Part 5

Giver of gifts.''' He said that h~"sen~ off in disgrace.

Thus the jinn have the power to change shape but are then sub­

ject to the laws of the form which they take on. When a jinn takes

on the form of man, you can seize him and kill him and he cannot

escape from the law of the form he has taken. That is why when

the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace,

seized the jinn who had taken on human form, he was subject to

human laws and it was possible to tie him to the pillar of the

mosque and for people to see him.

If jinn had been able to take on forms without leaving their own

laws for the laws of the forms which they take on, the rebellious

jinn would have terrified us and turned our lives into a hell. But

this law which rules them mitigates for us many of the machina­

tions and troubles which the shaytans of the jinn would otherwise

have been able to inflict on the world of men.

The Kingdom of Saba' and the Jinn

There are types of magic in which the help of the shaytans of

the jinn is sought because in them people seek the. help of crea­

tures whose laws are more powerful than those which govern

mankind. That is the case because of the element from which they

were created. Because we are created from earth our movements

are limited and our speed is limited. We cannot, for instance, walk

through solid objects. However, the jinn, because they are created

from fire, are not subject to the same constraints as we are and

To make that easier to grasp we might make use of the follow­

ing example. If you take an apple, which is created from earth, and

place it behind a wall, you cannot tell it is there. The reason for

this is that the substance of the earth from which it is created can­

not pass through the wall. However, if you light a fire on the other

side of the wall and sit in front of it, after a short time you feel the

warmth penetrating the wall and reaching through to you. That is

because fire is more permeable than earth.

When Sulayman wanted the throne of Bilqis to be brought from

her kingdom, and there were both men and jinn in the assembly of

Sulayman, not one man, no matter how great his strength, was able

rise to the challenge because all were governed by the laws of their

nature. But an 'ifrit of the jinn did come forward and accept the

challenge. About that Allah Almighty says:

"He said, '0 Nobles! Which ofyou will bring her throne

to me before they come to me in submission?' An ifrit of

the jinn said, 'I will bring it to you before you get up from

This discussion took place after the Queen of Sheba had

already left the capital of her kingdom and was on her way to

Sulayman. In other words, a journey using human strength and

powers was already under way. The Queen of Sheba was undoubt­

edly assisted in her journey by the fastest kinds of transport in her

time because she was the Queen of a nation which possessed much

strength and great power, as Allah Almighty tells us in the Noble

Quran. When a nation achieves much strength and great power, it

is because it possesses the most advanced techniques of its time.

The conversation which took place between the Queen of

Sheba and her ministers, counsellors and generals after she had

received Sulayman's teuer which the hoopoe c~ed to her, makes

it clear to us that this kingdom was one of the strongest kingdoms

of, the time. The Noble Quran transmits to us what happened, as

"She said; '0 Nobles! State your opinion concerning

this matter of mine. It is not my habit to make a final

choice until I have heard what you have to say.' They said,

'We possess strength and we possess great force. The mat­

ter is up to you. Look, therefore, to what you command.'"

The jinn who was intending to bring the throne would, there­

fore, have had to possess enormous strength and speed to have

been able to travel to the palace of Queen Bilqis, fetch the throne

and produce it before the Queen and those with her arrived in

Sulayman's kingdom. Since the Queen of Sheba was already well

on the way and the jinn would have to reach her palace and return

to Sulayman before the Queen and her party arrived, his speed

would therefore have had to be at least five times the speed at

which the Queen was travelling in order for him to have been able

to bring it so that it would be there for her to see the moment she

We can tell from this incident that the speed at which the jinn

can travel is many times greater than the speed possible for human

beings and that the jinn possess the strength to move something

from one place to another in a way which is far beyond the capaci­

The Capabilities of Jlnn and Capabilities of Men

So we know that the jinn can take on different forms and that

they possess amazing speed and power. We also know that the

superior capabilities of the jinn come from the element of fire from

which they were created and that they can do things which men

cannot do and are not suited for. Therefore, anyone who seeks the

help of magic using the power of the jinn has access to strength

and power above the strength and power of an ordinary human

being. That is why he can do things which ordinary.people cannot .

Allah Almighty desires justice. He only distinguishes between

one creature and another according to their fear of Him and by

. their following of His Way. He is the Lord of all existence and He

is my Lord and your Lord. For that reason He did not give any

creature any way of being automatically superior to another, for if

He had done so darkness and injustice would inevitably have

spread across the earth. But someone who has his own power and

strength and then seeks the help of the strength of another who, by

virtue of the element of his creation, is greater than mankind, has

an unfair advantage which will almost certainly lead him to com­

mit injustice because it is always excessive power that leads peo­

ple to be unjust and to spread corruption in the earth. In His wis­

dom Allah Almighty desires man to be tested by good and evil. As

"We test you with both evil and good as a trial." (21:35)

Equality of possibilities is what ensures security, safety and

peace. Allah desires a safe life for His slaves. If we, for instance,

look at peace in the world we find that the thing which makes

peace continue and endure is the fact that there is equality of pos­

sibilities, as.happens in the case where one strong state has another

strong state opposite it. But if one state feels that it is stronger than

its neighbours or than the power facing it, it will attack and invade.

When their strength is equal, each of them is deterred from attack­

ing by their fear of the other. That is the reason for the diplomatic

policy of nuclear deterrence. It is what has prevented the outbreak

of another world war. If one power had felt that it was more pow­

erful than another, it would have started a war because the balance

had tipped in its favour. The same principle applies in other situa­

So when someone seeks the help of a stronger power than that

.possessed by man, it upsets human society. The same thing hap­

pens when someone has a gun in the middle of a group of people

who are unarmed. His superior power inevitably leads to injustice

and to oppression. That is why Allah forbade seeking the help of

magic and considers it to be a type of disbelief: because magicians

believe that through their knowledge they can control others. I

To sum up what we have said so far: We have seen that there

are hidden forces in existence and that one of those forces is .

magic. Magic works by giving the illusion of something happen­

ing which is not actually happening in reality. What are in fact

bewitched are people's eyes. Magic provokes fear in people and it

is used to make them submit to what the magician wants. And

magicians seek the help of forces which are stronger than man by

virtue of the element of their creation - the shaytans of the jinn.

Now we must look at the story of Harut and Marut, who were

the two angels whom Allah - glory be to Him and may He be

exalted! - sent down to teach people magic.

If we want to go back to the beginning of the story of magic, .

we must look at this noble ayat:

"They follow what the shaytans recited during the reign

of Sulayman. Sulayman did not reject faith, but the shay­

tans did reject it and they taught people magic and what

had been revealed to the two angels in Babylon, Harut

and Marut. They taught no one until they had told him,

'We are merely a trial and a temptation, so do not disbe­

lieve,' From the two of them people learned how to sepa­

rate a man from his wife. They cannot harm anyone by it,

except with the permission of Allah. They have learned

what will harm them and bring them no benefit. They

know that anyone who deals in it will have no share in the

Next World. How evil is the thing that they have sold

themselves for ifthey did but know." (2:102)

We know from this noble ayat that magic was .revealed by

Allah ~ glory be to Him and may He be exalted! - and that He

revealed it through two angels at Babylon called Harut and Marut;

that magic is a temptation which leads to disbelief; that it is not

used to bring benefit but rather to harm people and separate man

and wife; that the use of magic has no reward in the Next World

except the Fire; and that anyone who uses magic will meet an evil

end and die an unbeliever. This is what the noble ayar tells us in

general about magic. Allah - glory be to Him and may He be exalt­