In all religions, the belief in the spirits occupies a more or less large space. The belief in Islam is based, like all other doctrines, on Koran and Sunnah.
The spirits in Islam are known by the collective name "Djinn" (Arabic ğinn, sing. Ğinnî). They are considered intelligenced beings that God created out of the fire. They are generally imperceptible to the human senses, except in exceptional cases.
The term djinn is derived from the verb ğanna / yağinnu or yağunnu, which means "to be hidden" or "to hide, to conceal". The passive part mağnûn stands for "possessed by a jinn" as well as "insane" and "crazy".
The etymology of this word is also associated with the Latin vocabulary "genius" by some researchers. However, most oriental sources reject this interpretation.
Among the spirits are those who profess Islam and others who disbelieve. It follows that there are good jinn and bad jinn. The good jinn are helpful to people, they serve them and are considered able to reach paradise. The majority of the jinn, however, is assigned to the evil spirits in the Islamic view; they persecute people with hatred and jealousy; their reward is eternal fire.
The ghosts (ğinn or also ğan) are used in numerous places in the Koran. Thus, the Seventy-second Surah, who also bears the title "Jinn," reports on a group of spirits who have heard the Koran from the Prophet and then converted.
Elsewhere, reference is made to the distinction between humans and spirits (Sura 55, verse 14 and Sura 15, verse 27). Consequently, the origin of man is the earth (alumina), while the jinn are beings of smokeless fire (the third kind of intelligent creatures, the angels, are created of light).
The fact is also documented in the Qur'an that the spirits were worshiped as deities in pre-Islamic times (Surah 6, verse 100 and Sura 34, verse 41).
The Sunnah of the Prophet also devotes much attention to the explanation of spirits. A well-known hadith by Ahmad Ibn Hanbal is:
The Prophet of God (a.s.) Said, "There is none of you who has not been accompanied by a jain companion (qarîn) and a companion of the angels."
They said, "Even you, Messenger of God?"
He replied: "To me, too, but God saved me (before the qarîn), so that he drives me only for the good."
In a similar Hadith to Muslim, the Prophet declared that his companion was a jinn who professed Islam.
The jinn prefer to live in places that are dirty or have some kind of impurity. These include mainly toilets, bathrooms or stables. Even ruins or roofs are used by the spirits as dwellings. Tradition has it that spirits live on the roof of every house where Muslims live. These would each visit the people for lunch and dinner and dine with them.
People are advised to beware and protect themselves from the ghosts, especially those who populate the toilets. In that case, call upon the name of God (ie, recite the Basmala) or say, "O God, I seek my refuge from the evil and the repugnant" - Allahumma a'ûdu bika min al-hubut wa-l- habâ'it.
Protective measures against evil spirits include absolute purity in all things. In addition, the recitation of the Koran or certain suras helps to provide comprehensive protection against evil spirits. Many Muslims carry around an amulet (= hiğâb), which usually consists of verses from the Koran, prayers and all sorts of mysterious formulas, signs and numbers (see illustration).
Although it is always believed in the Islamic tradition that jinn seldom reproduce man (unless they are disturbed by their places of residence), there is always talk of strange connections, even marriage-like relationships between ghosts and people.
Such phenomena and their consequences are rich in literature. If protective measures such as amulets and the like are no longer sufficient to ward off evil spirits, the help of a specialist in "ghost healing" only helps. These are usually a "sheikh" or persons initiated by spirits in paranormal sciences who are in some way in contact with them. Of these, if necessary, exorcism-like practices are performed.
From the Orthodox side, it is often blamed on outsiders of Islamic society, such as dervishes and hermits, who associate them with spirits from whom they would learn magic and magical arts.
From simple Islamic folk strata, the boundaries between saints, wizards and ghost-possessed persons are considered fluent. Thus, the epithet "Mağnûn" was awarded to many popular saints, and certainly not in derogatory meaning. The so-called Sheikh Guyushi, whose grave is located on the Muqattam Hill near Cairo, is said to be both a saint and a ruler of the jinn, who would have dug up the Nile bed at his command.
(According to other reports, the sheikh Guyushi is synonymous with the Fatimid Emir Badr Ed-Din Gamali surnamed Amir al-Ğuyûš = "leader of the Armed Forces" whose mosque at the highest point of Cairo is to serve its purpose even after the Death can see his seven wives buried in the valley with glazed eyes According to: RuH Kriss, popular beliefs in the field of Islam I, pp. 67-68.)
As for the food of spirits, contradictory information is also given. On the one hand, they are credited with the same food as human beings, namely: bread, meat, fruits and vegetables; In other sources, garbage, manure and bones are called jinn food. A Hadith of the Prophet (from Bukhari to Abu Hurairah) also speaks of dung and bones (rawt wa-'azm) as a livelihood of the spirits. On the bones, which man throws after his meal on the ground, the flesh is to regrow, on which the spirits would seize them.
Significant in this context is the popular belief in Egypt that discarded date cores would kill the children of the jinn, which should therefore be avoided as far as possible.
According to widely held doctrine in Islam, the person who dies in a grave sin without asking God for forgiveness, becomes a jinni in the Barzach, i. in the intermediate world between this world and the afterlife, where the dead await their resurrection.
Some sources assume the following four body forms of spirits,
a) light-shaped creatures (without actual body or physical form),
b) snake-like creatures,
c) Djinn in animal form (as mammals, for example dogs or cats),
d) human-like spirits.
The three main classes of jinn are: ġûl, 'ifrîţ and si'lât.
Aged Muslim scholars may sometimes have a viewpoint that borders on the denial of spirits and all related speculation. For example, the well-known Arab philosopher and physician Ibn Sina (died 1037) stated that the spirits did not have a reality of being. Similarly, the social historian Ibn Chaldun (died 1406) interpreted the traditions in the Koran and Sunnah. According to him, the Qur'anic verses on the jinn are to be counted among the unexplainable, allegorical and dark passages (mutašābihāt) in the Holy Book of Muslims. The understanding of this was reserved for God Himself (Encyclopaedia of Islam, Art. Djinn).
Modern Muslims, too, agree with these doctrines. Several contemporary Muslim philosophers advocate the rationalist view that man can say nothing or very little about ghosts and their existence.
The biggest difference to the old-fashioned spiritual doctrine of Islam finds its expression in the largely secular statement, according to which the jinn are not actually existing beings but correspond to the forces of the human subconscious.
Accordingly, a modern Islamic textbook states: "The ğinn are, in modern terms, localized natural forces, ideas or phenomena: fixings, obsessions, hallucinations, delusions.These ideas can be good, pious, evil, outrageous, etc. The ğinn as mental Driving forces or mental disorders belong to the area of interest of psychiatry, psychology and psychoanalysis. "
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