Djinni
JonB writes:
> Of course, if you're a muslim you know that jinn don't exist - for there is
> only one god. Therefore she can't possibly be guilty of recoursing to them,
> because they aren't there.
Not so, Jon. Have a look at the Q'ran; it's full of them. Allah made Adam out of a lump of clay, but made djinni out of "smokeless fire". (The word is usually transliterated as "djinn", plural "djinni", hence the "genies" that pop out of lamps and jars in the Tales of the Arabian Nights.) According to the Q'ran, shooting stars are bolts hurled by Allah to deter djinni who stray too close to heaven.
Folk belief in djinni is widespread in North Africa and the Middle East. An English author recently wrote a book about his experiences of doing up a house in Morocco. All the local workers were terrified of the djinni who they assumed would have taken up residence while the house was empty, and placated them with offerings of food, even going so far as to drop raw chicken down the well and making the whole family very ill.
Djinni can be helpful or mischievous, unlike angels, who run errands for Allah and cannot do other than obey His will. The Q'ran was dictated to the Prophet Mohammed by the archangel Jibreel (Gabriel in western traditions).
I asked Ed Hussain, author of the "The Islamist", at a book-signing, if he believed in djinni. He declined to be drawn directly, but did say that he believed in "spiritual beings".
("Alien", since I've no idea what a djinn looks like.)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
