, we can relate to it, and we can see these people the way they are. No one wants to be like that.
There are many ayat where Allah says: يَا إِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنَّ زَلْزَلَتَ السَّاعَةِ شَيْءٌ عَظِيمٌ يَوْمَ تَرَوْنَهَا تَسْهَلُ كُلُّ مُرْضِعَةٍ أَمَّا أَرْطَاطُ وَتَضَعُوا كُلُّ ذَاتِ حَمْلٍ حَمْلَهَا وَتَرَى النَّاسَ سُكَارًا وَمَا هُمْ سُكَارًا وَلَكِنَّ عَذَابَ اللَّهِ شَدِيدٌ
This describes the severity of the Day of Judgment, how people will be like the drunk, with mothers experiencing miscarriages. We all know what a miscarriage is. We know how drunk people behave: they can't stand up, they fall over, and they stagger. On the Day of Judgment, the people will be like that. Now, we're scared because we understand what it is.
Possession is something no one wants. We can see how it makes a person behave. So, if you engage in riba (usury), that's how you'll seem on the Day of Judgment. We need to be scared and stay away from major sins.
One of the benefits I took from Ibn Al-Qayyim is that he mentions the relationship between jinn possession and sinning. Riba is one of the major sins, and the concept of jinn possession is interconnected with sin. When a person puts their guard down, doesn't protect themselves, doesn't do their adkar, and doesn't do what is needed from them, this opens the door for possession in this dunya. Ibn Al-Qayyim says that riba is a representation of major sins, and jinn possession in this world is also a consequence of sin.
إِلَّا مَنَ اتَّبَعَكَ مِنَ الْغَاوِينَ إِلَّا مَنَ اتَّبَعَكَ مِنَ الْغَاوِينَ Those who follow you and those who go under you, shaytan now has control over them. What he wants to do to them and how he wants to treat them is under his control.
I do want to talk about some of the implications of jinn possession existing in the world. You mentioned that the jinn, like human beings, are mukallaf (accountable for their actions), meaning that we're held accountable for what we do. How do we reconcile this? How can I be held accountable for all of my actions and, at the same time, say that someone else can take control of my body and possibly help me or guide me to do actions that I don't really want to do in the first place?
I think we’ve probably touched upon that quite well before. And I think there are probably two things, in summary, we can say here. First of all, we can say that the standard or the norm in jinn possession is not that the person is affected 24 hours a day. From a pure experience point of view, it’s just not the case that people become 100% zombies walking around the earth with no concept of what they’re doing or where they’ve gone. That, if it exists, is extremely rare. It’s nadir. It’s not something that’s the norm.
The second point that we mentioned, backing up that statement, is the hadith of Uthman ibn Affan, where something appeared to him during his salah. That’s the norm. Now, if we say that this exists — that there are some people who are 24/7 in a state of no consciousness about what they are doing — then surely those people fall under the hadith we talked about. The hadith of Aisha, which is also narrated from Ali ibn Abi Talib, is in the four sunan (narrations from one or the other). The pen is lifted from three people. That’s something normal, even in cases where we’re not talking about jinn possession.
We have many situations like this. For example, it's mentioned in a future episode of Abu Sa’id al-Khudri regarding a person who was afflicted by insanity. Insanity, which can happen due to medical or psychological reasons, doesn’t have an issue with taklif (accountability) in Islam. The sharia (Islamic law) accounts for individuals who may be insane, whether due to medical issues or psychological problems, either temporarily or permanently. This is addressed in the sharia, which has rules and systems for handling a person who is not in full possession of their faculties. This doesn’t cause a problem with medical insanity, psychological issues, or jinn possession either.
There is another ayah (verse) around the same topic where Allah says that no one will bear the burden of someone else’s actions. This makes perfect sense, especially in the context of the Day of Judgment. The shaitan will take account for what he did, but the extent to which you followed or listened to him, or resisted, you will also be held accountable for. You won’t be held accountable for what the shaitan did. But my question is: what about in this dunya (world)?
For example, if the shaitan has a certain level of possession over me and makes me murder someone, will I be held accountable for that in the court of law? I would say that it depends, firstly, on the court of law, but more importantly, there is no real tangible difference between insanity, regardless of the cause. If someone has a mental breakdown and reaches a point where they’re no longer conscious of what they’re doing and kill someone, Islam accounts for that. I don’t see a real issue with this. If you have an issue with this, then you’d need to have an equal issue with someone who does the same thing under the influence of any form of insanity. For example, if someone’s drugs are secretly put into their coffee and they go out and commit an action they normally wouldn’t do, the alternative cause doesn’t really matter. The issue here is that the sharia has a proper system in place to judge and account for actions done by a person under their own free will and volition.
We’ve talked about al-‘aql (intellect) and irada (will) in previous discussions. When these faculties are compromised, the sharia has a separate way of looking at the situation. If we have an issue with this in the case of jinn possession, we should have an equal issue with other medical and psychological issues that result in the same effect. Ultimately, it depends on which court you end up in, in all honesty.
For example, if a person who is madrun (insane) goes and drives a car and kills someone, the sharia is not going to say, “The pen is lifted from him.” It’s not going to say, “He’s insane, so no responsibility.” No, the person is still required to pay the blood money (diya). If the family of the victim is wealthy or if the person who caused the death has money inherited or available, that money will be taken to compensate for the person who was killed. This is the same, regardless of the cause of insanity — whether from jinn possession or any other reason.
It’s not that those people’s wealth is taken away, but the responsibility for the harm caused still exists. This applies to all forms of insanity or lack of mental capacity, whether due to jinn possession or any other medical or psychological condition.
You also touched on the issue of mental health. Are we saying that every time someone experiences a loss of mental state, it’s jinn possession?
Let me quote you from Imam Ibn Qayyim. He said there are two types of, I'm going to use the word epilepsy for now as an easy word, but you know fainting, fitting. There are two types of fitting. He said there are two types of fitting: a fitting that comes from the evil, the khabeeth souls, the jinn that live on the earth, and a fitting which comes from akhlaq, a person's, would you say natural processes, something like that, the natural components of the person's body not functioning properly, they’re radia, they’re not like, they’re poor, they’re not functioning properly.
As for the second one, that comes from a breakdown of bodily functions, this is the one that the doctors speak about. As for the fitting that is caused by the jinn, the imams of the doctors and the intelligent ones among them, they admit that it comes from the jinn, he said later on. But the doctors who were zanadika, you know, they were heretics, they’re heretic doctors, they came along, they only affirmed the fitting which happens because of the body alone.
He said whoever has any brain, any intellect, and knows the situation of these souls, these jinn, and how they affect people, laughs at the ignorance of these people and the weakness of their minds. It’s actually, the shaykh is clearly saying there are a group of people who would say anyone who comes to them with the illness, it’s mental health issues, modern-day everything is a mental health issue, bipolar, that’s the name that’s coined for it, there’s the other one called schizophrenia. These are the things that you’re suffering from. They coined it. If you actually look at the definitions that are given each word, it’s actually, we don’t know your illness, let’s just coin a term for it sometimes. Let’s just coin a term, we don’t know what it is. It’s a mental health issue and let’s just help you.
I’ll be very honest with you. I was having a discussion with family members, I was saying the concept of depression, it’s become a mental health issue now. So where does stress and sabr and endurance and hardship, where, how does this work with depression being a mental health issue now? Do you see my point? And anxiety and all these terms, I’m not undermining it. I’m not saying that it doesn’t exist. I’m not firming or negating it. Has science not proved that you can get chemical imbalances in the brain? I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t have an issue with saying that that exists. But the underlying cause, let’s just take depression. Depression as a, we have a lot of words for sadness. We have al-huzn and al-hazn and we have al-hamm and al-ghamm and we have a lot of different words for sadness that are used within the Quran and the sunnah. But here, there are so many underlying causes. What’s the underlying cause of those chemical imbalances in the brain? Is the underlying cause of that from the jinn? Is the underlying cause of that some personal experiences? Is the underlying cause of that something that Allah decreed without a sabab that we can know of?
At the end of the day, we’re not denying that there is such a thing as bipolar, for example, as a concept. When we’re asking the question, how many of those cases underlying that case is an issue with the jinn that can be seen, that can be brought out, that can be understood? And how many times is it a regular case that requires a large-scale study and data that we don’t really have access to? But the point is that we affirm, like Ibn al-Qayyim said, that there are two types of fitting. One that comes from a breakdown in the body, the organs and so on are not functioning properly, and the other one comes from the jinn and the arwah al-khabitha. Whoever says that all of it comes from nothing more than just your body not handling something or not processing something properly, like Ibn al-Qayyim said, whoever knows about this in reality yadhak min jahl hawla (laughs at the ignorance of these people).
Okay, I’ve got two more issues and I just want to wrap up this issue. The first is that we know that shaytan, his number one goal is to misguide us. If he has the ability to possess us, to do more than whisper to us, why doesn’t he just possess everybody and anybody and just misguide us and shape us?
I think what you mentioned earlier, the very beginning, and I’ll go right back to the very beginning, and I spoke very briefly about the ghayb. And the shaykh had a couple of extra points. We talked about the qadr of Allah. At the end of the day, let’s just take one example: وَمَا هُم بِضَارِّينَ بِهِ مِنْ أَحَدٍ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ (They cannot harm anyone except by the permission of Allah). That is His permission, which is His qadr, which He has decreed for a wisdom, حِكْمَةٌ بَالِغَةٌ (an infinite wisdom) that is with Him, subhanahu wa ta’ala.
At the end of the day, no one can carry out any kind of action or make any kind of decision unless Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala decrees for that to happen. So ultimately, this idea that the shaytan has a free reign to just possess anyone whenever he wants, that also goes against وَمَا كَانَ لِي عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْ سُلْطَانِ (I had no authority over you). The shaytan doesn’t have the choice. And notice, I love that expression, and I don’t know if we picked it up when we were quoting the ijma on this issue, that the way they quote the expression بِسُلْطَانِ اللَّهِ (by the authority of Allah), that it wasn’t by the sultan of the jinn that that person became possessed, but it was by the sultan of Allah, by Allah’s qadr and Allah’s decree that that person became possessed. And not that the jinn just has a free reign to choose, let me possess, Otherwise, he would have possessed everyone on the face of the earth. I mean, your question is like, why don’t serial killers kill every single person? There are days they don’t want to kill people. The thing the shaykh mentioned as well is that it’s like the hadith of the Prophet: وَاعْلَمْ أَنَّ الْأُمَّةَ لَوِ اجْتَمَعُوا عَلَىٰ أَنْ يَنْفَعُوكَ بِشَيْءٍ لَمْ يَنْفَعُوكَ إِلَّا بِشَيْءٍ قَدْ كَتَبَهُ اللَّهُ لَكَ وَإِنْ اجْتَمَعُوا عَلَىٰ أَنْ يَضُرُّوكَ بِشَيْءٍ لَمْ يَضُرُّوكَ إِلَّا بِشَيْءٍ قَدْ كَتَبَهُ اللَّهُ لَكَ رُفِعَتِ الْأَقَلَامُ وَجَفَّتِ السُّحُفُ. Everything happens بِمَشْيِئَةِ اللَّهِ وَقَدَرِهِ (by the will of Allah and His decree). No one can harm you except if it’s written for you, and no one can benefit you unless it’s also written for you.
So, some of the scholars, they go into the concept of: Can the Shaytan change forms as he wishes? Or is it something that happens on occasional times for him? Allah has spoken about these things, by the way. It’s not like you just become a snake or an old man begging you. Also, these things don’t happen because you would see jinns just popping up every day into our lives and doing things. All of these things are things we don’t yet understand, and insha’Allah, maybe the Day of Judgment we might come to see all of these, how they’re happening. We believe in the ghayb as it was told to us from the Qur’an and the Sunnah and what the Ummah agreed upon and had ijma’ upon. That’s what we have. We don’t have more than that.
I think it’s been a very beneficial episode. I just want to wrap up by asking some closing questions. So you mentioned, obviously, that you brought a lot of evidences for the plausibility and the existence of jinn possession. My question, I suppose, is: What advice would you give to somebody right now who is maybe going through jinn possession themselves?
Okay, I think it’s very important to understand that there is no illness and no sickness except that Allah azawajal has given us a cure for it, and Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has given us something that we can use to cure it. And since the jinn are from the world of the unseen, in general, we need a cure that also comes from that, from the things that are from the ghayb, from the unseen, from Allah’s revelation. And it is true that you can use some medical means, some things that fall under the topic of medicine, but in general, what is going to be effective for someone who is suffering from this is for them to go to al-ruqya sharia (Islamic spiritual healing). I know that’s another topic, it’s a big topic. Allah azawajal said: وَنَزَّلْنَا مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ مَا هُوَ شِفَاءٌ وَرَحْمَةٌ لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ (We sent down from the Qur’an that which is a cure and a mercy for the believers). So we’re going to talk about it in more detail. It’s a shifa, and at the end of the day, a person needs to turn to Allah azawajal. We talked about how the Shaytan’s control over a person is connected to their sins. So, tawba and turning to Allah, tawba and dua, قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ النَّاسِ قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ الْفَلَقِ (Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind, I seek refuge in the Lord of the dawn), asking Allah to give you safety and refuge and protection from the evil that He created, from the jinn, from the men, from the people who blow, the women who blow on the knots, from the evil of the envier. All of these are evils that are related to evils of the jinn. Even the evil of the darkness, when it spreads, when the darkness spreads at Maghrib, you have the intishar (dispersal) of the Shayateen (devils). The darkness in the night of the month, where there is no moon, where you have the time of the sahara and the magicians. These are all related to this. Asking Allah azawajal for refuge, proper ruqya sharia, as is evidenced by the Qur’an and by the Sunnah of the Prophet. That is definitely a big topic for next time, for sure.
This is something I know that you're involved in in your personal life. You’ve been doing it for many years, helping people overcome these problems. From your experience, not necessarily from the evidences, are there any kind of sins that you see from the people that are more likely to result in jinn possession?
I think every sin that a person does has a potential to cause damage to their heart and a potential to distance them from Allah azawajal and to cause the Shayateen to have control over them. But the greater those sins are, the more likely it is. And I want to go back to what Ikrimah said when he said: كان الجن يفرقون من الإنس (The jinn used to be scared of people). But what did the people used to say? The people of Sayyidul Qawm used to come, and he used to say: نعوذ بسيدي هذا الوادي (We seek refuge). And seeking, he used to seek help from the jinn and refuge from the jinn and support from the jinn. Then they caused them insanity and possession. So, here you see that one of the greatest ones has to be things relating to Tawheed and shirk. When the army marched into the valley, the jinn fled. When the army started making shirk with Allah azawajal and calling upon the jinn for refuge, the jinn started to afflict them. That’s one set of things. But also, a person being far away from the adhkar, far away from the means of protection, the taqwa, the salah which protects them, the adhkar in the morning and the evening, and before they go to sleep, before they go in the bathroom, and before intimacy, and so on...
These are all things where there is a danger of the Shaykh becoming, touching, and affecting a person. So, for a person to be a person of Tawheed—and remember, Tawheed is the greatest thing which protects a person—safety, security, and guidance are for the people of Tawheed. The people who don't mix up their belief with making a partner with Allah azawajal. The prayer, the taqwa, keeping away from the haram, being strict on the adhkar, having that relationship and reciting the Qur'an, these are all things which, if a person does them, they drive away the Shayateen. And if a person is far away from those things, then the person becomes at risk of being touched by the Shayateen.
You can add to that only that perhaps going and the person mixing in with the Shayateen, that could be through certain actions like an attraction to things like magic, or Ouija boards, foolish things, card tricks, and things like that which involve the Shayateen, and playing with the Shayateen and things like that. People going to haunted houses and places of the jinn and things like that. Also, this person should not blame anyone except themselves if they become afflicted by something, having put themselves at risk.
And if we ask Allah to keep us safe, we have to ask Him by our tongue, by our actions, and by our hearts. Because dhikr has to be with the heart, the tongue, and the limbs. So, the person's heart has to be sincere, asking Allah to protect them, and the tongue has to be asking Allah. But also, you can't then ask Allah, "Protect me from the jinn and the Shayateen," and then go to the places of the jinn and the Shayateen and start playing, trying to call them, and what have you.
So, these are some of the things that come to mind. There's something I wanted to also add to it, which the Sheikh mentioned. It’s that there’s a surah in the Qur’an called Surah al-Jinn. And subhanAllah, what is amazing is that in that surah, Allah talks about those points that the Sheikh mentioned, which is following Allah's commandments and staying away from that which He prohibited you from. Allah says in Surah al-Jinn, وَأَلَّوْا اِسْتَقَامُوا عَلَىٰ طَرِيقَةِ لَأَسْقِيْنَهُمْ مَاءً غَدَقًا (And if they were steadfast upon the path, Allah said, we will provide for them, we will send on them rains, which are big drops). Meaning, we will give them a lot of crops and fruits and give them a good life, basically. There’s a reflection—the rain is a reflection of what? A good life, healthy life.
Also, Allah says in that same surah, وَأَنَّ الْمَسَاجِدَ لِلَّهِ فَلَا تَدْعُوا مَعَ اللَّهِ أَحَدًا (And indeed, the mosques are for Allah, so do not invoke anyone along with Allah). Tawheed again. Don’t associate partners with Allah.
It’s also in that surah Allah says, عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ فَلَا يُذِرُ عَلَىٰ غَيْبِهِ أَحَدًا (He is the Knower of the unseen, and He does not disclose His knowledge of the unseen to anyone). Allah is the one who knows the unseen. The jinn are part of the unseen, but they don’t know the unseen. And it brings back to the ayah of Surah Saba, where Allah says, وَلَوْ كَانُوا يَعْلَمُونَ الْغَيْبَ لَمَا لَبِثُوا فِي الْعَذَابِ ٱلْمُهِينِ (And if they had known the unseen, they would not have remained in the severe punishment). That the jinn, when Suleiman died, it was said that he took a stick and he went into his room of worship. What he used to do is, he used to go into a khalwah and he used to worship Allah Ta'ala and come out, and this is what he used to do very often. This is what was said. And so they said one day, he knew he was going to die, the time of his death was close, and he wanted these people to work and not stop what they were doing. So, he took a stick that he... and then he placed it on his back and he stood up to pray and then he died on it. He died on it.
And then, what they say is that he stayed in that way until... what’s that thing that eats wood? Yeah, like the termite maybe, you know, the termite eats a large wooden wardrobe sometimes, and the dust is not seen. So back on this one, I used to ask, how did he eat all of that, and where’s the dust? They said the jinn comes and they work together now because they became friends after the issue of Suleiman. The jinn became close friends because he helped them; he was the one who exposed the situation to them.
I think it’s been a really comprehensive episode, and not just on jinn possession, but the jinn in general. I just want to thank you both for taking the time out. I hope you enjoyed the episode on jinn possession. Make sure you join us next week for another episode on the world of the unseen, where we’re going to be talking about magic, the evil eye, and ruqya. In the meantime, if you have any questions on anything that we’ve discussed today, as always, you can email us at questions@thehotseatpodcast.com. Until next time, Asalaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh.
