31 - INFORMATION ABOUT GENIES

The following article has been taken from the book named Kashkul, by Sayyid Abdulhakîm Efendi, a professor of theology and tasawwuf at Madrasatul-mutahassisîn during the time of the thirty-sixth and the last Ottoman sovereign, Sultan Muhammad Wahidaddîn Khan. Kashkul has not been printed.

Those who ask if there are genies should be answered immediately. For, it is very dangerous to doubt if there are genies. The following information, which I have derived from the dependable books of Islamic savants as an answer, should be read with attention and with reason and should be given fair thought so that it will be understood well.

Such (Arabic) words as jinn (genie), jinnat, jinân, jannat, jenân and jenîn, which are made up of the letters J and N, mean

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‘covered.’ The place called ‘Jannat’ (Paradise) has been given this name because it is covered with fruits, flowers, odors. The crazy are called ‘maj-nűn’ because their minds are covered. The night is called ‘junn-i layl’ because the dark has covered the daylight. And the creatures called ‘genies’ are called so because they are covered from our eyes. The word ‘jinn’ is the plural of the noun ‘jinnî.’ ‘Jinn’ means ‘jinnîs.’ ‘Peri’ is Persian for jinnî.

There are two kinds of creatures: visible and invisible. In addition, there are those immaterial creatures which are without place. Imâm-i Mâwardî says, “The genie is made of four basic substances: water, earthen substances, substances in the air and fire. Of these, fire consists of flames, light and smoke. There are believers and disbelievers among those genies that are created from the flames of fire, which are called mârij.” According to our recent scientific knowledge, these four basic substances consist of a hundred and five elements. Accordingly, all creatures are made from elements and they bear energy. Because we can see those beings that are in solid or liquid forms under normal physical conditions and also the coloured gases, things that are made from them are visible. For example, because solid substances and water are in the majority (more than seventy percent) in man, man is visible. So are plants and all animals.

Genies are made from air and fire. [The flames of fire are invisible. Because the solid substances in it are lighted by heat, they look bright.] Therefore, genies are invisible, too.

The flame is of two parts: one of them is zulmânî (invisible). The other is nűrânî (which is invisible, too). Genies are created from the zulmânî part and angels from the nűrânî part. Men are created from earthen substances, but Allâhu ta’âlâ has changed these substances into organic forms and organs, into flesh and bones. Likewise, in angels and genies the flame has changed into a latîf (fine), particular form that can take any shape.

The description of genies: genies, that is, perîs, are the substances made from the flames of fire and can take any shape.

But angels are luminous substances. They can take various shapes. Angels and genies are closer with respect to their creation. Angels are noble, dear. Genies are despicable, unworthy. In angels the luminous part is in the majority and in genies the flame substance is in the majority. Certainly, nűr (light) is better than zulmat. The approximity of angels to genies is like the nearness of man to animals. The higher ones of men are more valuable than angels, and genies are more valuable than animals.

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Most Islamic savants said that angels are objects. And this is the truth of the matter.

He who disbelieves the existence of angels becomes a disbeliever. He who disbelieves the fact that they are objects does not become a disbeliever, but he becomes a holder of bid’at.

Also, he who disbelieves the existence of genies becomes a disbeliever. A part of ancient philosophers, the majority of the group of Qadariyya [Mu’tazila] and zindîqs disbelieved genies and satans. They said that genie meant an intelligent person, a genius, and satan meant an evil person. He who does not read books of dîn or know of the words of Islamic savants will certainly not believe. But it is something astonishing that while the fact is clearly stated in the Qur’ân and though the books written by great men of Islam are so many, the Qadariyya group do not believe it. For, these people claim that they obey the Qur’ân. This comes to mean that they obey it this far only. However, genies’ existence is not unreasonable. That is, it is not something which mind would not admit. For, it is not something which Allah’s power could not make. Today, scientists, owners of wisdom and faith do not deny the things about which mind does not say impossible. The facts that are stated in the Qur’ân should be interpreted with the clear and common meanings of the words. Shaikh-i akbar [Muhyiddin-i Arabî] proves the existence of genies through the following âyats:

1 - The fifty-sixth âyat of Zâriyât Sűra purports, “I have created men and genies only so that they would know, obey and worship Me.”

2 - The seventy-fourth âyat of er-Rahmân Sűra purports, that genies will enter Paradise.

3 - The thirty-first âyat of er-Rahmân Sűra purports, ‘Thaqalayn,’ which means “O men and genies.” Such names as Rasűl uth-thaqalayn, muftiy-uth-thaqalayn and ghaws uth-thaqalayn [that is, the Prophet, the Muftî, the Walî of men and genies] show that genies exist.

All disbelievers with books, fire-worshippers, idolaters, Buddhists, polytheists, most Greek philosophers, and great men of tasawwuf believe that genies exist. The event of Hadrat Suleymân also indicates the existence of genies.

Those who give the âyats telling about genies different meanings in accordance with their own minds become apostates. The fatwâ in the book Milal-Nihal and in the book Tarîqat-i

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Muhammadiyya, which is written by Imâm-i Muhammed Birgivî, and the explanation of ’Aqâid-i Nasafî show that they become apostates. The fatwâ is:

“Âyats of the Qur’ân are to be given their clear, common meanings. Those who change these meanings and thus follow Bâtinîs [Ismâ’ilîs] become disbelievers.”

The Qul a’űdhu and Jinn sűras inform that genies exist.

[Some ignorant people suppose that genies are illusions and say that they do not exist; this is worthless. Illusions formed before eyes out of fear absolutely do not exist. But to suppose that these illusions are genies means that one knows nothing of genies. To say that something does not exist, one has to know, understand it first. Without knowing it, it would be puerile to say that it does not exist. It would be out of place to call such people scientists. It does not become a man of knowledge to say “not existent,” only writing by way of supposition, without being based upon knowledge, mind or experiment, about something which has been communicated by all prophets, especially by the highest of the Prophets ‘alaihi wa alaihimussalawâtu wattaslîmât’ various times. The only saying of those who disbelieve genies, angels, Paradise and Hell, and even Allâhu ta’âlâ, is, “Who on earth has gone there and seen them? We would have seen them if they existed. It is idiocy to believe things that are not seen.” They think that mind should depend upon eyes, not eyes upon mind. However, mind is a power above the sense organs and a judge that distinguishes the right ones from the wrong ones of the things that are perceived. If men were dependent upon eyes and if the honour of humanity were measured with the power of the eyes, a cat, a dog or a rat would necessarily be more honourable, more valuable than man. For, these animals can see in the dark, but man cannot. Then, a person who is reluctant to believe what he cannot see reduces humanity to a grade below animals. This means to say that our sense organs are mind’s servants, tools. Mind is the commander, the ruler. Mind does not deny things that are not seen or heard, nor does it say nonexistent about those things whose nonexistence cannot be proved or understood. It is not reasonable to say that these things are nonexistent.]

Since the existence of genies is something which Islam has communicated clearly, he who disbelieves it will go out of Islam, and none of his worships will be accepted.

Examples of the fact that genies cause harm to men, that they help them, and that they make them attain their wishes have been

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seen and reported by Muslims and disbelievers at various times. Those who disbelieve the fact, on the other hand, are very few. That is, they are only those quack philosophers plus a few people owing medical diplomas. Old, experienced doctors and those who have received the taste of medical specialization today cannot dismiss the matter by saying that they do not exist, but they have to follow Muslims. Ibni Sinâ,[1] the most famous doctor of Islamic world, influenced by Greek philosophers, did not get any share from Islam. Yet, while explaining the disease of epilepsy in his book Qânűn, he refers to genies. He says, for instance, “As diseases are caused by various substances, so there are those diseases that are caused by genies, and such diseases are widely-known.”

[There was information about genies in each prophet’s book. They used to act under the command of Suleymân ‘alaihissalâm’. When the Prophet Idris ‘alahissalâm’ was taken up to Paradise alive, those who loved him very much could not bear the grief of separation. Drawing pictures of him, they watched them. Those who came after them thought that these pictures were gods. They made various statues and worshipped them. Thus, idolatry came about. Amr bin Luhay, who was the chief of the Huzâ’a government in Hidjaz a thousand years before our Prophet ‘sallallâhu alaihi wa sallam’, brought the religion of idolatry from Hidjaz to Mekka. Those who worshipped idols heard voices from the idols. It was genies who entered the idols, which were statues, and spoke in them. It was heard from many idols that our Prophet had honoured the world with his presence and that Islam had commenced. It is written with details in the history book Mir’ât-i Mekka that many people became Muslims by these words. Satans can enter a living person, too. Affecting man’s nerves of sense and movement, they can make motion and voices. Man is unaware of this word or action of his. So, at one time in Rome and Budapest and recently in Adana, speaking children and sick people were seen. Because the genies who made them speak told about things in distant countries or in ancient times, some people thought that these children had two souls or they bore another person’s soul; that is, they thought it was metempsychosis. Our dîn explains clearly that it is wrong to think so. Of old, soothsayers used to hear some things from genies and tell fortunes. Therefore, idolaters used to believe the existence of genies, and they used to

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[1] Avicenna.

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fear them. Muslims did not learn the existence of genies by hearing it from idolaters. They learned it from the Qur’ân and from Muhammad ‘alaihissalâm’. Contrary to idolaters, Muslims are not afraid of genies. In addition to the protecting angels who protect men against genies, they cannot do any harm to those who trust themselves to Allâhu ta’âlâ by saying âyats and prayers.]

As men were created from earth first, so genies were created from flames. Genies, too, are either male or female. Information about their marriages, homes, eating, drinking, multiplying, dying, the facts that Muhammad ‘alaihissalâm’ is also their Prophet, that they listen to the Qur’ân and gather in the blessed cities of Mekka and Medina, that Rasűl-i akram ‘sallallâhu alaihi wa sallam’ recited the Qur’ân to them, that they worship and give alms, that their good deeds will be given thawâb, that the disbelievers of genies will go to Hell and their believers will enter Paradise and they will see Allâhu ta’âlâ in Paradise, the matters such as whether the namâz of those who perfom namâz behind genies will be acceptable, whether the prayers of Friday or other prayers in jamâ’at with them will be acceptable and that it is permissible for them to pass before a person performing namâz are written in various books. Our savants have various writings communicating that marriage between human beings and genies is permissible that ghusl (ritual washing) is necessary when a male genie assualts a human woman, how the child born from the intercourse between a human being and a genie will be [e.g., Belqis, the Queen of Sheba], that it is permissible for a man to eat the animal (sheep, etc.) killed (by jugulation) by a genie, that genies ask questions to human savants and take fatwâ from them, that they preach to human beings, that they recite poems to human beings, and that human beings hear them, that they teach human beings how to cure diseases and how to make medicines, that they fear human beings and obey them. These books indicate the existence of genies. How to take precautions against genies’ harm to human beings, how to defend against genies’ harm, that the inferior genies obey their superiors, that they do favours in return for men’s favours and evil and harm in return for their harm, that they enter an epileptic person’s body and the epileptic’s actions and deeds are the genies’ actions, that for curing such diseased people it is necessary to exchange questions and answers with genies, that genies make fun of human beings, that genies, like human beings, cause illnesses by evil eyes, that genies make wars, especially in the month of Ramadân they become excessive, that

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genies worship human beings, that they enter discussions with human beings on the question of whether some hadîths are sahîh (see kinds of hadîths in the first fascicle), that they informed the inhabitants of Mekka with the news that Sarwar-i âlam ‘sallallâhu alaihi wa sallam’ stayed as a guest in Umm-i Ma’bad’s tent, that they informed that Umm-i Ma’bad had become a Muslim, that they informed about the combat of Badr, that it is permissible to ask genies about things in the past but not about things that will happen in the future, that genies will bear witness for the adhâns said by muadhdhins on the Day of Resurrection, that genies wept and mourned upon the death of Abű Ubayda and his friends, that they recited eulogies upon the death of Hadrat ’Umar ‘radiyallâhu anh’, that they wept and moaned when Hadrat Uthmân ‘radiyallâhu anh’ was martyred, that they reported the martyrdom of Hadrat Alî ‘radiyallâhu anh’, that they wept and cried when Hadrat Husayn ‘radiyallâhu anh’ was martyred and reported the martyrdom of other Sahabîs, that they reported the death of Hadrat ’Umar bin Abdul’azîz, that they wept upon the deaths of Imâm-i a’zam Abű Hanîfa and Imâm-i Shâfi’î, that genies instill doubts into man’s heart, and many other famous events and deeds are written in valuable books. All these show that genies exist. [They disguise themselves as goats and snakes, an event that has been seen many times. Also, disguising themselves as microbes, they travel in a person’s blood vessels.]

Genies eat and drink. Our Prophet ‘sallallâhu alaihi wa sallam’ stated, “Eat and drink with your right hands! For the Shaytân eats and drinks with his left hand.” All the satans (shaytân) are disbelievers. They strive to deceive men. They try to make them forget about worships and to misrepresent sins as beautiful. They incite the desires of the nafs. Satans are made from fire and air, too. But in genies the air is in the majority and in satans the fire is in the majority. Genies and satans can go through the smallest opening and can penetrate into man, into his blood vessels.

It is written in ’Aynî Tarihi, “Genies are more than ten times as many as human beings. Satans are more than ten times as many as the total number of these two. And angels are more than ten times as many as the sum of these three.” [Târîh-i ’Aynî, by Mahműd bin Ahmad, one of the interpreters of Bukhârî, consists of nineteen volumes.] Each person has a companion from genies, who is kâfir. But angels protect human beings against their harm. It is written in Ashbâh that there have not been any prophets from genies. Imâm-i Muqâtil communicates that no prophet had

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come to genies before Hadrat Muhammad.

It is written in the second part of Ashbâh and in its explanation called Hamawî, “The first man was created from soil. Bodies of all men are made up of earthen substances. But men are flesh and bones. They are not soil. So is the case with genies. Though they are made from fire, they are not fire or air.”

It is written in Tadhkira-i Qurtubî, “A genie’s death is its getting lost on the ground. Old ones do not die without getting young again. When they are about to die, they turn back to their childhood and then get lost on the ground. There are three groups of genies. One group is like the wind and the air. Another group is like the insects and the tiny animals on the ground. The third group is charged with commands and worship. They will be called to account and there will be torment for them.”

Sayyid ’Umar said, “A genie girl came to me. She wanted to marry me. I asked Shamsaddin Hanafî what to do. He said it was not permissible according to the Hanafî Madhhab. I told her so. She took me to their house under the ground. She told her elders what had happened. Her elders said, ‘We respect Sayyed Shamsaddîn’s answer highly. But a genie’s marrying a human being is permitted in the Shafi’î Madhhab. We are not Hanafî; we are Shâfi’î.’ ”

Men’s multiplying is through semen. And genies’ multiplying is through gas (air). That is, gas being transferred from the male genie to the female genie, the young gets born by the female genie. This means to say that a man’s marriage to a genie is imaginary. There is not a real marriage. But most savants said that there is a real marriage, that a ghusl (ritual washing) is necessary, and that Belqis was born from intercourse between a man and a genie. [The genie gets married by disguising itself in a human form.]

Man can see genies and satans when he is awake and in his dream; for, they can take any shape. Disguising themselves in very lovely appearances they cause nocturnal emission. Most prophets ‘alaihimussalâm’ and Awliyâ saw Satan and spoke to him. No matter in what guise, if the person who sees a genie looks at him all the time, the genie cannot change his guise, nor can he disappear. He can ask him questions and get the answers. But if he looks at somewhere else for a moment, the genie returns to his own guise and disappears. Imâm-i Shâfi’î ‘rahmatullâhi aleyh’ said, “A person who claims to have seen a genie in his own appearance is not acceptable as a witness.” For, people with

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strong imaginations suppose to see things that do not exist. They think of illusions as something. Also, bewitched people see such illusions and think of them as objects. Ugly things seem beautiful to fanciful people. Their ugly sides are not seen by them. Likewise, everything worldly seems so to those who are fond of the world. Ugliness seems beautiful to them. But those who are vigilant, keen-sighted see the truth of everything and do not get deceived.

Man’s knowing genies or making friends with them is not something valuable, and it is harmful. Speaking with them is like making friends with sinners. Not a single person who has known them has benefited from them. Muhyiddîn-i Arabî ‘quddîsa sirruh’ says in the fifty-first chapter of his book Futűhât, ‘Not one person has acquired any information concerning Allâhu ta’âlâ from genies. For, genies have very little knowledge of the dîn. A person who thinks of acquiring worldly knowledge from them is wrong, too. For, they will cause him to waste his time on useless things. Those who make friends with them become arrogant. And Allâhu ta’âlâ dislikes an arrogant person.” Abdulghafűr-i Lârî, the Khalîfa of Hadrat Molla Jâmî, says in Rashahât that Muhyiddîn-i Arabî said as follows in one of his booklets: “The first father of the genies is not Iblis [Satan]. Satan is from a tribe of genies. Genies are very fine because they are created from fire and air. They act quickly. When man strikes at them slightly, they die immediately. For this reason, their lives are short. Their knowledge of the dîn is quite limited. Because they are arrogant, they always fight with each other. They are not affected by fire. Those genies who will go to Hell will be tormented in Zamharîr, which is the cold Hell. Iblîs and his children will inspire you to do right, blessed deeds, too. But when doing these there will be hypocrisy, ostentation in your nafs, or they will cause you to miss the fard (obligatory) actions, and thus you will be sinful.” We should not have the fancy to make an acquaintance with genies, but we should try to benefit from the exalted souls of Awliyâ. The souls of Awliyâ, without being seen or by appearing in their own figures, are useful to those whom they love and protect them against disasters. We should try to know them, to love them and to be loved by them.

The hadîth written in the chapter on the disasters of the whole body in Al-hadîqat-un-nadiyya says, “One who commits tatayyur or is regarded as tatayyur, who is a kâhin or goes to a kâhin, and who works magic or sorcery or has it practiced, or who believes

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them is not among us. They do not believe in the Qur’ân.” Tatayyur is belief in ill omen. Kâhin is a person who has made friends with a genie to whom he asks about past and future events and tells what he learns to others. In this group of people are those fortunetellers acquainted with genies and those who answer every question by looking it up in a book of constellation. To visit them, or to believe what they or other sorcerers say or do, means - even if it proves true occasionally - to believe that someone other than Allah may know everything and do whatever he wishes, which means unbelief.

Ibn Hajar-i Hîtamî wrote on page one hundred and twenty of Fatâwâ-yi hadîthiyya, “If some men of tarîqa perform feats of skill such as cutting someone’s arm and then replacing it or thrusting long knives into their own mouths, and if they do them in the name of magic (sihr) and claim to work miracles, the (Islamic) judge is to order them to be killed. If they do so in a different manner, they are not killed but heavily punished. In his book Ithbât-u karâmat-il-Awliyâ, Abdullah ibni Abî Zaid Kayrawânî ‘rahmatullâhi ’aleyh’, one of the scholars of the Mâlikî Madhhab says that if somebody’s magic does not contain anything that causes disbelief and is merely a feat of skill, and if he claims it to be miraculous and of tarîqa, he is punished. It is not permissible to go to or watch such men of tarîqa. Once, a woman told her husband that she practised sorcery so that he should lose his affection for her or someone else. She was not killed. She was punished. Ibni Abî Zayd said, “If somebody claims that he, by looking in a book, speaks with genies and, by commanding them, exorcises the wicked genie which causes epilepsy, or that he breaks spells and kills wicked genies, he should not be believed.” One who claims to be a friend of genies or to have served the leader of genies is to be taken as a sorcerer. Hâkim bi-Amrillah Mansűr, the sixth Fâtimid ruler in Egypt, taken in by Dirâr and his disciple, Hamza, became acquainted with genies, served the ruler of genies, deviated into heresy and became a toy of devils. He later claimed divinity. Ibni Abî Zayd said, “It is not permissible to believe a man of tarîqa who has friends among genies or to pay him money believing that he will rescue you from genies. It is not permissible to pay a person who removes sorcery.” It is permissible to write - free of charge - an amulet containing prayers from the Qur’ân and recommended by the Salaf-i sâlihîn for a woman so that her husband will love her and will not abuse her. It is harâm to write, read or have someone

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read things that are not known or to make an amulet or to cast a spell with them.” Birgivî’s words, “One who says that he knows what is stolen and one who believes him become unbelievers. If the former says that he knows it because genies reveal it to him, he again becomes an unbeliever; for, genies do not know the unknown, either. Only Allâhu ta’âlâ knows the unknown. No one else knows,” are explained by Qâdi-zâda in the annotation of Birgivî Vasiyyetnamesi as follows: “Those who are sent wahy or ilhâm (inspiration) by Allâhu ta’âlâ do know. Genies do not know everything. They know what Allâhu ta’âlâ makes them know or what they see. If the genie discloses what it has learned through either way, there is nothing wrong with saying that the genie has let you know. Prophets are alive in their graves in a life we do not know. Allâhu ta’âlâ revealed unknown and secret things through wahy, ilhâm and kashf. He discloses the actions and states of the living men to them and to the souls of those Believers He chooses.” It is jâ’iz that He reveals to faithful genies. Nevertheless, one must be on the alert lest one should drift into perdition by being trapped and misled by the lies fibbed by men of bid’at, sinful men of tarîqa and heretical and impious bigots. See the book Al-munîra!

It is written in the last sections of the last volumes of Durr-ul-mukhtâr’s explanations by Tahtâwî and Ibni Âbidîn: “It is makrűh to dispute on what a person does not have to know. It is not permissible to ask about things you are not commanded to know. For example, ‘Were Luqman and Zulqarnayn prophets, or not?’ ‘How did Jabrâil come to prophets?’ ‘In what guise do angels and genies show themselves to men?’ ‘When they appear in human form, are they still genies and angels?’ ‘Where are Paradise and Hell?’ ‘When will Doomsday happen?’ ‘When will Îsâ ‘alaihissalâm’ descend from Heaven?’ ‘Who is better, Ismâ’îl or Is’haq? Which was sacrificed?’ ‘Who is higher, Fâtima or Âisha?’ ‘In which dîn were Rasűlullah’s ‘sallallâhu alaihi wa sallam’ parents and Abű Tâlib?’ ‘Who was Ibrâhîm’s ‘alaihissalâm’ father?’ One should not ask questions like these. We are not commanded to know them.”

It is written in the book Khazînatulasrâr: Let us give the hadîths concerning the exorcization of spirits from the epileptic person and his healing:

Imâm-i Bayhaki says in his book Delâil-un-nubuwwa and Imâm-i Qurtubî in his book Tadhkira that Abű Dujâna said, “I was lying down, when I heard a noise like the noise of a mill or

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that of the leaves of a tree and saw a flash like lightning. I raised my head to see something black that was rising in the middle of the room. I felt it with my hand. It was like a porcupine’s skin. It began to throw things like sparks at my face. At once I went to Rasűlullah and told him what had happened. He said, ‘O Abâ Dujâna! May Allah give your home goodness and abundance!’ He asked for a pen and a piece of paper. He had Alî ‘radiyallâhu anh’ write a letter. I took the letter to my home. I put it under my head and went to sleep. A yelling voice woke me up. It said, ‘O Abâ Dujâna! You have burned me with that letter. Your owner is certainly much higher than we are. There is no way of escape for us, except that you remove that letter. We shall no longer come to your home or your neighbors.’ We cannot go to places where the letter is.’ I told him that I could not remove the letter without getting my owner’s permission. The night seemed very long to me because of the crying and wailing of genies. After performing the morning prayer in the mosque, I told Rasűlullah what the genie had said. Rasűlullah ‘sallallâhu alaihi wa sallam’ said, ‘Remove the letter. Or else they will suffer the letter’s pain till the end of the world.’ “

It is written in the book Majmu’â-tul-fawâid by Kafavî and also in Damîrî’s book Hayât-ul-haywân, in the entry ‘Qunfaz’ in the letter “Q,” “If a person carries this letter with himself or has it in his home, genies will not come to him, to his home, or to his neighborhood, and also those genies who have been haunting and harming him will go away.” The letter is written in Khazînatulasrâr and in Hayât-ul-haywân. The Persian version of Hayât-ul-haywân exists at number 2912, and its Turkish version at number 1913, in the Ayasophia section of the Library of Süleymâniye. With a view to serving Muslims, the book has also been appended to the book Tahsil-ul-manâfi’, which is available at Hakikat Kitabevi.

Also, frequent reciting of the sűras of Âyat-al-kursî, Mu’awizatayn, Ikhlâs and Fâtiha protects one against genies. Those who want to utilize these âyats by reciting them, by carrying the letter, by reciting the âyats for healing or by writing them on a piece of paper and drinking the water in which the piece of paper is put, should have an îmân agreeing with the belief of the Ahl as-sunnat. If the belief of a person who writes them or who uses them is not correct, or if he uses those things which are the signs of disbelief, or if he commits the harâm, they will not be useful.

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The book Aqâm-il-Marjân, by Qâdî Badruddîn Shablî, is in Arabic and it is great. It is entirely about genies. At one place it says, “It is permissible to ask genies about past things. It is not permissible to ask them about the things that will happen in the future. They know past things by seeing and hearing them. It is not permissible to do things that cause disbelief in order to rescue epileptic people or those people who have been paralyzed by genies from genies. Here we are writing the best ten remedies for getting saved from genies [briefly]:

1 - Say A’űdhu-Basmala and recite the sűra of Fâtiha. 2 - Say A’űdhu-Basmala and recite the sűra of Qul-a’űdhu. 3 - Say A’űdhu-Basmala and recite the sűra of Baqara. 4 - Say A’űdhu-Basmala and recite the Âyatalkursî. 5 - Say A’űdhu-Basmala and recite the final âyat of Baqara Sűra. 6 - Say A’űdhu-Basmala and recite the sűra of Hâ-mîm Mu’min from the beginning up to ‘masr,’ and also Âyatalkursî. 7 - Recite the prayer, “Lâ ilâha illallâhu wahdahu lâ sharîka lah lahul-mulku wa lahul-hamdu wa huwa ’alâ kulli shay’in qadîr.” 8 - Say (Allah) very often. 9 - Be with your ritual ablution all the time, never omit the fard and the sunnat actions. 10 - Avoid looking at nâ-mahram women, eating much and being in crowds.” The book Barakât, after telling about Muhammad Sa’îd, writes that in order to protect himself from genies, Imâm-i Rabbânî used to say the prayer, “Lâ hawla walâ quwwata illâ billah-il-’aliyyil’azîm.” Hadrat Imâm-i Rabbânî advised saying this prayer in his 174th letter for repelling genies. This prayer is called “kalima-i tamjîd.”

Also, in the book Tazakkur-u-Âsâr-ul-wârida by Shaikh-ul-Islâm Ibni Hajar Hîtamî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh’, there are prayers to protect one from genies. The book exists with number 1150 at the Rais-ul-kuttâb Mustafa Efendi section of the Library of Süleymâniyye. Hakîkat Kitâbevi has reproduced this book and appended it to the book Minhâ.

There is valuable information about how to protect yourself against incantation, evil eye and genies in the book Kitâburrahma fit-tibb-i wal’hikma by Jalâl-addîn-i Suyűti ‘rahmatullâhi aleyh’. He says in the hundred and fiftieth chapter, “For ridding the harmful doubts caused by Shaytân, say every day the prayer, ‘Yâ Allah-ur-raqîb-ul-hafîz-ur-rahîm. Yâ Allah-ul-hayy-ul-halîm-ul-’azîm-ur-raűf-űl-karîm. Yâ Allah-ul-hayy-ul-qayyűm-ulqâimu ’alâ kulli nafsin bimâ kasabat, hul baynî wa bayna aduwwî!’ ” He says at the end of the hundred and seventy-fourth chapter, “Genies will not come to the person who carries the gum called asafoetida

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with him. If an epileptic person smells it he will recover.” The gum asafoetida is a dark, badsmelling resin, and it has been used an as antispasmodic, that is, as a sedative of the nerves, in powder, pills or liquid forms, to remove tension from the muscles and nerves, in Europe. It is written in Hayât-ul-haywân and Qamus that genies do not enter the house where there is citron.

Imâm-i-Rabbânî ‘rahmatullâhi aleyh’ and his disciples set out for a long journey. On their way they stopped at an inn to spend the night. He told his disciples that a catastrophe was going to befall the inn during the night and advised them to recite the following prayer: “Bismillâh-il-lezî lâ-yadhurru ma’asmihi shay’un fi-l-Erd-i wa-lâ fi-s-samâ’ wa huwa-s-samî’ul-’alîm.” That night a great fire broke out, burning everything including the lodgers’ belongings. Yet those who had said the prayer suffered no harm. This prayer is written in the books Umdat-ul-Islâm and Berekât. On the other hand, it is stated in the book Terghîb-us-salât that it is a hadîth-i-sherîf. For protection against anxiety, disasters, mischief and diseases, you should remember the Imâm’s advice and say this prayer daily, three times in the morning and three times in the evening. It should be recited also when âyât-i-hirz [âyats for protection] are recited.