Article 18 — The Jinn
The Jinn: The mysteries of invisible beings and the paranormal world
The Goal of the Wise — Door Number Eighteen
Read aloud in English
Does humanity share its existence with beings it cannot normally see?
For centuries, accounts of mysterious phenomena, invisible presences and unexplained encounters have fed the human imagination.
In the eighteenth Door of The Goal of the Wise, Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq (From Him is Peace) addresses these questions through religious teachings concerning the jinn.
Beings mentioned in the Qur’an
The Qur’an presents the jinn as a category of creatures distinct from human beings.
It mentions their creation from fire and their ability to act according to their own choices.
The chapter also recalls the accounts concerning Solomon, to whom certain traditions attribute authority over invisible beings.
This perspective places the jinn within a religious history far older than modern popular tales.
The jinn and unexplained phenomena
The author examines various experiences that people have described as supernatural or paranormal.
He seeks to understand how the teachings of the prophets might shed light on these accounts.
The book’s approach consists of bringing religious traditions together with phenomena that arouse fear or astonishment.
A distinction must nevertheless be made between testimonies, spiritual interpretations and verifiable facts: an unexplained phenomenon does not, on its own, demonstrate the intervention of a jinn.
Knowledge in the face of fear
The chapter reports a saying of Ahmed Al-Hassan according to which astonishment disappears once the causes become known.
This idea is an important interpretive key.
What we do not understand can easily provoke anxiety.
But the pursuit of knowledge makes it possible to replace certain reactions of fear with deeper reflection.
The invisible world and human responsibility
The existence of the jinn, as described in the book, does not release human beings from their responsibility.
Spiritual life should not be reduced to the fear of invisible forces.
It also involves discernment, self-control and the search for truth.
Conclusion — Understanding rather than fearing
The eighteenth Door presents the jinn as a component of the invisible world described by religious traditions.
It invites us to move beyond fascination and fear in order to examine the accounts with discernment.
Is what seems mysterious to us necessarily supernatural, or do we still have much to learn about our own perception of the world?