Recordings › Jinn Possessions: Myth and Reality in Islam by Sh. Akram Nadwi & Mufti Abu Layth · 20 Sep 2017 › Segment 6 of 25
Did Ibn Taymiyya believe in jinn possession, and does his view have proof?
imaam imams prayer leader sunna sunnat sunan prophetic practice dalil daleel adillah adilla evidence imaan eemaan eeman faith djinn jin jinnat jinni sihr sihar jadu jadoo kala jadu sorcery koran quraan al-quran medina madina madeenah yathrib 'alim aalim shaykh sheikh shaikh sheik shuyukh madrasa madrassa madaris madrassah religious school deobandis deobandIbn Taymiyya's belief in possession tested by his own rule, and what really 'comes out' in an exorcism
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This segment30:59 to 34:55 · 3 min 56 sA view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenIbn Taymiyya believed jinn possess people and treated them, but by his own rule of accepting nothing without proof from the Quran and Sunnah his claims fail: seeing something leave a patient does not prove it was a jinn. Levitating patients and beating the 'possessed' are tricks played on onlookers.
In more detail
The guest says the jinn are more powerful than humans in some ways but that nobody except prophets, who saw and met them, has any proof of mixing with them, and recalls a Deobandi scholar [?] who used to tell him that believing in these things is against iman. Belief in possession in the earlier generations is found, he says, only in Ibn Taymiyya, from the seventh century, whereas Ibn Hazm in the fifth century, al-Razi and others denied it; Ibn Taymiyya held that jinn possess people and take away their will, treated people for it, and even claimed, when a dead shaykh's students showed him letters they said he still wrote them, that these were letters from a jinn whose handwriting he knew. The guest says he respects Ibn Taymiyya and has learnt much from him, but that Ibn Taymiyya taught us to accept nothing without proof from the Quran and Sunnah, and by that test his claims about jinn have no proof: when he says he saw his teacher take a jinn out of someone, he may have seen something come out, but nothing proves it was a jinn rather than the effect of an illness. He describes the raqis' tricks: a patient who rises above the bed when the Quran is read, which he calls a trick, since a cure needs no levitation; being beaten with sticks until, when asked whether the jinn is leaving, the victim says yes, so that the onlookers see a jinn where there is only an ill person being beaten.
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Position stated
This segment presents a view in order to discuss or respond to it. It is recorded as quoted, never as held, and no position is attributed from it.
Kind: a view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held Speakers: host and guest; guest speech is labelled and excluded from positionsTranscript
machine30:59 to 34:55 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
A guest speaks in this segment. Guest speech is labelled and is excluded from the positions layer.
This segment states a view in order to discuss it. It is recorded as a quoted view, not as a position held.
parcel allison de Vaca - for the car to divert officially man Nicholas Bahamas the pannier al-madinah similarly about the Somalis now you know he got the question of Zinn and one of the ifreet big region you know he said to him this but in their style didn't happen imagine there are killer power more powerful than other they can do many many things but nobody can cook that control and la città only mere testing firstly militia and someone BR some prophets they can see them they have seen them made them and they became Muslim under a lock muscle Islam like the parcel as that is
but anyone other than other than the prophets we never had any proof of this thing that they've seen the gym you know they mix with them there's no proof at all and absolutely at least one of the Dovan the element is to live in inexorably madrasah he is to say to me that believing in all those things this birthday I guess Iman you noticed in the shuttle can do Jill can do all those things I guess Iman you know this in heaven this believers cannot goose believe in something like that so this is what you can see has come from the people you know in Islam earlier generationally something mean went in our time you know you know even type like Mahan's ideas from the fifth
century we must have used earlier than him and imam arrazi and all these people there are people who had missing this thing there have been few cases and another people who believe in this matter the Shaitaan can possess still can possess the beginning within the timing so that only beginning we can find really where he is to think that Jean possessed and they have control over the people and they can take away the will from them and he used to treat people like that and there are many story himself I'd mention is fat Awad and also you know his he stood evening had mentioned about him that he has seen you know every time you are doing this thing and in the tiny also had made a claim that you know somebody came
somebody a chef died and his students came to me tell me and they said our check after that has been writing letters to us and they showed the letter to me Thomas and I said to them no no this is not letter from your chef this is later of Jean and I know their writings so in the Tamiya claim that no yes in the writings of Jeannie he knows how they write things like that you know certainly we were really i respecting the timer of not Allah and I really learned from him a lot of the things but one thing has taught us they don't accept anything unless there is a proof from the Quran Sunnah now this we also test little tiny also with the same criteria in the Tamiya has claimed all
those discs but without any proof so there's no proof remiel Tamiya in the columns that I have seen my teacher taking out the jinn from the people yeah you could have seen that he has taken out something but how do you know tagine it could be anything like well people have illness or something you know coming like you know when people breath it you can see somebody's coming to cut something flying from mouth but how do they do what it makes you to take it is Jim how do you know what you look like how cookie Jean are around us do we know the can we look them if something comes coming off from the mouth how do you know that with certainty it is Jim the we don't we don't save me time yep I'm at line we say yes certainly there must be
something coming out from the mouth but then no single proof on the face of dirt that what came out that was did the new product it loosened in a la subtle it made many many illnesses for the people and you know and that exists for approve are what you can see sometimes sometimes what were high person somebody will be lying on unabated and erratic liar anyway Oren said don't believe in these people for a minute about these people anyway what the drug he will come and he makes some real some Quran and you can see the person is in flying rising above the bid it or trick and
claiming them those who want to tell the truth they are limited the or trick will play the trick to people can't believe you just think really how when you cure somebody he will rise about the bed why cure need something lager if you cross some wonderful what should happen is he should occur from the illness wife wife are cure you need somebody to rise above the bed why this will happen why they need for that why they need to cease us show some some magic this is they're making up to when you see something like that used to go there must be some because he said sometime war happen see that I the person they build the person you know this really the very well but
Paragraphs overlapping 30:59 to 34:55. 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-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/6/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2017, September 20). Did Ibn Taymiyya believe in jinn possession, and does his view have proof? [Video, segment 2017-09-20-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/6/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2017. "Did Ibn Taymiyya believe in jinn possession, and does his view have proof?" Video, segment 2017-09-20-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded September 20, 2017. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/6/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2017-09-20-S06, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Did Ibn Taymiyya believe in jinn possession, and does his view have proof?}}, year = {2017}, month = {9}, date = {2017-09-20}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/6/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/6/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2017-09-20-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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