Anonymous asked:
a request: please discuss khalidzaheer(.)com/essays/kzaheer/following%20islam/experiencing_a_jinn(.)html whenever you can. I tried to make sense of it but my knowledge in the area is limited. thank you.
Well I’m quite far from knowledgeable about Islam, however I must say even ignoring the inter-religious squabbles in the story I can’t reasonably list all the problems with this story. So the basic premise is Zaheer had a student who told him about a jinn, which is essentially a genie, he could talk to. As a result of this pure speculation, which likely should’ve been taken as a sign of mental illness, Zaheer asks his son to contact this jinn who in turn gives some “proof” of psychic ability but all of this information doesn’t turn out to be true so this jinn was really an agent of Satan. Honestly, I’d think the story, or at least this question, was a joke if I didn’t know how seriously many believers take stories like these.
The first thing that comes to mind, other than a chance to plug The Jinn and Tonic Show, is that according to the Qur’an jinn are allegedly made of “smokeless fire” which is silly on its face because nothing can be made of fire. Fire is a process not an element and this is remnant of a type of phlogiston or classical theory of fire which I’d hope would today be seen as silly as someone saying something was made of photosynthesis. As for the story about how this evil jinn deployed his mind reading abilities in order to fool them into thinking he was good I think it’s a classic example of having a theory of how the world works which can only confirm what you already believe. However not really knowing what problem you are having I don’t really know what to say. If I had to guess I’d say you are just having a problem explaining why it’s foolhardy to accept anecdotes as proof of supernatural events but for the time being I’ll just refer you to an old QualiaSoup video which hits on all of the basics rather than give a lengthy but perhaps wasted discussion of that topic.
I hope I’ve been helpful but you didn’t really give me a lot to go on. Still, thanks for the question.
