Revised Article on Jinn
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Peace,
If our lives are controlled by outside forces (like the jinn), how can we be held responsible? how do we improve ourselves when we do not control the jinn?
Nowhere does God tell us that we are
controlled. We are told that we have free will and that Jinn are allowed towhisper/suggestto us. Adam was not controlled to eat from the tree, it was merely a sugegstion that he acted upon.Regardless of what the Quran says, the idea that there are invisible beings that affect our lives and choices fails to hold water when it's examined using logic.
No, what the Quran says is most relevant as we are told that one of the tenants of being rightoues is to believe in the
unseen/unkown. If God tells us so and so then I would accept it as fact knowing that proof may not be available to me now or maybe beyond my ability to grasp (e.g. Angels exist, yet you and I have not seen them).Layth, this is the problem, you believe it can only be 'emotions' or beings. It is or-or with you. It has to be a title for something, pointing to one thing. It is not, it is a general description used for several things. It is used for nomads, dead people, legends, man-made idols, rulers, foreign tribes, human psyche, prehistoric man and so on. It is a description just like the the term 'walking being', does walking being refer to one species? No it does not, it refers to ANYTHING that walks. Similair is that with jinn, meaning something concealed/hidden or rarely seen. Does this refer to one thing only? No, it refers to ANYTHING concealed/rarely seen. I hope you keep you openminded and read my article in the link above. It will explain it all. This is not something new. Ancient commentators also said the same thing for centuries. But this knowledge got ignored the last 600 years. Jinn is not a title, but a description of an attribute which can be shared by many things and beings.
I keep an open mind on everything I read. Where I stop is when I read something that I know contradicts the information given in the Quran...Therefore, when I read that Jinn mens human beings, I automatically reject everything else because it contradicts the information that Jinn were created before man, that Satan was a Jinn, and that Jinn could travel to the outerheavens and listen in of what God tells His angels.
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Peace,
I keep an open mind on everything I read. Where I stop is when I read something that I know contradicts the information given in the Quran...Therefore, when I read that Jinn mens human beings, I automatically reject everything else because it contradicts the information that Jinn were created before man, that Satan was a Jinn, and that Jinn could travel to the outerheavens and listen in of what God tells His angels.
Again you approach jinn as a title that can mean only one thing. The jinns that were created before us, were the prehistoric man as they are hidden/concealed by time and death, this is why they are called jinn=concealed. Shaitan means something distanced from Allah, and can be anything. It is again not a title of a person or being. It is a description of something/someone distanced from Truth and progress. Iblis comes from BaLaSa and refers to the rebeliion side of mankind, which is a jinn=concealed for our psyche, it is a malikah=something that has control nand it is a shaitan=something that is distanced from Truth. You see these are not titles, but descriptions of attributes. The words jinn, malikah and shaitan describe the qualities of that object or person.
As for listening the outerheavens, this is a metaphor for astrology and the people who believe in these conjectures. The shooting flames their jinn=concealed for man's senses=desires will recieve is the requital they will meet when pursuing such nonsense.
You are not openminded on this as i have repeated the same thing several times, and still you answer with that it doesn't fit, because you keep approaching jinn as a title and not as a common description of a quality an object or person might have.
Jinn is not a title, it means something concealed/hidden for man's senses or something rarely seen. This doesn't refer to one thing or one species. It refers to anything hidden by time, death, horizon, land, distance, thoughts, status of a person. So it refers to man-made idols as they are jinn=not seen, as they are illusions that are not real. It refers to prehistoric man as they are jinn=concealed by time. It refers to people as Buchari or Shafi who are worshipped as if they were alive, but they are in reality jinn=concealed by time and death. It refers to human emotions as these are jinn=concealed by psyche. It refers to people in authority as kings and religious leaders who are jinn=hidden by status and lifestyle being different from the ordinary man. It refers to personifications of powers of nature which are malikah, in control, and are worshipped, but they are in relaity jinn=not seen, as these personifications are illusions, man made and not real; this is why the malikah defend themselves when being accused of being worshipped where they say"they worshipped the jinn, not us", which means they worshipped what they believed represented us, but in reality was an illusion, not true and real, thus jinn=not seen.
When you translate the word instead of keeping it as a title where the original meaning is ignored, it will become much more clear. As long as you approach it as a title, the Quran will remain blocked in many of it's meanings.
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I keep an open mind on everything I read. Where I stop is when I read something that I know contradicts the information given in the Quran...Therefore, when I read that Jinn mens human beings, I automatically reject everything else because it contradicts the information that Jinn were created before man, that Satan was a Jinn, and that Jinn could travel to the outerheavens and listen in of what God tells His angels.
peace
Why would the jinn have to travel to outerspace to listen to God when God is closer to us than our jugular vein? See, the contradiction in your approach Layth?
And why would God tell us to believe in something which we cannot possibly verify? the Quran is NOT a test of faith. It's a book of guidance. How does the existence of angels help us in any way?
If satan whispers to you, that is the same as destructive thoughts entering your head (no matter what way you look at jinn, it's the same). Do you see how this could be figurative language?
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Peace
To those who believe jinn means thoughts or emotions
Do you all see how you aren't really going by what is laid out in the quran? Do you see how you added many elements not found in the quran to reach your conclusion? When we approach the quran, we cannot add conjecture to decide on an issue. I think we as humans are definitely limited in our understanding of the world around us. It makes perfect sense that there are things we can't see but still exist.
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;D
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Peace
To those who believe jinn means thoughts or emotions
Do you all see how you aren't really going by what is laid out in the quran? Do you see how you added many elements not found in the quran to reach your conclusion? When we approach the quran, we cannot add conjecture to decide on an issue. I think we as humans are definitely limited in our understanding of the world around us. It makes perfect sense that there are things we can't see but still exist.
Peace,
added? dear boost don't you see that you limit the arabic by approaching it as titles? I challenge you to show me one thing were i added anything in my article's conclusions on verses that is not from the Quran...........
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Peace
Do you all see how you aren't really going by what is laid out in the quran? Do you see how you added many elements not found in the quran to reach your conclusion? When we approach the quran, we cannot add conjecture to decide on an issue. I think we as humans are definitely limited in our understanding of the world around us. It makes perfect sense that there are things we can't see but still exist.
Bold print=B.S.
See, Boost, God (or whoever or whatever wrote this book) would never include something that we can never know. It's ridiculous. The Quran's not a test, it's a piece of advice.
I know that maybe (and that's big maybe) we aren't supposed to know everything. You can't teach your cat General Relativity, and maybe you can't teach humans exactly how this universe works. But why would the Quran, in one place, say that we should explore the world and find out things, and in other places discourage us by implying that we aren't supposed to know everything?
And how are invisible beings supposed to help us out in ANY possible way?
What you said (bolded) sounds a lot like religious leaders and priests who believe blindly and don't like people asking questions. "God works in mysterious ways...we aren't supposed to know everything...asking too many questions angers God..." The Quran isn't something we believe in. It's something we try to understand and follow. There is no way the quran can help me if I don't understand what it's saying. I mean, what the hell are angels? Why havn't I seen them?
And when I ask people why they believe in these invisible beings, the answers usually are- God is testing our faith. We should believe whatever God says (keep in mind that I'm not talking about God, I'm talking about the Quran. Not the same thing.)
- I believe the Quran is from God- and I have sufficient proof that it is from God- so these fairies and elves and easter bunnies (sorry) must also exist.
- Phoenix, why do you need proof for everything? your faith is so weak!!! you are a kafir!! I will pray to God for your soul. May Allah forgive you for doubting the existence of invisible beings.
And people, none of the above answers is good enough. Not even close.
Our ability to reason and our senses are the only tools we have to seperate truth from falsehood. There is no other way to tell the differences between BS and divine truth. Let's not abandon these tools. Let's use them.If the Quran tells us to believe in invisible beings (I don't think it does), then the logical conclusion would be that the Quran is WRONG. Not that God is conducting some cruel experiments on His subjects by "testing our faith."
"faith is believing something that you know ain't so." ~ Mark Twain.
Well, let's stop having faith. And let's start KNOWING.So, for those of you who believe in invisible beings, you have the rest of my life to bring me evidence of these creatures. If you fail to do so, please understand that no such thing exists. If you do bring me evidence, then I will thank you and send you a signed picture of me. Free.
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Peace,
Just to point out some flaws in the counter-arguments being presented
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Saying that we see and sence all intelligent beings is untrue as we cannot see or know Angels yet we are told they exist and that they have intermingled with man on many occasion.
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Saying that there is no need to travel to the outer heavens to listen to God since He is closer than our jugular vein ignores the statement which read
to listen in on Gods commands to His angels`. God does not give instructions to His angels through your jugular vein, He does so in a form and place that is beyond human ability. -
On the issue of translating Jinn to
concealedit still does not change the fact that theseconcealedentities were created to worship God, were able to travel the outer heavens, were created before mankind, Satan was one of them, were forced to follow Solomon`s command, etc.. -
On the subject of
whispersfrom satan and his followers. It has been pointed out already that a) these whispers are suggestions and not commands, thus they do not interfere with free-will, b) these whispers may be blocked by seeking God`s help.
I disagree with brother Boost where he says that people have added information to get the wrong conclusion. My view is that people are deducting information by clealy ignoring verses which contradict their view. I have seen this same style being done with other issues such as Salat where people who do not like to think of it as a physical effort will simply ignore verses like 56 (ablution) to make their case.
Quranic verses on any subject are to be taken as whole to make a conclusion, else the wrong conclusion will be reached.
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Peace Phoenix
Have you seen God? I guess He doesn't exist then? Well you have the rest of your life to see Him, and if you don't .... good luck.
Many people don't understand things in the quran at the level that you do. Does that mean the quran wasn't written for the less intelligent?
Scientists understand this limitation. They try their best to understand the world around them but they know it may be impossible to fully understand everything. Theories evolve and disappear and come back in new forms. It's nothing new.
If you boast to know the world and everything in it, in your lifetime, then hats off to you. You may be the first person on earth with all the answers.
Peace Arnold
Where in the quran does it say that jinn could be travelers or foreigners? Made of smokeless fire? That go to the outer limits of the universe and try to gain secrets? Whisper to people? Sorry I didn't come across such foreigners. And I didn't see that verse in the quran either.
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Have you seen God? I guess He doesn't exist then? Well you have the rest of your life to see Him, and if you don't .... good luck.
peace
I knew this would come up. Well, I havn't used my vision to sense God, but I have seen evidence that points toward that direction. There are signs of God everywhere.
In the case of angels, 0 evidence. There is no sign.Many people don't understand things in the quran at the level that you do. Does that mean the quran wasn't written for the less intelligent?
Maybe it wasn't. But the quran's message isn't about being intelligent. It's about our struggle to fight our desires and emotions and believe in what's right. It's not an intellectual battle at all. Anyone can do it. There is nothing complicated about the quran's message. Nothing an average human being will not understand.
But when we are told to believe in things that we have never felt or seen any signs of, that's a problem.If you boast to know the world and everything in it, in your lifetime, then hats off to you. You may be the first person on earth with all the answers.
I didn't say I know all the answers, no one does. But that doesn't mean we should abandon all reason and believe in whatever a book tells us.
Why would God give us a book that we can't understand? why would he tell us about angels when we don't know what the heck they are? makes absolutely no sense to me. If God goes to great lengths to prove His existence (with miracles) then why not give us some evidence of angels? why not perform a miracle right now?
You have to admit that your view contradicts logic and reason.
And if this book wasn't written by God, then there is even little reason to believe in these invisible creatures.And didn't you do some research and say that the stories of Jesus and Moses could be allegories passed down from generation to generation? if so, then why can't the word "hidden" and "controllers" be used in a metaphoric sense?
And I refuse to use the word jinn and angels from now on. I think the untranslated and wrongly translated forms of these words further cloud the meanings. -
I think Phoenix1 has made a good point... I also do not want to repeat my posts
http//www.free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=526.msg105619#msg105619
Peace Phoenix
Have you seen God? I guess He doesn't exist then? Well you have the rest of your life to see Him, and if you don't .... good luck.
Many people don't understand things in the quran at the level that you do. Does that mean the quran wasn't written for the less intelligent?
Scientists understand this limitation. They try their best to understand the world around them but they know it may be impossible to fully understand everything. Theories evolve and disappear and come back in new forms. It's nothing new.
If you boast to know the world and everything in it, in your lifetime, then hats off to you. You may be the first person on earth with all the answers.
Peace Arnold
Where in the quran does it say that jinn could be travelers or foreigners? Made of smokeless fire? That go to the outer limits of the universe and try to gain secrets? Whisper to people? Sorry I didn't come across such foreigners. And I didn't see that verse in the quran either.
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Peace brother Layth,
Thank you for posting this revised article. It is a good way to revitalize the discussions about this important question. Also bringing the appropriate passages of the great reading to support the article is a good approach. Therefore, I will focus on addressing more deeply the issues raised by those passages so as to encourage further discussions.
"I did not create the Jinn and the humans except to serve Me." (5156)
How do jinn serve the god? What good do jiinn do?
"He created the human from a clay, like pottery. And the Jinn He created from a smokeless fire." (5514-15)
"And We have created man from a clay hardened and shaped. And the Jinn, We created him before that from the flames of fire." (1526-27)Are humans anything like clay? If I put a human next to a piece of clay, will I see any resemblance? Is clay what you are? Is clay what defines the human self?
This is all that iblis saw. He saw a creature that originated from clay. This was a mistake of arrogance. Arrogance blinds from the truth. Let's not make the same mistake as our enemy and consider him superficially as what he originated from.
"And we touched the heavens, but found it full of powerful guards and projectiles. And we used to sit in it in places of listening, but anyone who sits now finds a projectile seeking him." (728-9)
Humans are bombarded by projectiles when they go to outerspace. I worked on a project once to figure out the best location inside a next-generation space station to minimize exposure to cosmic particles. In particular, heavy nuclei in cosmic radiation were proven to cause brain damage.
"O Children of Adam, do not let the devil afflict you as he evicted your parents from the paradise; he removes from them their garments to show them their lusts. He and his tribe see you from where you do not see them. We have made the devils as allies for those who do not believe." (727)
We only see the superficial body of people. We do not see the real self of a person. You can't see the thoughts of even the closest people to you.
"But the devil whispered to him, he said 'O Adam, shall I lead you to the tree of immortality and a kingdom which will not waste away?'" (20120)
We are similarly told in 5016 that the human self "whispers". Our self communicates with us using the same way of "communication" as the "jinn". How does your self whisper? We all know the answer. Anyone who has had a thought knows. Just think about it.
"And We created you, then We shaped you, then We said to the Angels 'Yield to Adam;' so they yielded except for Satan, he was not of those who yielded. He said 'What has prevented you from yielding when I have ordered you?' He said 'I am far better than him, You created me from fire and created him from clay!'" (711-12)
While the Jinn were created long before mankind to uphold God's commands and serve Him alone, the Jinn had failed in their task and the mantle of responsibility was passed on from the Jinn to the humans by God's decree.
This is not what 711-12 says. Which passage in the great reading might that be? Where does it say that the jinn had failed? Where is the passage about the mantle of responsibility being passed from jinn to humans?
"And entice whoever you can of them with your voice, and mobilize all your forces and men against them, and you may share with them in their money and children, and promise them.? But the devil promises nothing but deceit. 'As for My servants, you will have no power over them.' And your Lord suffices as a Caretaker." (1764-65)
How can aliens made of plasma share in the humans' money and children?
"And among us are those who are good doers, and some of us are opposite to that, we are in many paths. And we acknowledge that we cannot escape God on Earth, nor can we escape Him if we run. And when we heard the guidance, we believed in it. So whoever believes in his Lord, then he will not fear a decrease in reward, nor a burdensome punishment. And among us are those who submitted, and among us are the compromisers. As for those who have submitted, they have sought what is correct. And as for the compromisers, they are firewood for Hell." (7211-15)
What is the good that the good-doing jinn do?
"And for Solomon the wind was given, traveling one month coming and one month going, and We caused a spring of tar to flow for him. And from among the Jinn are those that worked for him by his Lord's leave; and any one of them who turns from Our commands, We shall cause him to taste the retribution of the Fire. They made for him what he desired of enclosures, and statues, and pools of deep reservoirs, and heavy pots. ?O family of David, work to show thanks.? Only a few of My servants are appreciative. Then, when We decreed death for him, nothing informed them of his death until a worm kept eating from his staff, so when he fell down, the Jinn realised that if they had known the unseen, they would not have remained in the humiliating retribution." (3412-14)
Would you know right away that a man who is standing and leaning on his staff has died?
Unfortunately brother, you have not considered all the passages that talk about "jinn".
For example, you have not considered 3440-41 and 5319-28, which when taken together clearly indicate that Allat, Al3uzza and Manat are jinn. Are Allat, Al3uzza and Manat plasma aliens?
You have also not considered passages such as 6100
- And they made for The God partners the "jinn" and their creation and they made up for Him sons and daughters without knowledge, be He exalted and He is above what they describe.
I do not know of anyone who takes "aliens made of plasma" as partners with the god. In fact, if we try to substitute "aliens made of plasma" in all the occurrences of the word "jinn", we would certainly see the logical difficulties this creates. For example, here
- And they made for The God partners aliens made of plasma and their creation and they made up for Him sons and daughters without knowledge, be He exalted and He is above what they describe.
The same thing can be said about 37158-159. Try substituting "aliens made of plasma" here and you will see the difficulty
37158-159. And they made between Him and the "jinn" a kinship while the "jinn" know that they are summoned. The God be most exalted above what they describe.
How do humans enjoy "aliens made of plasma" below?
- And at the time when He gathers them together, "O consorts of "jinn" you took a lot of the humans" and their protectors from the humans said "our Lord, we enjoyed one another and we reached our term that You appointed for us." He said "The fire is your abode, everlasting in it, except what The God willed, your Lord is wise, knowledgeable.
How did aliens made of plasma invent lies about the prophets?
- And like this we made for each prophet enemies, those exceeding in corruption from the humans and the "jinn", they inspire one another with fancy sayings out of arrogance and had The God willed, they wouldn't have done it. So leave them and what they make up.
Finally, just look inside you. When long ago you were following the wrong path and Hadiths had power over you, was it because of "aliens made of plasma"? What fundamentally makes humans do wrong? This is the real enemy. This is what matters.
Peace,
Ayman
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Peace Ayman,
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Jinn serve God the same way humans do, that is by following the commands they are given by Him.
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You and I are made of clay/mud literally. The composition of these matirials (minerals, water, etc) is what the human body is primarily composed of. By the same measure, Jinn are composed of the material which makes-up intense fire (energy, plasma).
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Your comment on projectiles in space alwsays being there is not adressing the verses in mention at all...The verses say that the Jinn
used to be able to sit in the outer heavens, but can no longer as they are now shot down/struck with projectiles. Had they been refering to the normal energy bombardment you are speaking of, then they would never have been able to sit and listen in the first place (i.e. it is a new advent, while the particles you speak of are as old as the universe). -
Whispers/suggestions can be internal and external. Your own mind suggests things to you (nafs), but at the same time other people can influence your decision based on simple suggestions or input. The Jinn (Satan in particular) are able to make such hints and suggestions as was made to our father Adam with the issue of the tree.
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Satan sharing in peoples money and children maybe by sharing in the utilization of such resources for his cause (i.e. if you will listen to Satan, then he will suggest you use your money and power and progeny to the service of his cause...Look to the nations that spend billions of $ to spread Sunnism, or who send their children to die in US proxy wars such as Afghanistan in the late 80's, etc.).
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On the subject of Solomon and his staff...No human being would wait until a termite/worm ate through the staff of a person and he collapsed to know he has died (this process as I understand took days, not hours or minutes)...Humans would know by the movement or lack therofe of a person after a while.
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On the subject of Al-Laat & Uzza, they may indeed have been idols inspired by the Jinn just like the Jinn (Satan) inspired Adam to set-up a partner with God to His commands. Taking the Jinn as partners with God is simply done by listening to their advice where its conflicts with God
s commands, thus they becomeshurakaa`. -
Your use of the term
aliens made of plasmaas a translation for Jinn is biased and misleading. Do you translate the wordInsaanasbeings made of mud/clay? By adding the component these being are created offire/plasmayou are adding words to the translation which are not there. One of the options is to translate Jinn simply asdemonsjust like Insaan is simplyhumans. -
Demons/Jinn (the bad ones) lie about the prophets the same way Satan lied about God...They say things that they know is untrue in order to mislead and misdirect.
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Peace Arnold
Where in the quran does it say that jinn could be travelers or foreigners? Made of smokeless fire? That go to the outer limits of the universe and try to gain secrets? Whisper to people? Sorry I didn't come across such foreigners. And I didn't see that verse in the quran either.
Peace boost,
Jinn is a common description of anything not commonly seen by the community people. This refers to powers of nature, to nomads, to emotions, to foreigners, to rulers of lands and peoples, to animals as snakes or insects, to dead people who they still revere and so on. You must look at what the word means in arabic and how it was used in the 6th century. Emotions as hate or anger whisper to people and they are jinn=concealed for our psyche as they are part of it. In astrology they believe the stars are moved by unseen=jinn forces who tell the secrets of God to us. As for the term smokeless fire, you need to use crossreference to understand the Quran
In verse 2137, where the term; ?KHULIQAL insanu MIN ?ajal?, literaly means; ?He created man out of haste?. Whereas the clear understanding is ?Man has been created with a tendency to be hasty and looking for instant gains or results?. Man is not of haste, it is an atribute of man's psyche to be hasty. The same is used for jinn, where emotions are described
?KHULAQAL jaanna MIN marijin MIN naar?; ?He created the concealed sides of man=jinn with a fiery disposition(fire)?.
Just like haste is an attribute of man's psyche, so also are man's emotions as fire that can cloud a man's thoughts. Not every occurence of jinn has the same meaning or refers to the same thing. This link between jinn=fire and humans=matter, is to always be found together. As shows that only the concealed things, the inner sides of the psyche, that were created with mankind, are made out of fire, symbolically referring to the nature of these desires, emotions and ego, what we refer to as the destructive side of man. See also; 5514-15, 3871-85. Explaining thus, that it is only this jinn , Iblis=literally means desperate/frustration, that is made as if out of fire, and not all jinns mentioned in the Quran. This is really important if we want to move on to understand the other uses for Jinn inside the Quran. As can been seen as how the sjeitan/iblis is used in the Quran, that it are perfect examples of how the ego and bad emotions as lust, hate and anger work.
And can you answer me this Boost and Layth
It is such that We make the wicked as supporters to one another for what they had earned.
"O you assemblies of concealed/rarely seen ones and people, did not messengers come to you from amongst you and relate to you My revelations, and warn you of the meeting of this Era?" They said "Yes, we bear witness upon ourselves;" and the worldly life deceived them, and they bore witness on themselves that they were rejecters. That is because your Lord was not to destroy any town because of its wickedness while its people were unaware.
As the Quran never mentions the jinn having any Book received, as well that, if they were mythological creatures, it is weird both jinn and people are be to given the Quran, that the Quran is for both groups, and that there are only human messengers mentioned inside of it. Also only examples of history, laws and advises of mankind, meant only for mankind and not for the mythological invisible spirits. Where are the invisible spirits prophets? Where are the laws for the invisible spirits? Where are the communities of jinn that were destroyed mentioned? Why aren?t they mentioned in the Quran? As this goes against logic, as well as there is a much better answer for it. Here ins is used for the people, as opposite of jinns, people not direct living in those societies, as living in small villages, nomads, living in jungles, bums, hermits, monks and nuns, people working behind the scenes of government, and anything that falls under normally concealed/not seen/rarely seen in the society, by the people. All nations in the Quran were destroyed by PHYSICAL means, while in this verse jinn and ins are clearly mentioned together and that they were destroyed in their towns. ONE Where are the towns of jinn? TWO? Why are there only HUMAN towns mentioned that are destroyed?
As for historical stories as of Solomon, a lot of symbolism is used so be carefull not to be trapped by 37.....
As a scientist, i can only reject something when i can disprove it. As i canNOT disprove or prove invisible beings, i don't reject them. The main point of my argument is that the word jinn is totaly approached in a wrong way, as a title, a word with one fixed meaning. This is completely wrong and blocks many of the Quranic messages.You cannot put my arguments next to those of Ayman or Phoenix's who have a different approach and arguments. Ayman cannot explain why certain verses talk about as if they are intelligent, and Phoenix's arguments also have flaws. To resemble my argument with the salat argument is wrong, as i agree with you that salat is a physical ritual, but i don't agree that salat has only one meaning in the Quran. Same holds for jinn, it has several meanings.
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Arnold, in lieu of not being able to disprove, I also want to propose that the universe (or multiverse) is a vast expanse... Allah does claim in the Quran that He is the "Lord of the Worlds" (Worlds implying 3+), so there is a possibility of extraterrestrial life in this Universe, and since its existance is thus far hidden from us, it could also imply "jinn".
To quote Iqbal "sitron se aagay jahaan aur bhi hen"
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heck, to them we might be jinn (this is not a joke)
But to claim that jinn are invisible magical beings that whisper into our hearts is a superstitious belief IMO. If I base my argument on the premise that Quran is the Word of God, then I have no choice but to reject the claim. There is no evidence in the Quran that suggests that any world/life other than ad-Dunya and al-Aakhirah is of any direct influence or consequence to us as implied by traditional jinn-being theory. If you suggest however, that germs that penetrate into a host (and can cause harm covertly) are hidden to the five human senses, hence jinn, then that is an acceptable implication as one of the usages for the term (to define the attribute of being concealed/hidden in any way).
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Maybe it wasn't. But the quran's message isn't about being intelligent. It's about our struggle to fight our desires and emotions and believe in what's right. It's not an intellectual battle at all. Anyone can do it. There is nothing complicated about the quran's message. Nothing an average human being will not understand.
Quran is directed to all mankind, but to say that it isn't about being intelligent may not be correct. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to understand the Quran. However, that does not mean you can understand it without logic and reason. Quran itself invites one be "intelligent" when approaching It for guidance; why else would there be statements in the Quran such as "do they not think?" or "there are signs for those who use their intellect"...
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No problem Phoenix1 )
I agree with Arnold's ideology and am revising my understanding of the 14th and 15th aayaat of Al-Rahman
(He) created the human (form) out of inorganic matter that sounded like an empty pot. (And it was empty of a trace of the finished form). And created the jinn (psychological aspects, thought processes, that others cannot see or sense) out of a flickering flame of fire/chaos.
Of course, the context of the jinn implies this particular meaning for this verse and a select others, but not all of the verses where the word jinn is used.
I do not think many will agree with this, but it can be one of the meanings IMO.
Another interpretation is from Dr. Shabbir Ahmed (ourbeacon.com) implying civilized/urbanized/modern man in ayah 14 and nomad/caveman/prehistoric-man in ayah 15, which also makes sense.
