Recordings › Jinn Possessions: Myth and Reality in Islam by Sh. Akram Nadwi & Mufti Abu Layth · 20 Sep 2017 › Segment 12 of 25
Does the Quran's verse about the touch of Shaytan prove that jinn possess people?
muftis dalil daleel adillah adilla evidence ribaa sood interest usury jin jinnat jinni shaitan shaytaan iblis iblees shayateen shayatin satan qiyamah qiyama qiyamat yawm al-qiyamah yawm al-qiyama resurrection jahanam jahannum hell koran quraan al-quran ayah aya ayat ayaat aayah aayat ulema ulamaa scholarsThe riba verse and the tree of Jahannam: Quranic imagery misread as proof of possession
Play from 58:35
The video loads from YouTube only when you press play. Click a time in the transcript to seek.
Watch this part
Open on YouTube at 58:35The player starts at 58:35, the beginning of this part.
This segment58:35 to 1:02:31 · 3 min 56 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenNo: the riba verse describes how usurers will rise on the Day of Judgement or pictures their greed, and the image of Shaytan's touch is drawn from human imagination, like the tree of Jahannam whose fruit is 'like the heads of devils'. It is a misused verse, not a proof.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth takes the verse historically debated in this connection, that those who take riba will not stand except as one made unstable by the touch of Shaytan, which supporters of possession cite as proof. He answers that those who took riba were not acting like lunatics but were ordinary people looking after their interests, and that many commentators read the verse as describing how they will rise from their graves on the Day of Judgement, while others read it as a picture of greed so consuming that it is as though they had lost their faculties. To the question why Allah would use the touch of Shaytan as an image if it had no reality, he answers with Ibn Atiyya [?] and others that this is imagery drawing on the imagination of mankind, and compares the verse describing the tree of Jahannam whose fruit emerges as though it were the heads of devils: nobody has seen a devil, so the comparison works only because Allah knows his creation has imagination. He adds that the most frightening thing a person ever encounters is their own imagination, and concludes that this is one of the key verses misused by those who build the narrative of demonic possession.
- Some terms in this segment are uncertain
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says the riba verse 2:275 describes how such people will rise on the Day of Judgement or pictures their greed, and that like the zaqqum fruit resembling the heads of devils it is imagery drawing on human imagination, not evidence that possession is real.
“imagery that Allah grows upon the imagination of mankind when he's addressing them let's take another example”
Category: teaching
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine58:35 to 1:02:31 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
people were coming with normal whatever problems asking these people to explain them and they had took they were trying to come up with some answer to help these people right so that is because we need to keep that in mind when we're dealing with this so why are the ulama where's this confusion coming from within islam certain verses had historically been debated verses in the quran allah speaks about a very popular verse that when allah speaks about those
people who take of RIBA liya home owner Allah , Akuma lady at the Hobbit or Shaitaan or anonymous those who take a river do not kind of go about the daily affairs except how liya come on or they do not stand or however you want to see this or lie upon muna as though they do not go about the daily face except as though somebody who has been yet the hot butter in Arabic means to become unstable like you've kind of like you've been all over the place as though somebody has become unstable due to mus like this touch by a devil
or a demon what does this mean so some people said well okay so what people coming to this people who are supporting this whole gene possession they say ah well here's a verse in the Quran highlighting this first of all people who were taking RIBA were not doing that they were people who look normal people who were taking River weren't actually acting mental they were just people looking out for the interests they were just saying no I'll give you 100 if he can bring me back 200 at the end of the month they weren't kind of like all over the place and acting like
lunatics so many more first Selene had highlighted this is talking about in the arc era that lie a homeowner ll al-qaeda Oh min kabura him or when they come from rise from the graves they will be all over the place and some people said no this is so so it's not even talking it's got nothing to do with this you know Djinn possession some people said oh well this is speaking here about them in their lust and greed that this is how it's as though they possessed they're so greedy they don't want to help people
this greed is so overtaking them it's as though they've lost their mental faculty but why this must summon a Shaitaan why this this touch of the of the Shaitaan why does it have a reality why would Allah use this as an example if it wasn't real this is the question so here may many people hide highlighted including them of us here like even our Thea and other people that this is imagery that Allah grows upon the
imagination of mankind when he's addressing them let's take another example let's take a look at the verse in the Quran well I speaking about Jahannam and he says that in there there's this tree shall return means our home this this devastating tree and then last days that Aloha I know a narrow social theme that it emerges as though it's the heads of Devils have you seen a
devil has anybody seen a devil so how do they know what that's supposed to mean when you say that oh this tree looks like it's the heads of Devils I haven't seen a devil that's because it's okay you have imagined Allah knows ezel imbecile teehee he knows they have creation that they have imagination and then what's interesting he has a side note is that in life the most intimidating and frightening phenomenon that you will ever encounter right
Paragraphs overlapping 58:35 to 1:02:31. Full text on the recording page.
Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2017-09-20-S12, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/12/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2017, September 20). Does the Quran's verse about the touch of Shaytan prove that jinn possess people? [Video, segment 2017-09-20-S12, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/12/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2017. "Does the Quran's verse about the touch of Shaytan prove that jinn possess people?" Video, segment 2017-09-20-S12, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded September 20, 2017. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/12/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2017-09-20-S12, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Does the Quran's verse about the touch of Shaytan prove that jinn possess people?}}, year = {2017}, month = {9}, date = {2017-09-20}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/12/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/12/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2017-09-20-S12, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
Something wrong here?
Tell us what is wrong and it will be checked against the recording. Nothing changes until a person has reviewed it.
Sending a note needs JavaScript, which is off or unavailable in this browser. Nothing has been sent.
No name, email address or account is asked for or stored, and the inbox does not store your IP address. For rate limiting it keeps an unreadable fingerprint of your connection for 48 hours, and our database provider's own logs record connections as every website's do. Only your note, its kind, the page and the moment in the recording are kept, for review.