Are Jinn Real? Would You Trust a Genie? | Ep. 104
Welcome to Believing the Bizarre. This week, we discuss a very popular spirit (thanks to Disney, of course) that is very different than media portrays them. We are talking about Jinn.
Instead of the silly and funny genie that pops out of a lamp or Christina Aguilera’s hit song, Jinn are known to be very mischievous and potentially dangerous to humans.
But, are they real? Listen now!
What Are Jinn? Are Jinn Evil?
Can a lamp actually grant you wishes? Does a secret pocket world love next to ours?
What’s up Bizarros?! This week we dive into the myth and folklore of the Jinn.
This isn’t the big blue genie you’ve come to know from Aladdin. This is a much more ominous and threatening being. Let’s learn more about Jinn.
What is a jinni or jinn for plural?
Jinni is also commonly referred to as a genie.
They are not what they are portrayed as in Disney films. Actually, the idea that Disney would make such mean spirits the comic relief of a movie is ridiculous. Of course, after Will Smith slapped the sh!* out of Chris Rock, maybe we should view that Genie in a new light.
That would be like Annabelle being the funny friend in a rom-com.
Demons are a touch eviler but some of the bad Jinn can give them a run for their money.
I say bad because In Islam there can be a bad and good jinn. Or bad and neutral at the very least.
What is a Jinn?
In Arabic mythology, Jinn are a spirit that are not human but are not on the same level as angels or demons. They are things made from smokeless flame. The word comes from “to be hidden” because they live in a place where people cannot go.
They do not have their own shape and exist as a formless being until they encounter humans. That is when they take shape. These beings can form into anything.
However, some Jinn prefer dogs and snakes because humans have a natural fear of them.
They are also said to live in common everyday objects. They can also be bound in these objects. The idea of a jinni in a lamp came from this idea as there was a jinni bound to a lamp in 1001 Arabian Nights. This became the most famous binding of these entities.
They are also a lot like humans, they live lives and even have communities, they also need to eat. Three things that jinn are known to eat are bone, charcoal, and feces. They can live for hundreds of years versus the limited life span of humans. Jinn can even be killed.
One thing that the evil jinn want to do is lead people away from God, kind of like a demon.
And they have powers that let them do that. One of the powers they have is an illusion. They can. use this power to make a person pull away from God.
Another power they have is possession. They can possess humans and there aren’t very many cases of a spirit possessing someone that ever works to the human’s benefit.
What Are The Classes Of Jinn?
Let’s take a look at some of the different types of Jinn.
1. Builder jinn; they also have control of the earth element.
2. Diver jinn; they have control of the elemental of water, they are also waterproof and like to dive for treasure, they are often confused with marids.
3. Ifrits (also afrits or efreets); wicked or clever and stronger fiery jinn of the underworld. Some say the most demon-like.
4. Marids are very rebellious jinn. They also have control of water.
5. Shayatin are rebellious and corrupter jinn. They are said to have directly disobeyed God which led to their downfall. (Kind of like a demon)
6. Tawaghit are tyrant jinn/demons who possess statues.
7. Ghilan are nightshades that inhabit graves and can change their shapes.
8. Qurana (singular: qarin or qareen) either incubi or just shoulder jinn, devils or angels who follow people from birth to death.
Sightings from Ahmed Akbar See Something Say Something Podcast
Let’s take a look at some of the different stories about the Jinn.
The Fight With A Jinn:
One time, my mother-in-law was sitting in her bed. She looked over and saw a woman sitting in the chair next to her bed, with long pointy fingers and a face with very sharp angles.
She was so frustrated and annoyed with the jinns (they see A LOT in their house and are no longer afraid, just really annoyed by them) that she reached out and grabbed the jinn by its wrist.
She yelled, “Get out! I’m tired of you! Get out!” It started to try to pull its wrist away and eventually tried to bite her hand because she wouldn’t let go. She pulled her hand away before it bit her and then the jinn vanished.
The Territorial Jinn:
My great uncle went to visit his cousins in India. His cousins told him that since it was summertime they would all sleep in the courtyard together. However, they told him he wasn’t allowed to place his bedding in a particular corner.
Apparently, a jinn slept there and strange things happened if anyone disturbs that corner. My great uncle said it was nonsense and decided to sleep there anyway.
One night, he woke up on the other side of the court. He laughed at first and thought it was his cousins who were pranking him and decided to sleep there again. The following night, the same thing happened, so he left a note next to his pillow saying, ”Stop pranking me. I know there is no jinn.”
That night, he said he was pushed off his bed, and his bedding was thrown on the other side. A note was thrown into his lap which said, ‘I sleep here.” The scary part is, it wasn’t that dark and there was no one there
This Next Story Is About A Young Girl From Pakistan Who Was Possessed By A Jinn
Yes. Many times. It started when I was 13. My parents and I lived in Pakistan for a while. Then I and my sister went to England to visit. We went to my mom’s relatives’ house. She showed us videos of Islamic exorcism. It freaked me out. I couldn’t go upstairs alone or toilet or anything. We stayed there for 3 months then came back.
A year later, I was ironing in the basement. I kept feeling an electrical shock go through the iron. That’s when I heard a cackle. A man cackling. I thought it was my cousin. I ran upstairs to confront him. He wasn’t at home. My hair stood up.
Then for a few months, I could hear whispering all the time. Some I couldn’t make sense of and sometimes I could hear help me. I liked the smell of period blood and would know when I was gonna start. I could smell it all the time. I couldn’t read the Quran.
My clothes would stick to me when I would do wudu. I could hear whispering coming from the water. I asked my family for help. The first taweez didn’t work. The second did.
A taweez is an amulet that has verses from the Quran to ward off evil.
Let’s Check Out Another Jinn Encounter Told From The Schoolyard
This one boy in my class, really fucking gets on my nerves. He touches me, pulls me, puts his arms around me, and pretends to be my friend.
We’re both Muslim and he showed me a video in which a jinn possessed a body. I personally do not believe in jinns so I told him “that’s bullshit” he started arguing back on how jinns are real, anyway here’s the main story.
He told me about the previous house he lived in which was modern on the outside and old on the inside. He moved into that house when he was 8. His parents gave him his own room and next to his bedroom was a room his parents told him not to go into.
Here’s the scary part. His parents were horrified at that room and he does not have a clue why. Now of course he went to check out what is inside, but he didn’t do that during the day he did it at night when his parents were sleeping.
I shit you not this little boy found a dead body in this room with carpet stained with blood as the body was hanging from the ceiling on a rope. And he says he saw a jinn next to it with bright white eyes and little strokes of hair and white skin staring at him sideways with the jinns body faced to the dead body.
He shut the door and screamed so loudly it woke up the next-door neighbors and parents.
The parents hugged him while he was shitting his pants.
Police were called by the neighbors because of the screaming and it turns out the parents were poor, killed the landlord, took the house, and left the body in that room. He is now in foster care going to the same school as me
Let’s Dive Into Another Terrifying Jinn Encounter
One story my cousin told me was about his friend’s uncle who was driving from work one night and this lady shows up on the side of the road crying and wailing and asking to be dropped back home.
The guy was obviously freaked and said no, but the woman insisted, claiming her husband would get really mad and her daughters were alone at home, so he said yes.
As soon as the woman was in the car, she started wailing and crying in a very quiet voice that sounded like some tune you would hear from a horror movie.
She told him to drop her at her house near a river 2 hours drive away. He couldn’t so he instead decided to take her to the police station.
After fifteen minutes the woman stops crying abruptly and the driver looks from the front mirror and sees that she has really, REALLY long nails and he then notices that her feet were the opposite way.
He started getting really scared and thought of nothing other to do then read ayat ul kursi in a whisper
Hearing him the woman started smiling and giggling and as he raised his voice she became quiet.
After a minute she told him to stop the car and drop her there.
When she was getting out of the car she told him that the only thing that saved him was him knowing ayat ul kursi and the Quran, and if he didn’t he would’ve been dead by now.
What Do You Think Of The Jinn?
What do you think Bizarros? Are the Jinn real?
Do Jinn want to hurt humans? Do you look at the genie from Aladdin a little differently now?