# How does Mufti Abu Layth explain an exorcist who speaks as his own jinn?

*Taking responsibility for relationships, and the exorcist whose 'jinn' confessed to loving him*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/24/
- Date: 2017-09-20 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Jinn Possessions: Myth and Reality in Islam by Sh. Akram Nadwi & Mufti Abu Layth (1:51:02–1:56:14)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z8yu8Kr83Y&t=6662s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/

**Topics:** Jinn possession; Islamic psychology

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The exorcist's 'jinn', which declared its love for him, is read as displacement of guilt: a religious man projecting feelings he could not own onto a jinn, believing it sincerely without it being true. People must own their failed relationships instead of blaming jinn.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says the exorcist whose 'jinn' professed love for him was displacing his own guilt by projecting feelings he could not own onto a jinn, sincerely but not truly, and that the 'jinn of the gaps' is nonsensical, makes religion a joke and leaves real abuse untouched.

**Evidence, his words at 1:55:15:** “to say it's the Djinn of the gaps is is nonsensical it's absurd and it makes religion into a joke and beyond that it doesn't tackle the greater issues of abuse” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z8yu8Kr83Y&t=6915s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says people must take responsibility when a relationship fails rather than blame the jinn, correcting himself that 'messing up' is the wrong word: people fall in and out of relationships, that is human, and we look for something to blame because we measure success by an image of what a relationship ought to be. He recounts a case he has described before: years ago he interviewed a very religious exorcist, with an extraordinarily long beard and the dress and reputation of a raqi, whose own 'jinn' came into character during the conversation and spoke with him for over an hour, giving a name, an origin in Kashmir and an age of five hundred years, and explaining that it was far from home because it loved the exorcist, in a sexual sense, and was homosexual. Mufti reads this as displacement of guilt, as psychoanalysts explain: a man of God who finds himself with homosexual tendencies cannot own them, so he projects them onto a jinn and chastises it, so that when he thinks this way it is the jinn and when he is in control it is himself. He stresses that the man was not lying but genuinely believed the story he had constructed, which does not make it true, and concludes that the 'jinn of the gaps' is nonsensical, makes religion a joke and leaves the real abuse untouched. He begins to answer why one cannot simply sit on the fence, naming scholars quoted by the guest who denied possession.

## Sources and names cited

- raqi (one who performs ruqya; exorcist)
- jinn
- the 'god of the gaps' fallacy, here the 'jinn of the gaps'

## Transcript (machine tier, 1:51:02–1:56:14)

[1:50:45] because this gene fell in love with me or fell in love with my wife or fell in love with and it just ruined everything that's like oh this this virus was just flying around and I fell in love with me ruin my whole love life that isn't making so white why do you think Djinn work like that like oh they work like humans they're not the same species or genus they're not even the same domain as us like so it's important to understand these things we can't just be little we have to take responsibility for relationship messes up it's because of your own doing because the relationship messed up human beings look

[1:51:23] they mess up at times it's not I'm sorry I'd like to take that word back even messing up isn't the right word people at times fall in and out of relationships it's a human it's human behavior you know there's nothing you can't measure your success by your relationships as an example because we have a vision that relationship ought to be like this we feel people with we failed and we need somebody to blame it on sometimes there was a case study I don't want to go into and I've highlighted it before where there was a very religious person a rocky and Exorcist who many years back I had the opportunity to interview and and visit

[1:52:02] and and whilst we were speaking his is his gene came came into character came into form and we had this whole dialogue and discussion and I spoke to the Djinn and it went on for over an hour and he you know he told me his name he told me he was from his name was I've highlighted the story in detail before his name was Hawkman he came up with the name my name is Hawkman and he's from India is from Kashmir and he's 500 years old all nice numbers in a scenario but the interesting thing was when I asked him oh well you know you're a long way from home soldiers what are you doing over here and and so well what it was it's that usual scenario well this guy The Exorcist you

[1:52:42] know I love him and and then I realized oh oh he didn't mean I love him I said I'm sure you do love him he said no no I really love him like and he stuck his tongue out and like I was like oh okay I misread that one I thought you just loved him oh that love obviously at that point i extremely feared for my own safety thinking alright this i don't know how i'm gonna relate this story back to people right so I thought but so but what was interesting is he then goes on to explain that Oh actually he's homosexual the Djinn this is the gym

[1:53:21] talking sorry the gym is speaking to me obviously the person is speaking but is and whilst he was speaking you do all this speak like that obviously once again very ominous very kind of trying to be scary and so and so I was like okay okay well so the thing is you see that look here is a person who is very religious he has very in fact that guy had an extraordinarily long beard very incredibly long he was abnormally long it was like this long world lie it was so long it was scary long at that point

[1:54:00] now I don't know I haven't seen the person in years but anyway but that point had a very very long beard very scruffy looking person religious you know that kind of attire at the Thal band and has a name amongst people is an exorcist now you can imagine he must be thinking to himself look I'm having homosexual tendencies I'm a man of God for God's sake you know I'm one of the good guys how could I be having this how could I be thinking deviously about men so displacement of guilt it's easy look at

[1:54:39] psychoanalysts explain it all the time you just project your demons onto something else and chastise them so it's not me it's a gene the gene has got the Jeannie's game this gene may Allah curse it has obsessed as possessed me and that's why I'm thinking like my own make sense obviously I could never think like this it's the Djinn that's thinking like this so it's okay when I think like this because really that's just the Djinn in me doing that and you know when I'm in control then it's me you see this is how

[1:55:15] this person made sense of his world I'm not saying the person is lying I'm not saying he's trying to lie to me it's not like saying hey listen this person's coming I'm gonna trick him now maybe he genuinely believes what the stories come up with but that doesn't make it true like if you genuinely believe there's a sketti monster out there it doesn't make it true so so these are the things that I wanted to highlight that look in the past there were many things that people could not explain we could not sum up but to say it's the Djinn of the gaps is is nonsensical it's absurd and it makes religion into a joke

[1:55:54] and beyond that it doesn't tackle the greater issues of abuse so this isn't sometimes people say but why can't we just sit on the fence you know okay this is a view you know you're saying because there were many orlimar you heard from chef's occur many Olimar being quoted there was for Athena Razi Audioboo yeah Allah from the humble ease there was people there were other ala ma from the martyrs Allah but even within Allison man you'd heard up into recent times sheltered most of all Marathi great the great Michelle as her if not assured famous Mufasa even show canny in stuff see these kind of things they they they don't accept this kind of stuff jinn

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/24. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/24/

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