What are jinn?

Welcome to Wondercafe2!

A community where we discuss, share, and have some fun together. Join today and become a part of it!

unsafe

Well-Known Member
Just watching a Movie called Jinn ----never heard of this before ----Interesting article here from Got Questions on this ------The man in the Movie said this was in the Quran ---so I just checked it out to see what this was all about -------just interesting reading ------

https://www.gotquestions.org/jinn.html
What are jinn?
Answer: Jinn (singular, jinni; also spelled djinni or genie) is an Arabic word that literally means “to hide.” Jinn are supernatural creatures found in Islamic and Arabic writings, particularly the Quran. The Quran says that the jinn were created from a “smokeless and scorching fire,” separately from humans or angels. However, they can appear in human or animal form to interact with people. From the word jinn we get our English word genie, defined as a spirit in human form who grants wishes. According to the Quran, jinn will be judged the same as human beings and will be sent to either paradise or hell, according to their deeds on earth.

Jinn are often considered the Islamic equivalent of demons; however, they are more complex than that. Muslims do not believe that angels can sin, although Scripture indicates that they can (Isaiah 14:12–15; Luke 10:18; 2 Peter 2:4). Muslims believe that Satan (Shaitan) was a jinni, not an angel named Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12) who refused to obey God and was cast from heaven. In Islam, jinn are a different kind of spirit creature that can do evil (by rejecting Islam) or do good (by accepting Islam). They have a free will just as humans do but can also oppress and possess human beings, animals, and objects. They have social order that includes celebrating weddings, honoring kings, and practicing religion.

The idea of jinn has been snatched from the world of ancient religious writings and spun into the world of fantasy, with websites abounding that claim to help people understand jinn. Many of these explanations sound more like characters in a video game, with instructions about how to contact jinn or derive personal benefit from them. Depending on whom you ask, there can be three to five different categories of jinn:

1. Marid: the strongest, most powerful type of jinn.

2. Ifrit: enormous winged creatures of fire, either male or female, who live underground and inhabit ruins.

3. Shaitan: the evil jinn, akin to demons in Christianity. In Islam, these jinn chose to be non-Muslim.

4. Ghoul: the creepiest type of jinn. Blood-suckers that inhabit graveyards and lonely places.

5. Jann: serpent-like, primitive, and considered the father of the jinn.

From a biblical perspective, the idea of jinn could be an attempt to identify the many unseen creatures that inhabit the heavenly realms (2 Corinthians 10:3–4; Ephesians 6:12). We know that the spiritual realm is real, but we possess little information about it. The Bible does not mention jinn at all, but it does expressly mention angels (Hebrews 1:14), demons (Luke 4:41), living creatures (Revelation 4:6–9), seraphim (Isaiah 6:2), and cherubim (Ezekiel 10:9–17). There could be countless other creations of God, designed to worship and serve Him, although they are not mentioned in Scripture. The existence of what the Quran and other ancient texts call jinn may have some validity, but perhaps not in the way those documents explain them.

What we do know is that God’s Word contains everything God wants us to know about supernatural creatures, including angels and demons (2 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 3:16). If jinn do exist, we know the Quranic explanation of them is incorrect because it contradicts God’s Word (John 17:17). Since jinn simply means “hidden,” then the word could describe those unseen creatures that inhabit the spiritual realm. But we must always be careful to compare any speculation with what is revealed in God’s Word and base any belief or conviction on that alone.
 
Short version is that djinn are really just "spirits" in Arabic culture and mythology. Other than angels. Angels are a separate thing, at least in Islam. The djinn predate Islam but got incorporated into it. The "Genie" of Aladdin and other such Westernized Arabic tales is actually an English translation/misunderstanding of "djinn".
 
Face it djinns can haunt people of desire alone without thought for other existence ... that may be divisive! Thus the divine perspective of doubled up perspectives of things that go against powerful desires!

Divides the peace like dissonance and Eris! Split sol in the schizoid form ... flighty thoughts?
 
Where there is no imagination there is no hope. John Lennon knew this and so do I; in the company of many now imagining the possibility of change opening to our common good.

“Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too

Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You, you may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You, you may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will live as one
 
Lol. There is a huge difference with having an imagination and believing in imaginary things George. And I note you missed out the most important verse George.

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... Aha-ah...
 
There is a huge difference with having an imagination and believing in imaginary things

Entirely this. I love reading fantasy fiction and watching fantasy movies but I don't expect to meet a classic dragon outside of my own head any time soon save if it is some kind of animatronic thing at a theme park.

"God" is a nice metaphor for personifying the creative forces of existence, but that doesn't mean those creative forces really do have a personality. It's creation of the imagination that some treat as having external reality.
 
To be clear, yes, I'm lumping the Bible in with fantasy fiction. Both are a form of myth-making and can be full of meaning without being taken literally.
 
Without the abstract where would we project ourselves when leaving reality?

I can't even conjure up an alternate other than something better than what is ... thus future is tense because we don;t know what's in the state of mind called heaven ... a time and place where one loses reality? some can't differentiate between the divided states ... incidentally uncertain from the present point ... as Nietzsche stated: pure chaos all about!
 
Oh I do like expressions on b' longings ... like second best to reason grasped!

Reason is not favoured in the purely emotional modes ... and other motes in which they float their abstracts ... met A' fore in the unreal series! Life is like that ... it just doesn't stand up well to itself! Thus self degradation ... an in the media one might as well play with it ... few will understand the reasoning any where ... little more than nowhere ... where nothing was placed to avoid detection by realists!

Nothing harder to prove than nothing .. and thus creating great holes in what is ... where nobody important recessed to ... as a crevice on the mountain Eire ... experiencing vapours and wisp ... the chill of excessive high spots? They may shrink down to nothing if following the Ideal Gas Loss ... non-ideally something was mist as condensation ... really flaky as polity!

Point carriers?
 
To be clear, yes, I'm lumping the Bible in with fantasy fiction. Both are a form of myth-making and can be full of meaning without being taken literally.
Basic agreement on this. Personally, I take the Bible to be a collection of diverse narrative styles. For the most part the authors took what they experienced and communicated that metaphorically rather than literally. The key thing being that digging into the narratives offers opportunity for insight and encouragement.
 
That's where it belongs.

To be clear again, that's NOT meant to be a diss on The Bible. I consider mythology, whether in religious texts or good fantasy to be a vital human spiritual activity. I even preached a whole sermon on finding spiritual themes in fantasy way back early in my UU days. It does mean I don't take it as the literal "Word of God" or rely on it as a sole source of wisdom or truth.
 
Last edited:
To be clear, that's NOT meant to be a diss on The Bible.
It will be taken as one. You don't intend to "diss" the bible, but you take it as fantasy fiction. For the people who base their world view on it, that's not gonna go over so well. I don't intend to diss the bible either, I mostly mock the belief that it's not fiction.
 
It will be taken as one. You don't intend to "diss" the bible, but you take it as fantasy fiction. For the people who base their world view on it, that's not gonna go over so well. I don't intend to diss the bible either, I mostly mock the belief that it's not fiction.

To be honest, on here, I can think of probably two people currently active who might see it as a diss, maybe three. I can handle that.
 
Literary Orientalism or reality? According to the cosmic horror novelist HP Lovecraft, during the 8th century, the notorious Yemeni poet Abdul Alhazred wrote one of the most powerful books on wizardry ever to have existed known as Al Azeeth or The Necronomicon. This book could summon djinn and even open gateways to other dimensional plains. Could the Necronomicon be real or is it just a fantasy, as over the last 1000 years five books (including Lovecraft’s version) could have existed, and might still exist today.

 
Back
Top