# What is the hadith of the night of the jinn, and was it a psychoactive experience?

*The harmala report and the night of the jinn: visions in the hadith literature*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7skyphqzdy8/s/6/
- Date: 2020-10-17 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Psychedelics are NOT haram | Mufti Abu Layth (22:07–29:48)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SkyPhQZdY8&t=1327s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7skyphqzdy8/

**Topics:** Individual hadith explained; Spiritual experience and psychedelics; Jinn, angels and the devil

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The Tirmidhi report of Ibn Mas'ud's night of the jinn, in which he carried nabidh and saw strange figures, would most likely describe a psychoactive experience if true, and the report praising harmala shows such a narrative existed in early Muslim society.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says that the Tirmidhi report of Ibn Mas'ud's night of the jinn, if true, most likely describes a psychoactive experience connected with the nabidh he carried, and that the report praising the harmala seed, though not authentic, shows that such a narrative existed in early Muslim society.

**Evidence, his words at 29:29:** “This if anything would have been a kind of most likely would have been a psychoactive experience uh that would have had and he explains that I had with me this particular drink.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SkyPhQZdY8&t=1769s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth presents a report, brought by Ibn Bashkuwal [?] and others and not authentic in his view, in which the Prophet is made to swear that nothing of the harmala seed emerges, root, shoot, flower or leaf, without an angel tied to it, that there is a power in its root and shoot and a cure for seventy-two ailments in its seed; he says the chain is problematic but the narrative shows that people in that society had experienced this. He then reads at length a hadith from al-Tirmidhi often called the night of the jinn, numbered 2861 in the copy he uses of the Aridat al-Ahwadhi, Ibn al-Arabi al-Maliki's commentary [?]: the Prophet takes Abdullah ibn Mas'ud to the outskirts of Makkah, asks what drink he has and is told nabidh, a drink that the Hanafis always held was not an intoxicant and that can be made from dates, barley or wheat, and calls it a pure drink; he draws a line, tells him not to cross it and that he may see figures speaking to him; Ibn Mas'ud sees strange, incomprehensible figures he calls Zutt [?], who approach but do not cross the line, and later, as the Prophet sleeps with his head in his lap, beautiful figures in white who surround and praise the Prophet. Mufti says that if true the experience, later described as the jinn, would most likely have been a psychoactive one connected with the drink he carried.

## Sources and names cited

- report: nothing of the harmala seed emerges without an angel tied to it and in its seed is a cure for seventy two ailments
- report: the night of the jinn ibn masud carried nabidh and saw figures that did not cross the line while the prophet slept with his head in his lap
- Sunan al-Tirmidhi
- Aridat al-Ahwadhi (Ibn al-Arabi's commentary on al-Tirmidhi) [?]
- Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi
- Ibn Bashkuwal [?]
- Abdullah ibn Mas'ud
- nabidh
- Hanafi school
- harmala (Peganum harmala, Syrian rue)
- jinn

## Transcript (machine tier, 22:07–29:48)

[21:40] know these animals because they would think well this is where we're getting this from you [laughter] and it just explains it's it's I just think when you think about it it really does um blow one's mind. I will um there is also if I can find here there was uh to the extent that some people had had made had presented hadith.

[22:07] Now obviously the hadith are not going to be authentic but here is a uh I mean they are mentioned in the books of certain madin like Ibn Bashal brings it and other people that this is a hadith that look I just want to speak about the the the description so the fact that this narrative floated whether it's not that whether the prophet said it but the fact that this existed in society for somebody to say look that that I swear whereby the Lord who has my life in his hands that that this peanum seed that nothing of it

[22:47] emerges not its root not a shoot of it offshoot not its flower or leaf or anything except each thing has an angel tied to it until it reaches is until this thing reaches where the angel can reach.

[23:15] And indeed in its root and its offshoot you will find a certain a certain power and indeed in its seed you will find a shif for every ailment. It says 72 ailments but that's used as uh a kind of exaggeration.

[23:39] Now even though this I'm not you see whether this is a sahi hadith or not uh people have said the people in the chain are problematic and that may be the case but I'm speaking about the narrative to have existed. You see it's fascinating that they experienced this. Now here is another hadith which you can see this is from Tmidi which is often described by people as the night of the jin.

[24:11] Now it is very fascinating that Abdullahbn uh he goes with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and in this in this particular hadith he is asked that um what do you have with you that you know do you have any water and he says I have nab and that is a particular uh it can have intoxicantlike features to it and but the hanafi mabs always argued it was not an intoxicant and it can be made out of anything.

[24:45] It can be made out of barley, out of wheat, it can be made out of dates. It can be made out of they can make this drink out of many things. It's not just uh dates. Often they did used to make it out of dates. Now you can see in this hadith that the prophet says to him that oh um you know that that is indeed a pure uh that is indeed a pure drink.

[25:11] Now what's interesting is I wanted to share if I could the hadith the hadith with you guys that look you've got here this is so there's a very lengthy description to it.

[25:31] Now in this hadith it begins by it's this is hadith in this book it's uh 2861 and this is ini the commentary by al- maliki the legend dawn from Muslim Spain and the hadith mentions that um says that the messenger of Allah had gone and he took abd with him to these outskirts of Makkah to this kind of scape landscape of Mecca

[26:09] and he sat him down and then he says there was this line drawn. Okay. Ali um and the prophet said uh and the prophet said do not go out of this line stay there. And then he goes on to say that the and the prophet said that you might see things, you might see figures, you might see people communicating with you.

[26:41] Uh and the prophet said don't worry about it. They are not talking to you. They will not be talking to you. Um and then he says whilst I sat there says I saw these figures as though they were these strange what is this zoot it's a strange Arabic word uh some people said oh maybe it was talking about a particular tribe maybe a Sudanese tribe maybe this the editor said oh maybe it was the zat it was which is the Arabic for jut [laughter] who are from the Punjab region of

[27:19] Pakistan. Jat Jat, [laughter] we're ethnically Jat as well, you see. So, but that's not what it was. It wasn't the Jat people. It was the zut was these crazy like these incomprehensible figures. He says, I saw the strange hair, strange bodies. I I don't recognize them.

[27:42] He says, I don't see yet nakedness. I don't see these kind of or the it's like I I can't seem to make sense of what I'm seeing. Um he says that they would come up to me but they wouldn't cross this line. I could not see them crossing this particular line. um until the night ended.

[28:05] Um and then he says the prophet came and he put his head down and as he kind of lay down he put his head by my lap. Um and he says that he says and then the prophet fell asleep and when he would sleep sometimes he would have a slight snore to him.

[28:29] Um he says so whilst I'm sitting there with the prophet uh whose head was on my lap asleep he says all of a sudden I see these figures again this time people in white uh but they were so beautiful he says that Allah can only understand the beauty that I was seeing and then he says a group of these figures come and sit by the prophet's head and a group of them they surround the prophet and they and he says I can hear that they're communicating that wow they're praising the prophet.

[29:04] Um so then they go on to say now this hadith now he carries on with his description. Um so this this hadith in all honesty people that experience if true which was then described as maybe this was the jin.

[29:29] This if anything would have been a kind of most likely would have been a psychoactive experience uh that would have had and he explains that I had with me this particular drink. Now you see this is where I people would say no that would just be him communicating with the gin.

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 7SkyPhQZdY8/s/6. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7skyphqzdy8/s/6/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.