Introduction

ʿUmar Sulaymān al-Ashqar is a Jordanian scholar of Palestinian origin, born in 1940, whose academic career spanned the University of Jordan and the Islamic University of Madinah. His most enduring contribution to Islamic scholarship is a multi-volume series on the unseen world (ʿālam al-ghayb), each volume treating a dimension of Islamic eschatology and metaphysics that the Quran and Sunnah address but that modern readers often encounter through unreliable popular sources. ʿĀlam al-Jinn wa al-Shayāṭīn, translated as The World of the Jinn and Devils, is the second volume of this series and deals with a subject around which a great deal of cultural misinformation has accumulated in Muslim-majority societies. Al-Ashqar undertook this work with the explicit aim of replacing folklore and exaggeration with what can be established from the revealed texts and the understanding of the classical scholars, providing a reliable reference for both students of ʿaqīdah and general readers seeking clarity.

The book covers the creation of the jinn from smokeless fire as stated in the Quran, their nature and capacities, the division among them into believers and disbelievers, their interaction with the human world, the specific threat posed by Iblīs and the shayāṭīn, and the means by which a Muslim may protect himself from harmful jinn influence. Al-Ashqar gives sustained attention to the Islamic ruling on seeking the assistance of jinn, on sorcery (siḥr) and its prohibition, and on the phenomenon of possession and its treatment through Quranic recitation and supplication. Throughout, his method is the same employed in the angels volume: every claim is traced to a Quranic verse or a ḥadīth whose grade is noted, weaker or fabricated narrations that have shaped popular belief are identified and set aside, and the conclusions of classical Ḥanbalī and broader Sunni scholarship are presented as the standard against which popular practice is measured. The Atharī perspective on the reality of jinn as genuine rational beings, not merely symbolic representations, is maintained consistently.

The scholarly importance of this work lies partly in its corrective function. Popular literature on jinn in many Muslim cultures has blended Quranic material with local folklore, Sufi interpretations of uncertain provenance, and in some cases pre-Islamic beliefs that entered the tradition without proper scrutiny. Al-Ashqar's systematic return to the primary sources provided teachers and students with a clean reference point from which to evaluate such material. The book has been adopted in Islamic studies programs across the Arab world and translated into English and other languages, and its treatment of the conditions and evidence for jinn possession has been cited by contemporary scholars addressing the intersection of Islamic practice and mental health. It remains a standard reference in the literature of Sunni ʿaqīdah on this topic.

Readers approaching this book should do so with a clear intention: to know what Allah and His Messenger have disclosed about this part of the unseen world, neither more nor less. Al-Ashqar is careful to mark the boundaries of what revelation establishes, and a reader who respects those boundaries will come away with a coherent, scripturally grounded understanding of the jinn. Those who encounter claims about jinn in their communities, whether in the context of ruqyah (Quranic healing), sorcery allegations, or spirit possession, will find in this work the criteria needed to distinguish what is Islamically established from what is cultural addition. Students of ʿaqīdah will find it a useful companion to the angels volume, and together the two books provide a thorough treatment of the created beings of the unseen world as the Islamic sources define them.