Symptoms of Jinn Possession

Those who have written on this topic have listed several symptoms of jinn possession. These symptoms may be real, but we must point out that some of these symptoms may also occur for other reasons, such as staying up all night, or confusion and uncertainty. So we must try to protect ourselves from the whispers that the Shaytan tries to instill in our hearts, when reading this list of symptoms. These symptoms have been divided into two categories: those which occur when one is awake, and those which occur when one is asleep.

A – Symptoms when one is awake

1. Turning away, in particular, from acts of worship and obedience, the remembrance of Allah (Dhikr) and reading the Qur’an. Allah says: (And whosoever turns away blindly from the remembrance of the Most Gracious (Allah) (i.e. this Qur’an and worship of Allah), We appoint for him Shaytan (Satan – devil) to be a Qarin (a companion) to him. And verily, they (Satans/devils) hinder them from the path (of Allah), but they think that they are guided aright!)(Al-Zukhruf 43:36-37)
2.Erratic behaviour in one’s words, deeds and movements. Allah says Those who eat Riba will not stand (on the Day of Resurrection) except like the standing of a person beaten by Shaytan (Satan) leading him to insanity. (Al-Baqarah 2:275)

3.Seizures (with no medical cause); there are signs to indicate that a seizure has devilish causes.
4. Paralysis of a limb (with no medical cause).
5. Being quick to get angry or weep with no apparent cause.
6. Sitting in the toilet for a long time, and talking to oneself.
7. Constant headache (on one or both sides of the head) with no medical cause, which is not eased by painkillers.
8. Irregular menstruation in women.
9. Not producing children altoough both husband and wife are medically sound and able to reproduce.

There are other signs when one is awake, but they may be caused by other life circumstances, such as not succeeding in efforts to get married, repeatedly failing to do so, or a wife becoming very distressed when her husband has intercourse with her.

B – Symptoms when one is asleep

1. Frightening nightmares, which includes seeing various kinds of creatures such as ghosts or apparitions, seeing oneself falling from a high place, seeing people in strange forms, and snakes. A man may see a woman who wants him to have intercourse with her (and vice versa) constantly in his dreams, or he may see someone threatening him.

2. Insomnia, anxiety and fear upon waking.

3. Talking loudly in one’s sleep, or moaning and groaning.

Note: A person should not be regarded as being possessed by the jinn if any of these symptoms occur. No one can be certain that a person has been possessed by the jinn until after the Qur’an has been recited over him, so these symptoms cannot be taken as definitive evidence of jinn possession.

Delusion

Delusion is a serious mental illness. If a person is overcome by delusions, it is difficult to escape from them. No person is free of delusions that sometimes come to him, and in some cases life is delusion upon delusion, to such an extent that the delusions have a greater influence on a person than does reality. With the spread of treatment by means of the Qur’an and people seeing cases of epilepsy, and the spread of stories, whether from people who have gone for treatment or from books, delusions have started to encroach upon the minds of many people as a result of the many problems of life. Even those who are righteous and upright in their religious commitment are not free from the problems of delusion.

In fact if the disease of delusion strikes a man, it is one of the most serious kinds of disease, for jinn possession may be dealt with by reciting the Qur’an as a Ruqyah, but the disease of delusion is a vicious circle. Similarly, some people may imagine that they have been bewitched or that so-and-so has put a spell on them because of some problem between them, so their thinking becomes confused and their lives become chaotic, and they tell themselves that they have been bewitched.

If the delusion of having being possessed by the jinn or having been bewitched takes hold of a person, then his thinking becomes confused and his life becomes chaotic; his glands start to malfunction and the signs of possession or bewitchment appear in him. He may suffer convulsions or lose consciousness as the result of what modern psychology calls autosuggestion.

Then anxiety accompanied by intense fear starts to take over his life. His nervous system begins to malfunction, the muscles of the heart tense up and physical symptoms appear. The sick person feels pain in the area of the heart and the pain increases as the fear grows. Other symptoms appear as the result of the malfunction in the nervous system, and there is no part of the body which is not affected by this case of anxiety.

The heart rate increases and may become irregular, the blood pressure rises, the digestive system malfunctions, pains develop in the stomach and the patient’s sexual desire may be affected so that he feels no attraction towards his wife; The muscles of the body become tense, and muscle tension in the head leads to migraines.

In fact many of those who go to those who offer treatment using the Noble Qur’an are suffering from delusions. Very few of them are actually possessed by the jinn, even though they may show symptoms of jinn possession. The fact of the matter, as supported by psychology, is that ongoing anxiety does indeed cause real physical illness, so the pain becomes a physical reality, not just tension. Anxiety may cause stomach ulcers, angina and other problems, which changes a person’s life and causes him to lose ambition and neglect his work; it also causes disruption in his marital life, and he becomes a prisoner to delusion and fear.

There is a real remedy for this problem, to be found in psychology if the person has been overtaken by delusions for a long time. If the problem has only recently begun, however, he must recite prayers for protection.

Epilepsy

Definition of epilepsy

Doctors have not been able to give a comprehensive and definitive definition of epilepsy, because of the numerous clinical manifestations of epilepsy, including convulsions.

Epileptic seizures

Doctors use the phrase “epileptic seizure” to describe the sudden attack that happens to a patient, characterized by tension and snaking, accompanied by loss of consciousness. Doctors divide epileptic seizures into two types, grand mal and petit mal. Grand mal seizures are accompanied by a loss of consciousness, whereas petit mal seizures may occur in the early stages and may not be noticed by the patient or by those around him. They last for 3-10 seconds and are not usually accompanied by convulsions. They usually occur suddenly, whereby you will see the patient stop speaking for a moment and then carry on with some loss of focus, or moving from speaking in detail to mumbling. The patient may stare into space for a moment and the go back to what he was doing.

Causes of epilepsy

Doctors link epileptic seizures to three factors, namely:

1. Individual potential and heredity
2. Problems in the brain
3. Changes in neurological activity

But there is another important cause of epilepsy which is that it may be caused by jinn possession. This is something which many doctors do not wish to acknowledge, despite the fact that they admit that there are some kinds of epilepsy for which modern science cannot discover the cause. What is even stranger is that many of those who deny this are from among our own people, whereas many doctors in the West acknowledge this kind of epilepsy.

Depression

Depression refers to intense sadness. It is a widespread mental illness, indeed one of the most widespread. As for mild sadness or feeling “blue”, this is a normal and natural emotion which hardly anyone can escape, not even a believer. Allah says:

Secret counsels (conspiracies) are only from Shaytan (Satan), in order that he may cause grief to the believers. (Al-Mujaddilah 58:10)

If that sadness increases and takes over a person, it becomes depression.

Signs of depression:

1. Feeling distressed and sad
2. Loss of appetite
3. Lack of focus, forgetfulness
4. Sleep disturbances, weight loss
5. Lack of sexual desire

Causes of depression

1. External causes
These are factors that are outside a person, such as life events like losing a loved one, or losing money or social standing. If this person does not have the protection of faith, he will go through several stages until he reaches the stage of depression.

2. Internal causes
These have to do with the person’s physical make-up, such as brain cells, a lack of thyroid hormones or a lack of certain vitamins.

Kinds of sickness and harm caused by the jinn

The jinn may cause many different types of sickness and harm to humans, affecting their psychology, moods, body, wealth, possessions, business, relations with others or studies.

The sicknesses that we are going to discuss may happen either because of the human being overpowered by the jinn, or because of witchcraft. We will discuss the remedies for these sicknesses in the light of the Qur’an and Sunnah. These sicknesses include the following:

1. Intense fear
2. Psychological and nervous diseases (insanity, depression, anxiety, tension, epilepsy, waswas (whispers from the Shaytan), personality disorders)
3. Physical sickness (i.e., physical sickness that human medicine is unable to treat, and for which there is no medical cause)
4. Hallucinations
5. Stirring up hatred between people, causing enmity and division between people such as husband and wife, business partners, friends, family
6. Female diseases (infertility, heavy bleeding and menstrual irregularities, infections)
7. Sexual problems (impotency, premature ejaculation)
8. Tampering with and causing damage to houses and material possessions (causing fires, throwing furniture about, throwing stones at the house)

Different Types of Sihr

Sihr of Separation

Allah (‘Azza wa Jalla) says: (…and they follow what the Satans recited over Sulayman’s Kingdom. Sulayman disbelieved not but the Satans disbelieved, teaching the people sorcery, and that which was sent down upon Babylon’s two angels, Harut and Marut; they taught not any man, without they said, ‘We are but a temptation; do not disbelieve.’ From them they learned how they might divide a man and his wife, yet they did not hurt any man thereby, save by the leave of Allah, and they learnt what they hurt them and did not profit them, knowing well that whosoever buys it shall have no share in the world to come; evil then was that they sold themselves for; if they had but known.) (2:102)

Jabir (RA) reported that the Prophet (Peace and Blessing upon Him) said: “Iblis would lay his throne on water and would send his brigade of demons. The lowest among them in rank is the one who is most notorious in stirring up fitna. One of the demons would, after a mission, come and say to Iblis, ‘I have done so and so.’ Iblis would reply, ‘You have not done anything.’ Another one would come and say: ‘I have not left such and such person until I separated him from his wife.’ Iblis would come closer to his demon and say, ‘How good you are.'” Muslim in An-Nawawi : 17/157

Definition of Sihr of Separation

It is a sihr which aims to separate between two spouses, or stir up hatred between two friends or two partners.

Types of Sihr of Separation

1. Separating a person from his/her mother
2. Separating a person from his/her father
3. Separating a person from his/her brother
4. Separating a person from his/her friend
5. Separating a person from his/her business partner
6. Separating a person from his/her spouse. This is the most dangerous and prevalent type

Symptoms of Sihr of Separation

1. A sudden change in attitude from love to hate.
2. A great deal of suspicion is aroused between the two people concerned.
3. No excuses are accepted by either party, even if one of them is in the wrong.
4. Exaggerating the causes of disputes between two people, even though they may be trivial.
5. Changing the mental image that a woman may have of her husband, or changing the mental image that a man may have of his wife; so that the man would see his wife in an ugly way, even though she were beautiful. In reality, it is the demon who is entrusted with the task of performing this type of sihr is the one who would appear to the husband in her person, but in an ugly way. By the same token, the woman would see her husband in a horrible way.
6. The person affected by sihr hates anything the other party does.
7. The person affected by sihr hates the place in which the other party stays. For instance, a husband may be in good mood when he is outdoors, but when he returns home, he feels quiete depressed.

According to Al-Hafidh Ibn Kathir, the cause of separation between two spouses through this sihr is that each of them appears to the other as an ugly or ill-mannered person. Tafsir lbn Kathir: 1/144

How does the sihr of separation take place?

A person goes to a sorcerer and requests that a certain person be separated from his wife. The sorcerer would ask his client to provide the name of the person and that of his mother, and traces of the person’s smell from his/her hair, garment or handkerchief etc… If this is too difficult to obtain, the sorcerer would perform sihr on some water, then ask his client to spill it along the way which that person normally uses. If person crosses the place of water, then he/she would be affected by sihr. Another way of doing it is by adding the water into his food or drink.

Different Types of Sihr

Sihr Al-Mahabba/At-Tiwala (Love)

The Prophet (Peace and Blessing upon Him) said: “Ar-ruqa, at-tama’im and at-tiwala are acts of polytheism.” Transmitted by Imam Ahmad (1/381), Abu Dawud (3883), Ibn Majja (3530) and Al-Hakim (4/418)

According to Ibn Al-Athir, at-tiwala is a type of sihr which makes a man love his wife. The reason why this type of sihr is classed by the Prophet (Peace and Blessing upon Him) as an act of polytheism is because those who have it done for them believe that it has an effect and does the opposite of what Allah (‘Azza wa Jalla) has prescribed. An-Nihaya: 1/200

I would like to emphasise that the ruqyah referred to in the above hadith is the one which seeks the assistance of Jinn and devils and consists of acts classed as polytheistic. However, the ruqyah which is based on the Qur’an and lawful supplications of Allah is lawful, according to scholars. It is reported in Sahih Muslim that the Prophet (Peace and Blessing upon Him) was quoted as saying: “There is no harm in using ruqyah as a means of treatment provided it does not consist of anything polytheistic.”

Symptoms of Sihr of Love

1. Excessive love and passion.
2. Extreme desire to have sexual intercourse.
3. Impatience of remaining without having sexual intercourse.
4. Extreme lust at the sight of one’s wife.
5. Blind obedience to one’s wife.

How the Sihr of Love Takes Place?

Marital squabbles often happen and are resolved within a short time, and life goes back to normal between a man and his wife. However, a woman who cannot show patience, would immediately go to a sahir and ask him to work out a sihr which would let her be very much loved by her husband. This may be due to a defect in her faith, or to her ignorance of the fact that this is unlawful. The sahir would ask her to provide a trace of her husband’s scent (a handkerchief, cap, piece of cloth or flannel) provided that these items contain the smell of her husband’s sweat so they should not be new or clean. The sahir would take some threads from these items, blow on them, tie a knot around them, and ask the woman to bury them in a deserted place. The sahir would also prepare a spell in water or food -the worst sihr is done in filth or menses discharge- and ask the woman to put it in her husband’s food, drink or perfume.

Adverse Effects of Sihr of Love

1. Sometimes a man falls ill as a result of this sihr. I even heard that a man was ill for about three years.
2. Sometimes the sihr backfires, and the man would hate his wife. This is due to a lack of knowledge of the principles of sihr.
3. Sometimes a woman asks the sahir to prepare a double-effect sihr which makes her husband love her alone and hate all other women. This results in the man’s hating his mother, sisters, maternal aunts, paternal aunts and all female kinship.
4. Sometimes the double-effect sihr backfires, and the man ends up by hating all women, even his wife. I knew a similar case in which a man hated his wife and eventually divorced her. The woman went back to the sorcerer to cancel the sihr, only to find that the sahir had died.

Causes of Sihr of Love

1. Marital squabbles
2. The woman runs after her husband’s wealth, especially if he is rich.
3. The woman suspects that her husband is going to marry another woman – although this is lawful under Islamic Law- and there is no harm in it. However, a woman of the present time, especially one influenced by the destructive media, would believe that if her husband wants to marry another woman it means that he does not love her anymore. This is a gross mistake because there are several factors which cause a man to marry up to four women, despite his love of the first wife. There is, for instance, his desire to have many children, his inability to stay without sexual intercourse during his wife’s menstruation, during her post-natal bleeding {damu an-nifas), or his intention to establish a relationship with a certain family.

Lawful Manners

This is my advice to a Muslim woman that if she wants to enchant her husband, she can do so by:

– Making herself look very beautiful and attractive to her husband, without letting him come across any ugly feature or unpleasant smell in you.
– Giving him a nice smile.
– Talking to him nicely.
– Keeping good company with him
– Safeguarding his wealth
– Taking good care of your children
– Obeying him in all matters, except a matter in which he obliges you to disobey Allah.

However, there is a stark contradiction in our society today, concerning these matters. For example, if a woman is invited to a party at her friend’s, she would wear her best dress and her best jewellery as if she were on her wedding night. When she comes back home, she takes off her jewellery and puts it back for the next party or the next visit, whilst her poor husband, who has bought that jewellery and that dress is deprived of enjoying her wearing them. He always sees her in old garments, with the smell of cooking, onions and garlic.

If she were a bit considerate, she would realise that her husband is the one who deserves to see her in such a beautiful appearance. Therefore, when your husband goes to work, try to finish the housework, then wash yourself, make yourself look beautiful and attractive, and wait for him. When he comes back home, and sees a beautiful woman before him, finds dinner ready and a tidy home, his love for you will increase and he will feel very much more attached to you. Hence, this is the lawful form of attraction, especially if your intention in making yourself look beautiful is to obey Allah and help your husband abstain from looking at other women. A person who is full up (has eaten food) does not have a desire for food, but a person who is deprived of food has a craving for it.