Recordings › Jinn Possessions: Myth and Reality in Islam by Sh. Akram Nadwi & Mufti Abu Layth · 20 Sep 2017 › Segment 16 of 25
How do we know mental illnesses are not really jinn possessions?
muftis dalil daleel adillah adilla proof iman imaan eemaan eeman djinn jin jinnat jinni sihr sihar jadu jadoo kala jadu sorcery shaitan shaytaan iblis iblees shayateen shayatin satan devil amanah amana amaanah amanat deen al-din ad-deen ad-dinThe 'jinn' as a one-size-fits-all paradigm: the cyborg story and Basil Mitchell's partisan
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This segment1:19:28 to 1:24:46 · 5 min 18 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenA theory that explains everything, like a child's cyborg conspiracy, is not thereby true, and 'the jinn' is such a theory for Muslims. Like Basil Mitchell's partisan who rationalises everything the stranger does, this is non-propositional faith that no evidence can reach.
In more detail
To the objection that mental illnesses might really be possessions, Mufti Abu Layth offers an allegory: a child asks its mother why things happen and she, lacking answers, invents a conspiracy of cyborgs behind everything; the child trusts her and can now explain earthquakes, politicians and anything else by the cyborgs. One paradigm that explains everything is not thereby true, and the jinn are the Muslim version: a person rejects the message because the jinn influenced him, a mental illness was the jinn, magic was the jinn, a paradigm so plastic it stretches to fit anything. From the philosophy of religion he recounts Basil Mitchell's parable of the partisan and the stranger: a stranger wins a resistance fighter's trust by claiming to be the movement's leader and warns him that he will be seen acting against the cause, which is all part of the plan; once the partisan has bought in, nothing the stranger says or does, even confessing that it was all a lie for money, can shake him. This is non-propositional faith: evidence and reason no longer matter because everything contrary is 'part of the test' or 'Shaytan tricking me', so there is no way to win against it. He says this is why the topic matters, beginning with the mockery it makes of Islam and its Messenger.
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says that explaining anything unexplained by the jinn is a one-size-fits-all paradigm like a child's conspiracy theory or Basil Mitchell's partisan, a non-propositional faith that no evidence or reason can touch.
“if you've just got one version to answer everything then yes you can do that but it doesn't make it true”
Category: method
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine1:19:28 to 1:24:46 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
activity in the prefrontal cortex seems to shut down which is interesting so people block themselves from reasoning when it comes to their own faith that's just I thought well and I'll you see when I said here that we don't see gene possessions happening with Kafar or with atheists or something people might say oh but how do you not know that the mental illnesses are not gene possessions you see this is like I want to give you an allegory a kind of a story paradigm of of a child who doesn't
understand the world and asks its mother asks the you know the mother why is this happening why is that being what is happening and the mother doesn't have the answers so the mother says well what are these is the mother comes up with a a cyborg invasion paradigm where the son mother says what it is is these cyborgs these kind of like human-like artificial intelligence has actually is responsible for everything that's the mother's answer so the mother says that this is what's making so why is this happening oh because artificial intelligence and these cyborgs have done this and they've
done this and oh they've convinced this person to do this so this becomes the conspiracy now the child because it trusts the mother takes on this paradigm the child can use this to answer anything that it can't understand in the world so when you say oh but why is it earthquake oh but this was a conspiracy which really the cyborgs and oh but why is you know Donald Trump doing this really Donald Trump has been convinced by the cyborgs who have done the OH electronic stuff is like if you've just got one version to answer everything
then yes you can do that but it doesn't make it true like Muslims have got this aunt like their version of this cyborg paradigm is gin anything OSHA's the gentleman over he doesn't accept it because he's already influenced by the jinn oh but oh this person had a mentor that was the gym oh this happened this this is magic oh well that was the gin oh so it's just this you have one plastic the plasticity because it stretches you can just fit this on anything this is in religious in philosophy of religion you study this this example by
by somebody known as basil Mitchell known as the parable of the partisan and the stranger and he says that this is what faith people do the partisan is this person who is part of a movement a revolution and there's a struggle going on but he meets this stranger one day who he doesn't know the stranger somehow wins his trust and tells him that he is actually the leader of this revolution that he's a part of because this is obviously picturing back in the days when you never had social median stuff so he says it convinces him I am
actually the leader of this so imagine it's me and I now bump into into you and you're a strong you believe in this and I tell you I am the actual leader of this and stay strong I want you to stay strong on this hang in there but then I tell you that by the way you will see me on this side and acting to the contrary to what the cause stands for but this is all part of the greater plan so no matter what you see me say in public do not fall for it I am with you and it's for the cause now you see once you buy
into that it doesn't matter what I say or do in the real world you will rationalize it I could now stand there and tell you oh by the way this whole thing was a lie oh the cause was just something I made up to make money but you'll be like ha ha ha he's acting's good good good he's really in character and I'll be like no no it really is nonsense nonsense you see now it doesn't matter what I say you've bought in to this parable that's it you're locked in so basil Michell gives this example about this is
how religion works with a lot of people so it's interesting and they call that by the way non propositional faith we you're not you don't care whether evidence or reason or anything contradicts what you believe you just don't care because in your mind oh it's all part of the bigger pitch oh it's meant to trick me Oh Sian oh this is the shaitaan tricking me this is part of the test like I'm not supposed to buy into it because if I bought into it that's part of the test so you see then it becomes like there's no way to win now it's game over like for anybody who tries so so it's
important to keep these things in mind why is this so important to tackle this topic it's important because one the mockery that is being made out of Islam alone is messenger in the name of these myths and to the tyranny of abuse that is being conducted with this belief it is indiscreet is it is unbelievable I mean you've heard some stories from Chef Akram no do we serve right now but this
Paragraphs overlapping 1:19:28 to 1:24:46. 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-S16, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/16/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2017, September 20). How do we know mental illnesses are not really jinn possessions? [Video, segment 2017-09-20-S16, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/16/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2017. "How do we know mental illnesses are not really jinn possessions?" Video, segment 2017-09-20-S16, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded September 20, 2017. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/16/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2017-09-20-S16, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{How do we know mental illnesses are not really jinn possessions?}}, year = {2017}, month = {9}, date = {2017-09-20}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/16/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/16/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2017-09-20-S16, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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