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Jinn, angels and the devil
102 segments in 27 recordings · 2017 to 2021 · 0 verified · 69 checked positions · belief/unseen-beings · Feed
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Click a year to jump to itLatest answer · 26 Apr 2021
26 Apr 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestDo obscene or blasphemous thoughts during prayer ruin my salah?
Intrusive or blasphemous thoughts in prayer are not a reason to worry: noticing them is a sign of faith, as a hadith says. Mufti Abu Layth adds that jinn in the Quran means the unseen and possession stories are folklore.
machine7 min 40 s1:31:29on YouTube
Earlier answers · 101 · newest first
2021 · 7
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Are the devils really chained up during Ramadan?
No verse says so; Mufti Abu Layth reads the hadith on chained devils as meaning that good deeds become easier in Ramadan's shared spirit.
machine1 min 20 s2:58:11on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did the companions actually see the angel Jibril?
Mufti Abu Layth says the report that it was Jibril may be the companion's interpretation, not the Prophet's words; repeated 'he said' in Arabic narration makes the speaker unclear.
machine2 min 26 s40:34on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the devil a real creature or a symbol of bad impulses?
Mufti Abu Layth presents two readings of Shaytan, a literal creature or a personification of negative impulses, and refers viewers to his detailed video.
machine2 min 38 s42:20on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did the companions really see the angel Jibril as a man?
Mufti Abu Layth says only the Prophet saw Jibril, in a trance-like vision; companions who thought a stranger was Jibril were assuming.
machine2 min 29 s1:10:12on YouTube
2 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is jinn possession real?
There is no such thing as jinn possession, Mufti Abu Layth says; these are mental health issues, and exorcisms can be abuse.
machine13 min 34 s2:50:29on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Quick chat: LSD, paratha and nihari, and jinn as microbes
In quick chat replies he refers to his video on psychedelics, jokes about food, and says reading jinn as microbes is one interpretation, held by Rashid Rida.
machine2 min 37 s2:25:08on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestIf you deny the evil eye, why do you cite scholars who believed in it?
Mufti Abu Layth says scholars who believed in the evil eye were following the science of their day, and one does not take science from them.
machine3 min 50 s1:47:10on YouTube
2020 · 35
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why does the guest criticise Yasir Qadhi's views on jinn and evolution?
The guest criticises Yasir Qadhi's dogmatic style and his literal readings of Dhul Qarnayn, evolution and jinn, offering a medical explanation for exorcism accounts; Mufti Abu Layth jokes about the zombie theory and calls Brubaker courteous.
machine7 min 56 s2:33:08on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Are the jinn real, or a symbol?
The guest says the Quran rearticulated a late antique belief in jinn to subordinate them to God, that he does not literally believe in them, and that Shaytan personifies human evil; Mufti Abu Layth agrees that inner impulses are personified as good and bad forces.
machine6 min 46 s2:41:04on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
Why do popular preachers promote belief in jinn possession?
Mufti Abu Layth will answer Omar Suleiman's clip as a prime example of preachers promoting superstition; he says they appease the market that buys their commodity.
machine2 min 39 s0:02on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
The clip: Omar Suleiman on jinn possession, the riba verse and disobedience
In the clip Omar Suleiman says jinn possession is real and affirmed by the riba verse, that most imams have seen supernatural cases, and that disobedience, especially leaving prayer and riba, removes Allah's protection and invites possession.
machine3 min 53 s2:41on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
Can there be a balanced view on whether jinn possess people?
A supernatural claim cannot be balanced; possession is either real or not. If disobedience, missing prayer and riba invited possession, most of the globe would be possessed.
machine5 min 15 s6:34on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
What would jinn gain by possessing people, and what follows if they could?
If jinn could possess people or take any form, nothing in Islam could be trusted and no one would be responsible for their crimes; Mufti Abu Layth notes that only Muslims who believe in possession seem to be afflicted.
machine5 min 16 s11:49on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
Does the riba verse prove that jinn can possess people?
The riba verse 2:275 uses the image of being struck by the devil as a frame of reference the Arabs knew, like the heads of devils in 37:65; it does not establish possession.
machine3 min 53 s17:05on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
If a jinn could possess me, how could I be blamed for anything?
Satan's own words in 14:22, that he had no power over people and only invited them, rule out possession: if the devil could physically prevent prayer or cause harm, people could not be blamed and responsibility would collapse.
machine5 min 16 s20:58on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
What did classical scholars say about whether jinn can harm or possess people?
Imam al-Shafi'i rejected the testimony of anyone claiming to see jinn, Ibn Hazm forbade adding to what Allah said about them, and al-Tahawi held that Satan can only insinuate, not harm; what is called possession is mental illness, and accepting it would void responsibility.
machine7 min 46 s26:14on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
Do any authentic hadith prove jinn possession?
The hadith cited for possession prove nothing: the Bukhari report that Satan runs in the veins concerns suspicion, the Bukhari report of the epileptic woman treats epilepsy as an illness to be borne patiently, and the remaining reports are weak.
machine9 min 12 s34:00on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
Is the jinn exorcism and ruqya industry a fraud?
The ruqya industry is largely a fraud drenched in abuse; the Mu'tazila, who rejected possession, were never afflicted, and al-Jahiz already recorded a practitioner using a possession claim to explain away a lost virginity.
machine6 min 37 s43:12on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
Is Omar Suleiman trained as a scholar, and will anyone debate Mufti Abu Layth on jinn possession?
Mufti Abu Layth challenges any shaykh to debate jinn possession on his show and says Omar Suleiman, though commendable for his civil rights work, is not trained as a scholar or qualified to give rulings.
machine4 min 27 s49:49on YouTube
15 Nov 2020video
A clip of Shaykh Hassan Ali on the evil eye from loved ones
A played clip in which Shaykh Hassan Ali says the evil eye can come even from loving relatives, with a story about his own son.
machine2 min 41 s0:00on YouTube
15 Nov 2020video
Does the Quran mention the evil eye?
No: the Quran mentions envy (hasad) but never the evil eye, and the verse about eyes making the Prophet slip is a metaphor for hateful stares, as Ibn Ashur and others explain.
machine6 min 43 s2:41on YouTube
15 Nov 2020video
If the evil eye is real, why doesn't the Quran mention it?
The evil eye was believed to be an unseen force causing illness, death and impotence, yet the Quran never mentions it, unlike older scriptures. He finds that silence telling for something said to affect everyone.
machine8 min 20 s9:24on YouTube
15 Nov 2020video
Why did so many cultures believe in the evil eye?
Because people long believed the eye actively shot out rays, and the belief helped explain sudden illness and misfortune. He says the evil eye itself is nonsense.
machine10 min 48 s17:44on YouTube
15 Nov 2020video
Is the evil eye based on science?
It rested on the old belief that eyes shoot out rays, which people once took as science; Ibn al-Qayyim described envious 'arrows' from the eye. Ibn al-Haytham and later science showed that eyes only take in light.
machine12 min 34 s28:32on YouTube
15 Nov 2020video
Confirmation bias: reading the evil eye into the Quran
Mufti Abu Layth says that people came to Islam already believing the evil eye was science and, through confirmation bias, found it in verses that do not mention it, such as the verse about eyes almost making the Prophet slip, even though many exegetes did not read it that way. He recommends the Urdu tafsir of Abdul Karim Athari, whom he describes as coming from a small, unusually reason-based circle within the Ahl-e-Hadith of India, and says Athari also reads the verse as the disbelievers staring as though to trip the Prophet, before calling him insane.
machine3 min 22 s41:06on YouTube
15 Nov 2020video
Does Surah Yusuf prove the evil eye is real?
No: Jacob told his sons to use different gates for their safety and to avoid drawing attention, not because of the evil eye. They had already been to Egypt, so the evil eye reading makes no sense.
machine11 min 39 s44:28on YouTube
15 Nov 2020video
Are the hadith about the evil eye authentic?
No: he says the evil eye hadith rest on weak or criticised narrators and odd reports, and a belief so important would have come from many companions and the Quran. He calls them baseless.
machine12 min 11 s56:07on YouTube
15 Nov 2020video
Is Surat al-Falaq about protection from the evil eye?
No: it seeks refuge from the harm envious people act out and from the superstitious culture around magic, not from an evil eye. The Quran's silence on the evil eye is, to him, a sign of its truth.
machine3 min 53 s1:08:18on YouTube
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Are jinn just archetypes in our unconscious mind?
Mufti Abu Layth thinks the jinn are beings in a dimension of consciousness we cannot normally reach, not mental archetypes.
machine8 min 11 s1:34:18on YouTube
17 Oct 2020video
What is the hadith of the night of the jinn, and was it a psychoactive experience?
The Tirmidhi report of Ibn Mas'ud's night of the jinn, in which he carried nabidh and saw strange figures, would most likely describe a psychoactive experience if true, and the report praising harmala shows such a narrative existed in early Muslim society.
machine7 min 41 s22:07on YouTube
13 Oct 2020video
Was Iblis condemned for using his reason?
No: Iblis was condemned for arrogance and stubbornness, not reason, and much of what people picture about angels is imagination filling in the Quran's outline.
machine3 min 12 s4:34on YouTube
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is seeing the number 19 everywhere a sign or a superstition?
The guest rejects personal and anecdotal sightings of 19 as numerology and chance, distinguishing them from the Quran's structure, and invites Zakir Naik and Nouman Ali Khan to debate him.
machine2 min 40 s2:17:50on YouTube
9 Jun 2020video
What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Hasan Farhan al-Maliki?
Mufti Abu Layth admires Hasan Farhan al-Maliki's open-minded rejection of folkloric Islam but disagrees with his dismissive, Shia-inclined stance on companions such as Mu'awiya.
machine2 min 24 s0:00on YouTube
1 Jun 2020video
If a religious teacher seduces someone, is the other person also to blame?
Mufti Abu Layth says both the mufti and the woman in the shared story are to blame, and dismisses the claim of a magic spell.
machine6 min 20 s0:00on YouTube
1 Jun 2020video
Should a person accused of magic be killed?
Mufti Abu Layth says calls to kill the 'magician' show the sorry state of Muslims and why they are a laughing stock.
machine1 min 40 s8:54on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does Islam teach that jinn can possess people?
Mufti Abu Layth does not believe in jinn possession, saying the Quran and Sunnah do not support it. The guest recounts a young man at his da'wah centre whose 'possession' appeared only around believers in it and vanished in front of doctors, which he reads as a psychological phenomenon rather than a jinn.
machine5 min 13 s1:15:32on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the Quran support the idea that Shaytan or jinn can control a person?
The verse cited for possession is about rising on the Day of Judgment, and the Quran as a whole gives Shaytan only the power to whisper and no authority over Allah's servants. Possession would also destroy personal responsibility and let any criminal evade punishment, and Mufti Abu Layth says the claim that jinn can take any form makes the whole idea absurd.
machine4 min 55 s1:20:45on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Was Jesus born of a virgin, and how could a jinn father a child?
Mufti Abu Layth says he has recently become inclined to the view of Abdul Karim Athari and Tamanna Imadi that Jesus was born naturally, since the Quran never explicitly states a virgin birth and 6:101 argues from the absence of a companion. The guest sets that controversy aside and says a jinn, being a different species, could not impregnate a woman.
machine3 min 56 s1:25:40on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
If possession were real, why is there no sahih hadith of the Prophet casting out a jinn?
The Gospels make exorcism a chief miracle of Jesus, but the Quran never mentions it and there is no sahih hadith of the Prophet casting out a jinn, so the guest calls the belief overstated. Following Bilal Philips's study, he says the symptoms match psychological illness and medical treatment should come first.
machine3 min 55 s1:29:36on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is belief in magic spells and jinn possession part of Islam?
Belief in possession and magic spells holds Muslims back and harms mental health, and the guest says it is not a religious teaching because no verse or authentic hadith establishes it, whatever people believe they have seen. Mufti Abu Layth notes that to believers in jinn the ordinary explanation seems the far-fetched one.
machine6 min 33 s1:34:50on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does Surat al-Falaq confirm that black magic is real?
The verse about those who blow on knots does not establish that magic is effective: the guest says it asks protection from the fear such practices create, and Mufti Abu Layth says the surah names things not harmful in themselves but the superstitions attached to them. The question whether Islam is feudal went unanswered.
machine2 min 38 s1:40:04on YouTube
30 Mar 2020video
Should we recite Sahih al-Bukhari to protect ourselves from the coronavirus?
No: reciting Sahih al-Bukhari is not the way to tackle the coronavirus, and the Quran itself is not a medical cure; people can simply make du'a.
machine11 min3:43on YouTube
2019 · 5
31 Dec 2019On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Did angels really fight at the Battle of Badr?
Mufti Abu Layth says many take the angelic help at Badr as symbolic language for strengthened resolve, and the companions' later descriptions as storytelling or what they felt they saw.
machine7 min 42 s0:00on YouTube
1 Aug 2019On Current Events
Is it wrong to judge someone who has become an atheist or left Islam?
A person's atheism or doubts are their own choice and he does not judge them; what he objects to, he says, is staged exorcisms and charity money taken under false pretences.
machine5 min 43 s10:45on YouTube
14 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Who was al-Khidr and why is he called the green one?
Al-Khidr is a figure of Islamic literature and folk belief whose name means the green one, said to be because the ground turned green where he sat. Earlier scholars preferred the pronunciation al-Khadir.
machine2 min 35 s0:00on YouTube
14 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Is al-Khidr a prophet, and is he still alive?
Classical scholars disagreed on whether al-Khidr was a prophet or a saint, and many held he is still alive while others denied it. Mufti Abu Layth likens the stories of his appearances to saint legends in other religions.
machine8 min 46 s14:02on YouTube
8 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did a jinn really bring the Queen of Sheba's throne to Sulayman?
Mufti Abu Layth doubts it: following Athari's tafsir, the 'jinn' here were a division of Sulayman's forces, one of three branches of his state.
machine6 min 26 s27:28on YouTube
2018 · 29
20 Apr 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did Musa's staff really turn into a snake?
No: Mufti Abu Layth holds the staff was described as moving as though it were a snake, while the magicians' sticks moved by a chemical trick.
machine6 min 15 s0:01on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Does jinn possession exist in Islam?
Not as popularly pictured, Mufti Abu Layth holds: the idea of demons taking over a body and causing illness and insanity does not survive the Quran, the authentic Sunnah and reason. He asks what the jinn would even gain by it and sets out to trace where the belief comes from.
machine3 min 52 s0:00on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why did religious scholars end up explaining things like illness and the mind?
Because for most of history the ulama were the only educated class, so people brought them every unexplained question, from the divisibility of atoms to whether the intellect sits in the heart or the brain. They answered with the knowledge of their day, which is the background to the possession belief.
machine3 min 55 s3:52on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Does the Quran's riba verse prove that Satan can possess people?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says the verse is imagery, read by the commentators as describing how riba-takers rise on the Day of Judgement or as a picture of consuming greed, and the Quran uses such images, like the zaqqum tree's heads of devils, because humans have imagination.
machine5 min 16 s7:47on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Are there authentic hadith showing the Prophet casting out jinn?
No report of the Prophet expelling a jinn is free of criticism: the Ya'la ibn Murra and Umm Aban reports are weak, and the sound version of Uthman ibn Abi al-As's story in Sahih Muslim mentions no jinn at all, as al-Nawawi points out. Mufti Abu Layth asks why a Prophet sent as a mercy would never have taught about so common a danger.
machine6 min 31 s13:03on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Should I believe something just because people say the Quran or hadith say so?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran itself appeals to reason, asking people to look, reflect and ponder, and condemns following forefathers blindly, so claims like possession must be tested against reason through the Quran. Someone reading the Quran without a cultural inheritance would never derive possession from it.
machine2 min 35 s19:34on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
What does the hadith 'Satan flows through the son of Adam like blood' mean?
In context it is about suspicion: the Prophet said it after explaining to some men that the woman with him was his wife Safiyya, so it refers to the insinuations that pass through human minds, not to possession. Mufti Abu Layth adds that the exorcism trade is a large industry whose practitioners may nonetheless be sincere.
machine2 min 39 s22:09on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why do only believers in jinn possession seem to experience it?
Mufti Abu Layth says personal and family anecdotes are used to defend possession while the same Muslims dismiss Hindu miracles or Christian doctrine by reasoning against them, applying reason to everyone's claims but their own. He cites a study finding the brain's rational centre quietens during one's own religious experience.
machine3 min 58 s24:48on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
How do we know mental illness is not really jinn possession?
Mufti Abu Layth answers that an explanation which fits everything, like a child told that cyborgs cause all events, is not thereby true; the jinn have become the Muslim catch-all. Such belief is what Basil Mitchell's parable of the partisan describes, a faith no evidence can shake.
machine5 min 14 s28:46on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why does it matter whether people believe in jinn possession?
Because the belief brings mockery on Islam and sustains an industry of abuse, with beatings, sexual violence and extortion, including a house gifted to a practitioner as a 'cure'. Mufti Abu Layth says Islam will bear the blame and future generations will treat it as mythology.
machine2 min 39 s34:00on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
What medical conditions could have been mistaken for possession in the past?
Conditions such as palinopsia, where after-images persist, and Charles Bonnet syndrome, where people see faces, teeth and buildings that are not there, have known brain causes today but would once have looked like demons. Oliver Sacks's patient knew her visions were unreal, unlike the persecutory beliefs of psychosis.
machine3 min 58 s36:39on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
If exorcisms and ruqya sometimes work, does that prove possession is real?
No: real symptoms can be produced or relieved by belief alone, as Ted Kaptchuk's study with fake pills and retractable needles showed, so an exorcism or ruqya can 'work' through the placebo effect. Some people would also have recovered regardless.
machine3 min 56 s40:37on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
If jinn do not possess people, what is ruqya for?
The Quran is a cure for what is in the hearts, meaning disbelief and superstition, not a medical treatment. Ruqya and the du'as taught against omens are a scaffolding that steadies a person's faith until it can stand on its own, because the mind clings to ritual.
machine3 min 55 s44:33on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
What is the 'jinn of the gaps'?
It is Mufti Abu Layth's name for blaming the jinn for anything not yet understood, as atheists accuse believers of a god of the gaps. He lists conditions such as Capgras delusion, hemispatial neglect, aphantasia and foreign accent syndrome that have or will have natural explanations but would once have been called possession.
machine6 min 34 s48:28on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
LatestWhy do cases of 'possession' in Muslim communities so often involve women with trauma?
Because, Mufti Abu Layth says, such cases are usually breakdowns of a psyche tormented by control, suspicion, forced or cousin marriages and abuse, which the stigma around mental health stops families from acknowledging, so they call it jinn or magic. The hadith that every disease has a cure means go and find it.
machine3 min 55 s55:02on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Can a jinn fall in love with someone or break up a marriage?
No, in Mufti Abu Layth's view: jinn, if they exist, would be as different from humans as extremophile bacteria, and nobody thinks a bacterium is jealous of their marriage. Relationships end through human behaviour, and people should own that rather than blame the jinn.
machine2 min 38 s58:57on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
How does Mufti Abu Layth explain an exorcist who says he is possessed by a jinn?
As displacement of guilt: the exorcist's 'jinn' professed sexual love for him, which Mufti Abu Layth reads as the man projecting desires he could not reconcile with his religious identity onto a jinn. He says the man may sincerely believe it, but belief does not make it true.
machine3 min 56 s1:01:35on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Is jinn possession just a difference of opinion among scholars?
Mufti Abu Layth refuses to treat it that way: although scholars from Fakhr al-Din al-Razi to Shaltut, Ibn Ashur and al-Shawkani rejected possession while Ibn Taymiyya affirmed it, this is not a harmless fiqh difference like raising the hands in prayer, because the belief drives abuse and exploitation and brings ridicule on Islam.
machine2 min 07 s1:05:31on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
What magic means: fantasy magic versus illusion, and the Arabic sihr
The question is not illusion or trickery but 'fantasy magic' that changes reality, which he calls absurd; the Arabs used sihr for anything inexplicable.
machine5 min 07 s0:00on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Three kinds of what was called magic: mind control, potions and illusion
What people called magic fell into three kinds: mind control and hypnosis, chemical potions, and stage illusion, all of which have natural explanations.
machine5 min 06 s5:07on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Magic in the Quran: Musa and Pharaoh's magicians, an illusion
In the Quran the magic of Pharaoh's magicians was only an illusion; Musa's fear was a natural human reaction, not proof that the magic was real.
machine5 min 10 s10:13on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Was magic done on the Prophet? Why he rejects the report
Mufti Abu Layth rejects the report that the Prophet was bewitched, even though it is in al-Bukhari, as an insult to the Prophet that clashes with the Quran.
machine9 min 40 s15:23on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Where the story came from: polemic, the poisoning report and the ajwa dates
Mufti Abu Layth believes the story is misconstrued, possibly fed by polemical rumours of the time, and notes it contradicts the hadith that ajwa dates protect from magic.
machine5 min 09 s25:03on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why great scholars accepted it: sectarian turf war with the Mu'tazila
Mufti Abu Layth argues that belief in magic, even on the Prophet, hardened as a sectarian reaction against the Mu'tazila, just as other issues hardened against Salafis or Shia.
machine10 min 12 s30:12on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Harut and Marut, and how magic 'splits' people
Harut and Marut may have been two pious men taken for angels who taught skills that looked like magic; the doll-and-needles idea of magic is not from the Quran or Sunnah.
machine3 min 14 s40:24on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
The seven ajwa dates hadith as hyperbole
The hadith that ajwa dates protect from poison and magic is hyperbole praising dates; classical commentators did not take it literally either.
machine2 min 37 s43:38on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Exploitation by 'babas', and the solution: proper help and mental health
Magic healers exploit desperate people; seek real help from your network or professionals, and communities should take mental health seriously.
machine5 min 06 s46:15on YouTube
13 Feb 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Is the evil eye real in Islam?
Belief that a look can cause disease or disaster contradicts tawhid; the evil eye is simply envy, whose harm lies in how it is acted upon.
machine6 min 50 s0:00on YouTube
13 Feb 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Did someone really do magic on the Prophet?
No: he calls the report of magic on the Prophet falsely attributed and an affront to his honour, and says the Quls were revealed years earlier in Makkah.
machine3 min 44 s6:50on YouTube
2017 · 25
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
What are the jinn and what can Shaytan actually do to people?
Jinn exist and Shaytan is a clear enemy, but his only power is to whisper, as human misleaders do, and Allah gave people the fitra and reason to resist. Any claim about the jinn must be met by asking for its proof in the Quran and Sunnah and weighing its consequences; an unexplained illness is not proof of a jinn.
machine7 min 49 s0:04on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Does the Quran say that Shaytan or the jinn can possess or control a person?
The Quran never says people lose their will; it commands believers not to follow Shaytan's footsteps, which presupposes the will and power to refuse. On the Day of Judgement Shaytan himself says he had no authority except to call people, so he teaches and whispers but never forces.
machine5 min 13 s7:53on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Is there any sound hadith that a jinn possessed someone?
There is no sound hadith of Shaytan possessing anyone; the Ibn Mas'ud report shows the jinn as a lowly creation fed on bones, not masters over humans. The guest's own investigations of 'haunted' houses and 'possessed' women found tricks and nothing else, and exorcism has become a big business.
machine6 min 34 s13:06on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
If doctors cannot explain an illness, could it be a jinn?
An illness doctors cannot explain is not thereby a jinn; that is a story made up without proof. The Quran attributes harm to Shaytan only in the sense that people follow his whispering, as in Ayyub's prayer, and forbids claiming what one has no knowledge of.
machine3 min 26 s19:40on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Which classical scholars denied that jinn can possess people?
Ibn Hazm held that claiming possession is a claim without knowledge and haram, since the Prophet spoke only of whispering; al-Tahawi noted that every taught du'a is against whispering, al-Razi said Shaytan cannot cause illness, and al-Shafi'i rejected the testimony of anyone claiming to see jinn, which only prophets can.
machine7 min 53 s23:06on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Did Ibn Taymiyya believe in jinn possession, and does his view have proof?
Ibn 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.
machine3 min 56 s30:59on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why does the guest warn women never to go to exorcists?
Exorcists exploit women: the guest recounts a girl coached to feign possession to hide her lost virginity, and says many women have been made pregnant by such men in India and on a large scale in Britain. Every illness has a cure that must be sought by proper effort.
machine3 min 56 s34:55on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Did the Prophet use ruqya or doctors when he was ill?
When the Prophet fell ill Arab doctors treated him, which is how Aisha learnt medicine, so recited verses were never meant as a cure-all and the 'treatment by Quran' books misuse the book. The Quran's verses help against whispering, and one reads them for oneself without any raqi.
machine5 min 18 s38:51on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why do jinn seem to afflict only people who believe in them?
Amulet writers, raqis and shrine touts run a business of lies, as the guest's stories of ambiguous amulets and promised sons show. Jinn never trouble him, atheists or non-Muslims, only those of weak belief, which he calls a lie against Allah and his Messenger that robs people of money and women of honour.
machine5 min 14 s44:09on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
What do people mean when they say someone is possessed by a jinn?
The popular picture is that a jinn or demon takes over a person's mind or body, causing illness, obsessive or insane behaviour and broken relationships, supposedly to create mischief. Mufti Abu Layth presents this as the urban myth he will test against the Quran, the authentic Sunnah and reason, after the guest's closing call to disbelieve the whole business.
machine3 min 58 s49:23on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why did Muslim scholars of the past accept the idea of jinn possession?
Scholars of the past were the only learned people and were asked to explain everything, from the divisibility of atoms to where the intellect sits, so they explained strange behaviour with the best knowledge they had. That is the backdrop to the confusion over possession, not a proof of it.
machine5 min 14 s53:21on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Does the Quran's verse about the touch of Shaytan prove that jinn possess people?
No: 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.
machine3 min 56 s58:35on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Are there authentic hadith of the Prophet casting a jinn out of someone?
None of the hadith cited for possession is free of criticism; the only sound version, Uthman ibn Abi al-As in Sahih Muslim, mentions no jinn, as al-Nawawi notes, and the 'come out, enemy of Allah' reports are weak. The Prophet, a mercy to mankind, would not have left such a thing untaught.
machine6 min 31 s1:02:31on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Does the hadith that Shaytan flows in a person's blood prove possession?
No: the Prophet said it to two men who saw him with his wife Safiyya, about human suspicion, and nobody present was possessed. The Quran itself appeals to reason and proof, so possession must be tested by reason, which someone reading the Quran without cultural baggage would never find in it.
machine6 min 32 s1:09:02on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
People I know have seen jinn possession; does that not prove it?
Anecdotal experience is no proof: Muslims dismiss other faiths' miracle claims by reason while refusing to reason about their own, and possession afflicts only those who believe in it. A brain study found the prefrontal cortex shutting down during people's own religious experiences.
machine3 min 54 s1:15:34on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
How do we know mental illnesses are not really jinn possessions?
A 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.
machine5 min 18 s1:19:28on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
What harm does belief in jinn possession do?
Belief in possession sustains beatings, sexual violence, exploitation and the extraction of money and even houses, and because it is dressed as Islam, Islam will be dismissed as mythology by the coming generation. Neurosis and psychosis are introduced as the frame for the psychological cases.
machine2 min 39 s1:24:46on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Could seeing figures or faces that are not there be a brain condition rather than a jinn?
Yes: palinopsia makes after-images persist and Charles Bonnet syndrome makes an overactive fusiform gyrus produce faces, teeth and buildings, as Oliver Sacks's patient saw men with long teeth while knowing they were not real. In the past such visions could only be explained as demons.
machine3 min 55 s1:27:25on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
If someone got better after ruqya or an exorcism, does that prove it worked?
Not necessarily: the placebo and nocebo effects produce real relief and real symptoms, as Kaptchuk's trial with cornstarch pills and retractable needles showed. Some patients would also have recovered anyway and are counted as cures.
machine3 min 56 s1:31:20on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
If jinn do not possess people, what is ruqya for?
The Quran is a cure for what is in the hearts, meaning disbelief and superstition, and ruqya and the taught du'as are a scaffolding to steady people's iman because humans cling to ritual and fall easily into superstition. The du'a against omens shows the Prophet using this method.
machine2 min 36 s1:35:16on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Could strange symptoms blamed on jinn have medical explanations?
Yes: face blindness, mirror-touch synaesthesia, phantom limbs, alien hand syndrome, the Capgras delusion, hemispatial neglect, aphantasia and foreign accent syndrome are all documented conditions that the past could only call demons. Blaming the unexplained on jinn is a 'jinn of the gaps'; the Prophet's hadith on cures says go and find the knowledge.
machine7 min 56 s1:37:52on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why are so many 'possessed' people in the community women?
Dissociative 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.
machine2 min 37 s1:45:48on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Could a jinn fall in love with my spouse and break up my marriage?
No: a jinn, created from fire, would belong to a domain of life as alien to us as extremophile bacteria, which do not fall in love or envy marriages. Blaming jinn or magic for a failed relationship comes from the stigma Muslims attach to mental illness.
machine2 min 37 s1:48:25on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
How does Mufti Abu Layth explain an exorcist who speaks as his own jinn?
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.
machine5 min 12 s1:51:02on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why not treat jinn possession as just a difference of opinion among scholars?
Because it is not a harmless difference like raising the hands in prayer: belief in possession underwrites mass exploitation, a multi-million pound industry and ridicule of Islam and its Prophet. Al-Razi, al-Maraghi, Ibn Ashur and al-Shawkani are among those who denied it, and the abuse must end.
machine1 min 55 s1:56:14on YouTube