Whilst bored at work the other day I was surfing Wikipedia and got engrossed in reading about all things ghostly; jinns, Ouija boards etc. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to do this as it freaked me out, some stuff stayed in my mind for days, started to think there were other worldly beings harassing me (not kidding, not the first time either but this isn’t the place to discuss details).
It’s shocking how wide the usage of Ouija boards, practice of séances, black magic etc is in the West. It’s estimated 40% of 15-25 year olds have used a Ouija board and nearly 10% were seriously psychologically scarred by the experience.
‘More‘ magazine in August 1996 reported on the findings of a Glasgow University survey. They estimated that as many as “1 in 10 people - 65% of them women - have been psychologically damaged by their (occult) experiences.”
It was surprising to see the number of celebrities who regularly dabble in occult practices. Brandon Flowers, lead singer of The Killers, used an Ouija board and gained a fear of the number 621. This number also happens to be his birthday, June 21. He is convinced he is going to die on that day. Razorlight singer Johnny Borrell is said to have used an Ouija board to help him write songs, particularly “Keep the Right Profile” and “Hold On”. Also Gerard Way, the lead vocals of My Chemical Romance, has claimed to have had strange encounters with Ouija boards [source: Wikipedia]. Musicians seem to be quite drawn to demonic beings, or is it vice versa? But not just musicians.
I watched a fascinating documentary, Dangerous Knowledge, a few weeks ago (clip), it featured a famous German Physicist called Georg Cantor. Early on in his life he said God spoke to him and told him he was a messenger from God and his theories on the Infinity Continuum were given to him by God. From our ‘aqida we know Cantor was not the next messenger of God nor did God speak to him telling him so. Giving him the benefit of the doubt that he was not lying or wasn’t temporarily insane the voice he heard was most likely a shaytan or evil jinn. He eventually went mad (surprise, surprise) and was repeatedly institutionalised in his later life, he died in a sanatorium.
Was he driven insane by a mischievous jinni? It’s a trend in other similar cases where the unseen being helps the person somehow with knowledge, some of it true and beneficial but is invariably mixed with heaps of falsehood and evil, and the person almost always suffers some kind of psychological distress as a result. I wonder how many people are affected by the demons or unsavory jinn?
A visiting Shaykh once commented, whilst driving through Oxford Street in Central London (a very busy shopping area), that the place was crawling with Jinn. A Hadith from Muslim states Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was reported to have said to a companion: “If possible, do not be the first to enter the market nor the last to leave it. It is the battleground of shaytan and he raised his barrier there”.
Granted, cases of possession and unexplainable phenomena from credible sources are relatively rare. This doesn’t mean the demons aren’t operating in more subtle ways, whispering suggestions into the mind. May Allah bless our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) for teaching us the reality of these demonic beings and teaching us how to guard against them. Many Muslims may not even believe in the existence of demons, a problematic position as their existence is confirmed in the text of the Quran. If you don’t believe in something then you won’t feel a need to guard against it. Its said the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was making people not believe in him.
Evil jinn tend to congregate in dirty place such as toilets that is why it is sunnah to say this prayer before entering toilets (entering with our left foot first):
اللُّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْخُبْثِوَالْخَبَائِث
Allahumma inni ‘audhubika min al-khubuthi wa al-khabaith
O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the male and female Demons.
Another du’a that if repeated 10 times in the morning is said to protect from demons until the night and if repeated in the night will protect you until the morning:
لا اِلهَ اِلَّا اللّهُ وَحْدَهُ لا شَرِيكَ لَهُ ، لَهُ الْمُلْكُ وَ لَهُ الْحَمْدُ وَ هُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
La illaha ilAllahu, waHdahu la shareeka lahu, lahul Mulku, wa lahul Hamd, wa Huwa ala kulli shaiy’in Qadeer
(There is No God But Allah Alone, who has no partner. His is the dominion and His is the raise, and He is Able to do all things)
The last du’a reassures us it is Allah who is control of everything , nothing happens without His will. Allah has more right to be feared than any jinn.
