A DISCOURSE ON ANGELS AND JINNS - FOR THE QURANIC FORUM

Sunday November 10th, 2002

 

Prompted by 3:124, 125 TO BE READ FIRST

 

INTRODUCTION:

 

You May Recall Two Discourses I Gave, One on 9th of December 2001, on “Mysteries of Deep Space & Scientific Discoveries about the Invisible World”,  and the 2nd One, on December 26th 2001 Titled: “Quran’s  Reference to the Satan and Devils”.   Because Angels Are a Phenomena of the Invisible World, and We Are Required to Believe in Their Existence, it Is Important That I Refresh Your Memories by Going over Some of the Points I Discussed Then, but Also to Prepare You for the Discourse Today on the Subject Of: “Angels and Jinns:.  The Contents of My Discourse Shall Therefore Cover the Following Areas Concerning the Subject:

 

a        Quranic References

B.       The Need to Believe in Angels

C.       Understanding Angels Requires an Understanding of Jinns

D.      Angelic Forms - a Scientific Comparison and Explanation

E.       Angelic Functions

F.       Who and Where Are the Angels

G.       Whose Tools and at Whose Commands Are the Angels?

 

A       Quranic  References

Approximate Number of References to Angels in the Quran:

Suras:39                         Verses: 79

 

in Fact  There Are Many More References, but These Actually Refer to the
                   Name “Angel”.

 

As Far as I Know, Reference to Angels in the Quran Are Always in the Plural, and in the Thousands: 1,000, 3,000, 5,000, and Sometimes in Prayer Books 70,000, Which Really Means Many, or Countless Numbers.

 

1.                   Read Parts of  Pages 1,2,4,5,6,7,8 Color-coded:           

On “Mysteries of Deep Space and Scientific Discoveries about the Invisible World

 

2.                 Are We Required to Believe in Angels??   The Answer Is Yes.

Besides Belief in the Invisible World, Which I Read to You Earlier,
                   We Are Indeed Required to Believe in Angels.  Refer to 2:177, Which Says:

 

“True Piety Does Not Consist in Turning Your Faces Towards the East or the West - but the Truly Pious Is One Who Believes in God, and the Last Day, and the Angels, and Revelation, and the Prophets;............”

 

Note: Belief in Angels Is Mentioned Here Because it Is Through These Spiritual Beings or Forces (Belonging to the Realm or Al-ghayb, That Is,  the Reality Which Is Beyond the Reach of Human Perception) That God Reveals His Will to the Prophets, and Thus to Mankind at Large.  M. Asad.

 

B.       The Need to Believe in Angels

 Why Do We Have to Believe in Angels??

 

To Bounce off the Demons in Human Nature, to Unseat Them from Their Place of Comfort, and Stop Them from Drinking One’s Spiritual Blood, I.e. Energy.
 

As a Tool for Maintaining , Sustaining, Nourishing and Keeping Alive the Flicker or Light of Hope.    As a Means of Removing and Replacing Fear.  To Be Assured in Very Bad Circumstances.  To Be Re-assured When Things Really Get Worse and Hopeless.  And When Human Spiritual Energy Becomes Low, to Develop Self-confidence, Calmness and Moral Strength  by Reconnecting to the Source of All Resources and of All Power:god.

 

Examples: Battle of Badr, 300+ Against 1,000+, Overcame with Thirst, Because Water Wells Were Invested by Meccan Army,  Then Rain!! Assistance Through a Natural Phenomena.

 

      Battle of Uhud, 300 Against 3,000, Almost Routed, Prophet Injured, Hamza Killed, Archers Left Their Positions to Get Big Share of Booties.  Then Fortunes Are Suddenly Reversed.  It’s a Draw.  Meccans Leave the Battlefield Without Achieving Their Purpose.

 

8:11    “(And Remember How it Was) When He Caused Inner Calm to Enfold You as an Assurance from Him, and Sent down upon You from the Skies, So That He Might Purify You and Thereby Free You from Satan’s Unclean Whisperings and Strengthen Your Hearts and Make Firm Your Steps”. Nu’as = Inner Calm, Spiritual Quite and Self Confidence.

 

C.       Understanding Angels Requires an Understanding of Jinns

 

Root Word Janna = Something Concealed or Covered with Darkness.  Al-jinn Signifies Concealed Darkness, Generally That Which Is Concealed from Human Senses, I.e. Things, Beings, Forces, Which Cannot Normally Be Perceived by Humans, but Nevertheless Have a Objective Reality, Whether Concrete or Abstract:
Thoughts, X-ray, Electricity, Steam, Air, Etc.

 

The Jinns Therefore Are Invisible Forces or Beings Beyond Our Corporeal Senses.  And to Make this Clear the Quran States That They Are Created of Fire or Scorching Wind: Naar as Samun (15:27) or a Confusing Flame of Fire I.e. Maarij Min Naar (55:15). Or Just Fire as in 7:12, and 38:76 When Referring to Iblis/satan.    They Are Satan, or Satanic Forces: Shayateen (See Note 16 of 15:17 Page :384,) from Shatana = or Something Remote from or Opposed to All That Is True and Good.)

 

As Far as  Angels Are Concerned, According to Muslim as Reported by ‘Aisha, the Prophet Has Said They Are “Khuliqat Min Nur” They Are Made from or of Light. 

 

We must Remember That Light and Fire Being Akin and Likely to Manifest Themselves Within and Through One Another.  Let Us Discuss Nur and Nar,i.e. Light and Fire, Because They Are Synonymous .  For this Let Us Revert to 27:7 and 8, Note 7 Page 577:

 

“7:lo! While Lost in the Desert) Moses Said to His Family: “ Behold, I Perceive a Fire (Far Away); I May Being You from There Some Tiding (As to Which Way We Are to Pursue), or Bring You (At Least) a Burning Brand So That You Might Warm Yourselves”, 8: but When He Came Close to it a Call Was Sounded: ‘ Blessed Are All Who Are Within (Reach Of) this Fire, and All Who Are near It.  And Limitless in His Glory Is God, the Sustainer of All the Worlds!’:

 

Fire in this Context Is Synonymous with Light!!!
 

D.      Angelic Forms - a Scientific Comparison and Explanation

 

Does Water Have a Form?  Yes, Although it Is Fluid, and Finds its Own Level and Depending on Where and How it Is Confined Finds its Own Form.  Though its Form May Change it Is Something That Can Be Touched and Contained.

 

How about X-rays, Electricity, Thoughts.  They Exist, Don’t They?  But We Know Them Experientially, Because We Use Them, We Have Been Able to Harness Them, Quantify Them, and Apply Them.  But These Cannot Be Touched, Even Though They Can Burn You. 

 

Using These Examples I Just Meant to Come Back to the Existence of Jinns and Angels.   In the Earlier Explanations I Read from a Previous Discourse, I Stated That There Are Levels and Degrees of Energy, Some Are Fine, or Finer, Others Coarse or Coarser.

 

In Similar Fashion, If You Use the above and Other Similar Examples You Can Help Yourself to Better Understand the Existence of Angels and Jinns, I.e. Forces of the Spiritual World, That May Never Be Harnessed, Even Though They Touch Us, Our Lives, Our Thoughts, Our Feelings, Our Senses, Etc.

 

The Reason for this Difficulty in Perceiving Them in Form or Experiencing Them Through Our Corporeal Senses, Is Because They Are Not Touchable Matter, Not Even Liquid, but Even in the Realm of Energy, They Are of a Finer Type and Therefore, as Carl Yung Said about Spirit, Cannot Be Scientifically Studied in a Laboratory.
 

The Term Jinn Is Also Applied to Wide Range of Phenomena Which Indicate Certain Sentient Organisms of So Fine a Nature and of Physiological Composition So Different from Our Own That They Are Not Normally Accessible to Our Sense-perceptions.  We Know Very Little about What Can and What Cannot Play the Role of a Living Organism.  Hoever Our Inability to Discern and Observe Such Phenomena Is by No Means a Sufficient Justification for a Denial of Their Existence.

 

The Quran Refers Often to the “The Realm Which Is Beyond the Reach of Human Perception: Al-ghayb”, While God Is Always Referred to as Rabb-al ‘Aalamin, Sustain of All the Worlds, and the Use of Plural Indicates That Side by Side with the World Open to Our Observation There Are Other Worlds as Well.  Which Is to Say There Are Other Forms of Life, Different from Ours and Presumably from One Another, and Yet Subtly Interacting and Perhaps Even Permeating One Another in a Manner That Is Beyond Our Understanding.

 

Assuming Such Organisms Exist, We must Accept the Fact That Their Life-mode Is Dissimilar to Ours, and Therefore Our Physical Senses Can Establish Contact with Them Only under Very Special Circumstances.  This Crossing of Paths Between Their Life Mode and Ours May Sometimes Give Rise to Strange, Unexplainable Manifestations, Which Human Fantasy Has Historically Called Ghosts, Demons, and Other Such Supernatural Phenomena. M. Asad///

 

Occasionally the Term Jinn is Used in the Quran Certain Forces of Nature Including Human Nature, Which Are “Concealed from Our Senses”, Because They Show Themselves in Their Effects and Not in Their Intrinsic Form or Reality.  You Can Refer to 6:100, and 114:6.m.asad.

 

There Are Also Instances in the Quran Implying Symbolic Relationship of Man with Satanic Forces, 6:112, 7:38, 11, 119, 32:13, and Sometimes as a Person’s Preoccupation with Practices Frowned upon by the Quran, Such as Sorcery, Soothsaying, Astrology, Necromancy, Etc. See 2:102, 6:128, and 130 or Al-jinn =72:5-6. Also 72:1. M. Asad.
 

E.       Angelic Functions

 

We Went Through Some of the References in the Quran about the Functions That Angels Have and Play in Human Life. Let’s Go over Briefly over What These Functions Are:

 

Protecting a Human Being from Visible and Invisible Hazards; from Seen or Unseen Forces Bent upon Pulling down a Person into Darkness, Depression, Bad Habits, or from  Tying  a Person’s Thoughts and Feelings and Emotions to Waves of Destructive  Negativism, Anger, Hatred, Jealousy, and Most Importantly Fear, in Order to Strengthen Themselves by Sucking Their Spiritual Energy, Just as the Famous Dracula Nourished Itself on the Blood of Unsuspecting Victims!!  Protecting and Rescuing People or Nations in War, Floods, Earthquakes, Etc.

See Al-feel, 105

 

Providing Assistance: Have You Not Heard or Read or Known People Who Have Come out of the Worst Experiences of Their Lives, Cured and Recovered from the Worst Diseases, Saved from Accidents Impossible to Be Saved From, or Financial and Social and Natural and Other Losses,  Tyrannies and Calamities.   Examples Of:

 

A.      People Living with a  Bullet Lodged in Their Heart - I Know

B.       Just Yesterday it Was in the News That Someone Was Shot 4 Times, and Fell over Several Floors, and Happens to Be Living

 

C.       People Coming Alive and Unscathed from Plane Crashes, or Car or Train Accidents

D.      etc. Etc. Etc.

 

Are These and Several Other Examples All Coincident, and Flukes???

 

Providing Provisions and Sustenance: to a Person During Starvation, Captivity, or of One Kind of Need or Another, Not Always in a Catastrophic Situation. 

 

I Could Go on and On, but Let Me Stop.  It Is the Function of Doing Good, Whatever That Good Is: Good to People, Stranded, Asking or in Need: Medically, Socially, Psychologically, Spiritually, Physically, Mentally, by Education , by Prayer, by Guidance, Etc. Etc.

 

F.       Who and Where Are the Angels: If We Can See Such Angels as Can Be Seen?

 

We Talked about the Invisible Forms of Angels.  There Are Also Visible Forms of Angels.  Remember What the Prophet Said, Angels Are Made of Light and They Seek Light.  Where Are They: They Are in this Room, You Are Angels Seeking Light.  Dr. Kunkel and Mrs. Kunkel Are Angels.  They Not Only Allocate Time to Get You Together, They Even Give Time to Children and Their Education If Need Be.  Mr. Behshid Is an Angel.  He Asks about How this Forum Is Doing, to Help this Forum Along, to Provide Facility to Your Children When Required to Learn.  And He Does Other Things to Help this Organization.    Those Who Have Created this Organization Are Angels.  Those Who Manage this Outfit Are Angels. They Do Voluntary Work, Not for Money, Not for Prestige but for Providing a Service.

 

Mother Teresa Was an Angel.  Mahatma Ghandi Was an Angel.  He Gave His Whole Life to Free Hundreds of Millions of People from the Yoke of Foreign Imperialists.  I Am Just Giving Some Living Examples That You Would Relate to You.  I Am Sure You Know Many More of Them, Both Historically and at Present.

 

G.       Whose Tools and at Whose Commands Are the Angels?

 

Obviously at God’s Commands.  And If Anyone Dares to Wrest or Fool Around Tools at God’s Disposal, Please Be His Guest!!!!!!??
 

Angels Are of a Form and Function to Bring the Unlimited Nature of God’s Aid to Those Who, as the Quran Says: Are “Patient in Adversity and Conscious of Him” I.e. as a Reward.

 

This Discourse Was Simply to Give You an Outline, an Entree to an Understanding of Angels and Jinns.  It Is a Vast and a Very,  Very Elusive Subject.  Centuries of Scholarly Work, Research and Analysis Has Not Really Solved the Mystery of Angels, and Perhaps Never Will.  But I Meant to Help You Feel the Waters of Vast and Mysterious Ocean of the Invisible World, to Help You Better Understand the Importance of Believing in Angels.  I Hope I Have Been Able to Help You along with a Little More Enlightenment.  Thank You. 

 

Hamid Zavosh

NOVEMBER 10, 2002