Recordings › Jinn Possessions: Myth and Reality in Islam by Sh. Akram Nadwi & Mufti Abu Layth · 20 Sep 2017 › Segment 22 of 25
Why are so many 'possessed' people in the community women?
muftis haram haraam jahannam jahanam jahannum ummah umma ummat nikah nikkah nikaah nikah nama nikahnamaDissociative disorders, trauma and control: why 'possession' clusters among women in the community
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This segment1:45:48 to 1:48:25 · 2 min 37 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenDissociative disorders that look like possession occur mostly among women with histories of trauma, excessive control, pressured or forced marriages and childhood beatings. The psyche breaks down under such treatment just as the body reacts to injury.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth says that cases such as multiple personality disorder, now called dissociative identity disorder, which would have looked like possession in the past, occur in our communities more often among women, and that these women usually have backgrounds of trauma, abuse and tragedy. He describes the pressures: not only segregation but excessive control, girls forbidden what boys are allowed, constant suspicion about whom they talk to, arranged and sometimes forced marriages or the emotional blackmail that amounts to force, marriage to cousins they grew up with and may not be attracted to, and, in many families when his generation grew up, severe beatings of children, though he hopes this has reduced in Britain. Under such torment, he says, the psyche copes by breaking down into these disorders and reacting strangely, just as the body reacts when something is done to it, and he asks why anyone would expect the brain not to react.
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says that dissociative disorders in the community occur more often among women with backgrounds of trauma, excessive control, forced or pressured marriages and beatings, and that the psyche breaks down under such treatment as the body would, which is what gets called possession.
“a lot of these cases happen usually more so than more often in our communities amongst women and they these people have a background of trauma abuse”
Category: teaching
Kind: general teachingTranscript
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on that the Prophet said mantle allowed Minda in Allah Angela Lucia and in rewire the Prophet said I Lima home and Alamo jahiliya home and Jael those who know that she fire will know it and those who don't know it won't know it meaning go out find it like you can so it's interesting to see all of these kind of things put yourself in the past where you are faced with this like if you had a person just all of a sudden with multiple personality disorders or they call today dissociative identity disorder is right now how do you how do you explain that like people all of a sudden I'm somebody
else and the thing is that a lot of these cases happen usually more so than more often in our communities amongst women and they these people have a background of trauma abuse of of just like tragedies in many cases they've got so much going on so in our communities you'll have things like you know obviously segregation but not just segregation control excessive control so let's say a girl in a typical I know in the UK this it's a change it's slowly
changing but it's still there like girls are not allowed to do anything guys can do anything a guy can get away with guys can go out do everything girls can't so always restricted at home now on top of that always suspected like the suspicious oh are you chatting to anybody are you doing this are you doing a lot more control on ago then on top of that arranged marriages sometimes forced marriages or sometimes maybe not forced but emotionally you know like our Asian version of force like the black male kind of emotional blackmail that are never gonna speak to you and then on top of that they make them marry a lot of the time they're their own cousins now
think about if you grew up with somebody you're already that is yeah you're probably not attracted to the person sexually and then on top of that you gotta marry them you've been controlled all your life sometimes within our families hopefully now within the UK it's reduced or doesn't happen as much but they beat the hell out of you as kids so a lot more maybe when we were growing up but but so you've got all this kind of stuff going on you get like torture torment this or you gotta believe this you got to do this you got how does the psychic on cope one way is it breaks down into these
kind of disorders it starts reacting weirdly like think about if you physically do something to your body react why would the brain not react we think everybody so and we have such a stigma towards mental health Muslims get so offended if you say this could be a mental health issue so what do you mean like my mom my mom ain't mental haha not a betting man but if I was you know the thing is look what do you mean like what does this sound normal what you're saying that you know there's all this
Paragraphs overlapping 1:45:48 to 1:48:25. 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-S22, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/22/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2017, September 20). Why are so many 'possessed' people in the community women? [Video, segment 2017-09-20-S22, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/22/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2017. "Why are so many 'possessed' people in the community women?" Video, segment 2017-09-20-S22, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded September 20, 2017. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/22/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2017-09-20-S22, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Why are so many 'possessed' people in the community women?}}, year = {2017}, month = {9}, date = {2017-09-20}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/22/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/22/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2017-09-20-S22, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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