Mysterious Jinn

 Author: Kallista Yeung

If one saw something at night, Persians would say, “there’s a jinn.” Originating from Arabian folklore, jinn are supernatural ghosts or spirits. In the Pre-Islamic period, jinn were worshipped. According to the Quran, they were created on Thursday before the creation of humans. They have the same desires and needs as humans just with higher physically. Jinn are described to have free-will where they were able to choose to be believers or non-believers. The jinn’s downfall was their pride. Allah, the name of Islam’s god, sent angels to kill most of them. Prophets related to jinn are Muhammad and Solomon. They were sent as messengers to the jinn and human communities. As Islam spread outside Arabia, there became more variants and versions of jinn. Surah 72 in the Quran is often referred to when speaking about jinn. (“What is Jinn?”)

“Devil or Angel”

There are many different types of jinn: Ifrit, royals who protect ruins, Madrid, shapeshifters who grant wishes, Ghoul, human-feeding creatures, Hinn, dogs luring soldiers into desserts, Jann, mischievous shapeshifters, Sila, rare meddling creatures, Palis, vampires, Qareen, the bad part of human, Shayteen, evil-doers who gives illness and death, and Vetala, corpse-possession psychics. (Geller) 

Jinn has been used as an explanation for sleep paralysis and other mysterious. Egyptians have a overwhelming fear of death by sleep paralysis. Jinn is said to torment the body when one’s body is weak and powerless. This makes Egyptians wake up more frequently. Jalal, found that those who experience sleep paralysis in Copenhagen, Denmark are three times less likely than those in Cairo, Egypt. (Choi)

A place that is said to have jinn is Wadi-e Jinn. It is a tourist area in Saudi Arabia where the gravity seems to move upwards. The pavement extends up for 9 miles and seeming to move upwards when a car is put on neutral. Cars have reached up to 75 miles per hour. (Cortesi) Another example of jinn, is the genie in Alladin and the lion protecting the ruin.

In conclusion, some still believe in jinn due to several different reasons. For example, some my have heard stories from other peers, friends, and older family members, whereas some simply do not believe in them because they have never encountered such traumatic experiences with ghosts. 

Works Cited:

“Devil or Angel.” LifeForceNetwork, 26 July 2013, https://www.lightforcenetwork.com/morgana/who-are-jinn.

“What is Jinn?”  The Spiritual Life, https://slife.org/what-is-jinn/.

Choi, Annette. “The Nightmare of Sleep Paralysis.” PBS, Brilliant.org, 16 August 2018, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/the-nightmare-of-sleep-paralysis/.

Cortesi, Max. “Wadi-e Jinn.” Atlas Obscura, 11 May 2022, https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/wadi-e-jinn.

Geller. “Jinn.” mythology.net, 2018, https://mythology.net/mythical-creatures/jinn/.

Khalifa, Najat Hardie, Tim. “Possession and jinn” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, PubMed Center, August 2005, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1181833/.